Boeing versus Airbus: The Inside Story of the Greatest International Competition in Business (Vintage) | 
 enlarge | Author: John Newhouse
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 54204
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.6
ISBN: 1400078725
Dewey Decimal Number: 338
EAN: 9781400078721
ASIN: 1400078725
Publication Date: January 8, 2008
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Product Description
The commercial airline industry is one of the most volatile, dog-eat-dog enterprises in the world, and in the late 1990s, Europe’s Airbus overtook America’s Boeing as the preeminent aircraft manufacturer. However, Airbus quickly succumbed to the same complacency it once challenged, and Boeing regained its precarious place on top. Now, after years of heated battle and mismanagement, both companies face the challenge of serving burgeoning Asian markets and stiff competition from China and Japan. Combining insider knowledge with vivid prose and insight, John Newhouse delivers a riveting story of these two titans of the sky and their struggles to stay in the air.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
 Infuriatingly Poor Writing March 17, 2008
This is obviously a story worth telling, with interesting characters and an international backdrop. Instead we get an unenlightening narrative that relies almost completely on silly generalizations and anecdotal quotes that are meant to pass as meaningful analysis. Boeing is "arrogant", but then Airbus is "resting on its laurels", then it reverses and the reader is left with nothing. The book is also aggravating for its lack of organization. Business books such as this require some ordering, whether it's chronological or parallel narrative threads, etc. This book is all over the place-- at one point you're reading about the rollout of the A380, then Boeing's tanker lease arrangement, then the 747 development program, then back to earlier Airbus rollouts. Frustrating.
 Interesting Content but Poorly Written March 8, 2008
The aviation industry is a fascinating one, and the Airbus/Boeing rivalry is certainly a unique one. The author does provide an interesting history of the topic and includes a lot of interesting facts and anecdotes. The problem with the book is the stream-of-consciousness style that is unstructured and poorly organized. Several stories were repeated multiple times, and the constant jumping back and forth in time made it frustrating to follow. Granted with so many themes and issues, it would have been hard, but not impossible, to make it chronological. Thomas Petzinger's "Hard Landing" was a fantastic treatment of the American Commercial Airline industry and if he could organize that chronologically, this topic could be as well.
Narcoleptic at best January 17, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I've read many aviation books and this is by far the worst. Not one shred of technical information or concepts that the aviation enthusiast might expect. This book is solely the politics of the governments and the corporations involved. A real snoozer.
 A great disappointment January 1, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Others have made the points well. This book takes an excellent, interesting subject and makes a hash of it. It is erratically written and poorly edited. There are some interesting passages, but they are interspersed with long segments of the authors undocumented assertions and broad generalizations. The analysis is superficial and unsystematic. I had hoped for something along the lines of the excellent "747: Creating the World's First Jumbo Jet and Other Adventures from a Life in Aviation" by Joe Sutter, but was sorely disappointed. There is rich material here, but sadly it is poorly edited and executed.
 A Must Read for All Aviation History and Airline Buffs October 17, 2007
If you follow the Aviation and Airline businesses, you need to read this book. It is well written and organized, especially in describing the alternating ascendency of Boeing and Airbus. As a fan of Boeing and US aviation in general, I am personally pleased to see Boeing in the lead right now. However, I will not be surprised to see the pendulum swing again, and I hope that John Newhouse will be around to write a sequel to this excellent volume. Oh, and by the way, every airline passenger needs to read the chapter on the airlines. in fact, if you buy or borrow this book, be sure to have some of your air traveling friends read that chapter. My wife hates to fly, but is fascinated by airline operational details. She loved it.
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