Boeing versus Airbus: The Inside Story of the Greatest International Competition in Business

Heck of a read! I enjoyed this book immensely. My only disappointment was that the last chapter ended on what seemed to me to be a weak note, as though the book had been structured as a series of stand-alone chapters, rather than a complete and developed thought.I especially appreciated the "insider" looks into both companies, which gave me insights on corporate politics that I'd definitely lacked before. Reading about the politics of the "subsidies" complaints was in particular meaty and juicy.I recommend this book whole-heartedly to anyone with either a stake or an interest in a large-scale air transport vehicle (hee hee). I found it very enjoyable and informative.

This is a well-written history and industry primer that is long on managerial anecdotes and short on technical details, though meticulously footnoted. Everyone's an editor and I would have liked to have seen a lot more on the cockpit design (side sticks) and software concepts (have the computer do the work) that Airbus has promoted, vs. Boeing's much more fundamental approach to the piloting task. Example: on an Airbus the right and left seater can operated the (side) stick independently, whereas in a Boeing they move together, and for a further example of the dangers one need look no further than AF447 and the loss of Air France's Airbus A330 with 200+ souls after a fatal cockpit disagreement by the two pilots following the icing of the pitot tube and loss of computer-management capability. Over all, the book is somewhat reminiscent of the far less accomplished book on the Boeing 777 that I reviewed earlier.One finishes the work convinced that airlines are created by dreamers and airliners by pragmatists who, if they have managed to acquire and plug in a functional crystal ball, can serve up the right airplane at the right time for the right markets, but it's a long-odds proposition..

This book has a describing panorama on the commercial and technical race of Boeing and Airbus to conquer the aviation industry. Highly recommend to have a wider background about this two OEM's

Shares of the Boeing Company were among my first acquisition of U.S. equites. As a youngest I wanted to be a pilot of a B-17 which was among the most popular bombers used in World War II. I recall that Jimmy Doolittle was a World War hero who used the B-17 to drop bombs on Germany.I have traveled many places in the world and if given a choice, I prefer traveling in a Boeing built airplane versus Airbus. I have always told our children that when better airplanes are built, Boeing shall build them.

The rivalry between Boeing and Airbus has certainly been interesting. It's been a boon to airlines, who have benefited from every more efficient airplanes at competitive prices even though a classic duopoly like this usually results in less favorable outcomes for buyers. The book is filled with many interesting anecdotes but the author keeps coming back to the same conclusions whenever one or the other competitor stumbled: Arrogance, loss of customer focus, and/or groupthink are common scapegoats. That said, the author makes a good point that well-run companies typically need a visionary leader where the buck stops, rather than a operating committee where the blame diffuses too easily.It would be interesting to see if the author will update this book in a few years when the respective Dreamliner/A380/A350 bets have had some time to establish themselves in their respective markets. That the A380 was probably a boondoggle for Airbus remains likely while the Chinese, Brazilians, and other emerging nations are starting to nip away at the smaller-plane end of the market. Once these new players manage to build larger planes that successfully compete in the A320/737 size and range, Boeing and Airbus will have much bigger things to worry about than their cross-Atlantic rival, both of whom manufacture in high-wage labor markets.Anyhow, I didn't enjoy this book very much. I found Joe Sutters recollections of the development of the 747 (747: Creating the World's First Jumbo Jet and Other Adventures from a Life in Aviation) much more interesting since that book looked at all aspects of getting the plane off the ground.

I found this book to be a pretty interesting background on "how we got here". The book was critical of some of the steps taken by Boeing management throughout the years, in particular the 90's leading up to the production crisis in Seattle. It also seems that Boeing's senior leadership chose to believe that "Airbus must be cheating", rather than taking a hard look in the mirror at what they needed to do to improve their competitive position. As someone new to the organization, I appreciate the background information.

Newhouse's previous book on commercial aviation, The Sporty Game, was an excellent overview of a highly secretive industry. This book is even better. He details not only the fierce rivalry between two profoundly dysfunctional companies, but the dogfights between engine manufacturers, airlines, aircraft leasing companies, low cost carriers, legacy airlines and so much more most of us never dream of when we shuffle on board a cramped tube full of humanity. He seems to have interviewed nearly everyone of consequence in the industry for this book. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to know what real high-stakes bet-the-house gambling is really like.

Wanted to learn more about this industry and was not disappointed. Very in-depth. As someone who is semi new to this topic I would have done better with a book for beginners. Worth the time I took to read it.

Habe das Buch verschlungen, es ist sehr interessant geschrieben und gibt Einblicke in den Konkurrenzkampf der beiden Flugzeugbauer. Wer auch immer der bessere ist, Boeing oder Airbus, bleibt einem jeden selber überlassen, die Geschichte beider Flugzeugbauer ist jedoch außergewöhnlich und beide sind schon oft am Abgrund gestanden. Für Flugbranchenfanatiker sehr gut geeignet und man schaut immer wieder mal gerne rein.

Aúnque està en inglés, y lo leo despacio, es muy buen libro

Great book to read for those who are interested in the airline industry business, also for aviation lovers.

I love boeing and Airbus!

This book tells you everything you could possibly want to know about the business strategies and competition facing the two major airplane manufacturers of the last 50 years. Even though it is full of detail it doesn't read like a textbook, but more like a novel. Well worth a read. It is only a shame that it isn't more recent (The book was published in 2007 so no discussion of teething problems with the Dreamliner A350 etc.)