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Books : Boeing Versus Airbus: The Inside Story of the Greatest International Competition in Business (Vintage)
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Rating: 
- Inside look at the giants of the aircraft industry
John Newhouse, an experienced journalist and former "New Yorker" writer, has already written one book on the airplane industry ("The Sporty Game"). His fans will welcome the return of his expert insights, and may see this as a bonus supplement or extension. He has collected some fascinating new material for this work, so it is deeply informative, though perhaps not as dramatic as its title portends, since the titular competitors take turns winning. Newhouse clearly conducted extensive fresh research, and he presents interesting interview material throughout, although he gets a little awkward when he uses numerical data. We recommends this look behind the hangar doors of the airplane industry to business historians and, especially, to aviation buffs.
Rating:
- A missed opportunity
The struggle for market between Boeing and Airbus is enthralling with much at stake, for example, jobs, profits, foreign currency earnings and so on. That Airbus could come from virtually nowhere to out sell Boeing within 3 decades is remarkable. That Airbus could then go on to produce possibily the biggest turkey in aviation history and allow Boeing to regain the initiative further adds to this world scale drama. I bought this book to try to understand how this could have come about and clarify in my mind the extent to which the peculiar structure of EADS (which owns Airbus) and its proximity to the French and German governments contributed to the present debacle. Unfortunately I believe the book gives less insight than what can be gleaned from articles in the Economist or FT.
The book does cover technical aspects of the story such as the use of new materials and "fly by wire" which are correctly described but superifical. There are no tables or graphs. Much of the 260 or so pages are taken up with descriptions of the personalities which is interesting only up to a point.
- Inside look at the giants of the aircraft industryJohn Newhouse, an experienced journalist and former "New Yorker" writer, has already written one book on the airplane industry ("The Sporty Game"). His fans will welcome the return of his expert insights, and may see this as a bonus supplement or extension. He has collected some fascinating new material for this work, so it is deeply informative, though perhaps not as dramatic as its title portends, since the titular competitors take turns winning. Newhouse clearly conducted extensive fresh research, and he presents interesting interview material throughout, although he gets a little awkward when he uses numerical data. We recommends this look behind the hangar doors of the airplane industry to business historians and, especially, to aviation buffs.
Rating:
- A missed opportunityThe struggle for market between Boeing and Airbus is enthralling with much at stake, for example, jobs, profits, foreign currency earnings and so on. That Airbus could come from virtually nowhere to out sell Boeing within 3 decades is remarkable. That Airbus could then go on to produce possibily the biggest turkey in aviation history and allow Boeing to regain the initiative further adds to this world scale drama. I bought this book to try to understand how this could have come about and clarify in my mind the extent to which the peculiar structure of EADS (which owns Airbus) and its proximity to the French and German governments contributed to the present debacle. Unfortunately I believe the book gives less insight than what can be gleaned from articles in the Economist or FT.
The book does cover technical aspects of the story such as the use of new materials and "fly by wire" which are correctly described but superifical. There are no tables or graphs. Much of the 260 or so pages are taken up with descriptions of the personalities which is interesting only up to a point.