Aircraft Propulsion: A Review of the Evolution of Aircraft Piston Engines Paperback – 1 Mar. 2011

I wonder where Pratt and Witney and Wright would have been without Bristol, but I also wonder where Rolls Royce would have been without Curtiss - if Fairy hadn't bought the rights to production of Curtiss engines it wouldn't have been the catalyst for the Rolls Royce Merlin.I decry the complete abscense of Napier in Aircraft Engine engineering books they produced the Napier Sabre the most powerful piston engine of the Second World War and were constantly snubbed by the establishment because Rolls Royce was all powerful in the corridors of Westminster and Whitehall. The 24 cylinder Napier Saber could have been so much better if it had got a tenth of the support Rolls Royce has enjoyed, and Rolls Royce couldn't have been Rolls Royce - without Napier!

Very useful as a reference for the finer points of engine design.