Edward M. Young received a BA in Political Science from Harvard University and an MA from the University of Washington. He served two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand. He spent eight years as a commercial banker before joining Moody's Investors Service as a Senior Analyst, he later became a Managing Director and Group Managing Director, spending twenty years at Moody's with assignments in New York, London, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. After retiring in 2004, in 2015 Young completed an MA in the History of Warfare at King's College London, and a PhD in History in 2020. Young has written 22 books and monographs on aviation and military history, including Aerial Nationalism: A History of Aviation in Thailand published by the Smithsonian Institution and The Tenth Air Force in World War II: Strategy, Command, and Operations 1942-1945 published by Schiffer Publishing.
I cannot rave enough about how wonderful this book is. This is like no aircraft engine book I've ever seen. Whereas most aircraft engine books are about engine design, testing and use, this one is about how the factories that built the engines were made: their conceptualization, organization, production engineering, construction, equipment, quality control and personnel. Young compares WWII Bristol, Pratt & Whitney and Curtiss-Wright single-row, medium-power two-row and high-power two-row engine production. He has apparently read everything ever published about aircraft engine production and has synthesized a grand view. The research is simply staggering; I've seen bits of what he presents in short trade publication articles, but it appears here in a single impressive volume with thousands of notes. This is a monumental book in almost every respect. This is a book that belongs in the library of every serious engine enthusiast. Kim McCutcheon President of the Aircraft Engine Historical Society