Mike Goodwin, who emigrated in 2004 from Manchester in the U.K. to live in Dunedin, New Zealand, was a contributing member to the Internet website known as J-aircraft.com, a site based in the USA that is devoted to the study of Japanese aviation from its inception to the end of the Pacific War; he was also moderator of all contributions to the “X Aircraft” message board on that site. He has had numerous articles on Japanese aviation subjects published in the magazines “Arawasi International” (Japan) and JAS Jottings (UK), and is well known for his painstaking research on Japanese aero-engines. Indeed, it is the latter that has formed the foundation stone for this book, without which it could not have been written.

Peter Starkings, resident in Leeds, England, also a contributing member to the J-aircraft.com website, has been researching lesser known aspects of Japanese aviation for many years, sharing the results with other enthusiasts by publishing his own quarterly subscription magazine “JAS Jottings” about Japanese aviation for 12 years, and also having articles on Japanese aviation subjects published in the magazines “Arawasi International” (Japan), “Asahi Journal” (USA), and “Insignia” (UK). He is also the co-author with Don Marsh of the book “Imperial Japanese Flying Schools, 1912 to 1945” (Schiffer Publishing Ltd., U.S.A.)