Books

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

By John Newhouse

Two industry studies demand a look. Former New Yorker writer John Newhouse’s Boeing Versus Airbus: The Inside Story of the Greatest International Competition in Business (Knopf) offers an instructive view of the two companies during the latter half of the 1990s and into this century. Newhouse depicts the U.S. planemaker as struggling with a variety of issues in the late 1990s, particularly that of absorbing new acquisitions and managing a much enlarged organization. He also captures the recent decline of Airbus and the story behind the troubles plaguing its A380. Fly-on-the-wall accounts—detailing, for example, the 1997 merger talks between Boeing and McDonnell Douglas—are a key strength of this volume.