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Rating: 
Summary: Recommended only for the complete aviation novice.
Review: Although mildly entertaining, this book suffers from poor writing, including many grammatical errors. Lynn has a habit of repeating himself in certain areas, then contradicting himself in other areas. My impression was that neither Lynn nor his editors actually read the finished product before publication.The insight into the Boeing and Airbus management, and the characters that define their companies' histories, almost make this worth a read. This was tempered, however, with egregious factual errors that I was very disappointed with. The book seemed rushed- as if reporting the facts was less important than the idea of an industrial and geo-political war of two titans.
Rating: 
Summary: worthy subject..putrid book
Review: This book sucks,period.Too many typos and factual omissions,and the author doesnt seem to have much real knowledge of aviation in general.
Rating: 
Summary: a thrilling but technically inaccurate account
Review: This work on Boeing (USA) and Airbus (Europe or what they call UE) competition is undeniably compelling. Unfortunately some faults about technical aspects make it a little bit incomplete. Anyway, once the book has caught the reader attention (forgiving the mistakes) it is hard to throw off its spell. A precious facet is the historical reconstruction of political and economical process, describing the post war crises of aeronautical companies in Europe in the civil market. Emerging from the war, european countries were eager to start a new life. The aeronautical skill (grown during belligerent times) was put to work in leading program like the Comet, Caravelle, Trident, BAC 1-11, etc. . Unfortunately management and political control were so conservative that they were unable to drive the new technology evolution in full swing. So each european State basically never developed a sound industrial strategy (i.e. for shortsighted nationalistic interest). The nemesys of national designs and firms (as autonomous entities in the market) led to the pooling of energies called Airbus. This part of the book is quite organic and it is a clever description of cut-throat struggle with another arab phoenix like Boeing (the company emerging from internal US competition). Many technical flaws appear from the narrative, two are important for the plot. First,Boeing 707 project was a masterpiece being the first design that made civil aeronautical "know-how" to grow fully (so far for DC-8 and Convair 880). Initially it was developed as a strategic tanker and, of course, research & development funding was available to boost the design during the cold war. Many advanced technologies were put to fruition from research centers (federal or private) and a "full steam ahead" was given to any study capable of making them affordable. Airbus never got the same opportunity. Second point, the airliners market is divided in segmets and even if new technologies are not enough cheap to change aicraft shapes, the quest for more efficient planes compels consolidated knowledge to mature completely. So 2engines Boeing 757 is the 727 replacement because they were designed to fulfill the same segment (according to lower unit cost per machine and equipment, in order to respect more restrictive regulations). To be more precise each segment is divided into specialized sectors; each manifacturer design a basic adaptable project for a segment, then engineers "customize" the plane for a particular requirements (just look at the Boeing 777, initially developed in "A" version, reveallingly dubbed "A" market, and in the "B" version or "B" market). In the end lack of aviation expertise is quite limiting in this bold work, compromising a basically sound effort. Nevertheless this is an admirable attempt to reveal the insights of the most terrible struggle between two major corporate conglomerates in airliners industry.
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