Air Wars: The Global Combat between Airbus and Boeing

by Scott Hamilton

Air Wars is a story about the intense and often bitter rivalry between Airbus and Boeing. It's also about John Leahy, the legendary head of commercial sales at Airbus, whose team booked 15,000 net orders worth $2 trillion in 23 years, and the strategies by Airbus and Boeing that changed aviation as we know it. Author Scott Hamilton is a journalist who has covered the aerospace and commercial aviation industries since 1985, almost exactly matching Leahy's tenure at Airbus. He has drawn upon both is extensive records of those years and recent interviews with many of the principal players to tell this detailed and riveting tale of these two giant companies.

Genres: Aviation, History, Business, Nonfiction

274 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 5, 2021

Reviews

[Simonas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is very interesting in terms of details and unheard business stories from the war between Airbus and Boeing happening for decades. On the other hand, the book is written very poorly, looks like the unrelated mix of articles written at different time. The different paragraphs jump through the timeline without any logic, some paragraphs are focused on the aircraft models and few paragraphs sound like the biography of John Leahy. I can guess zero effort was put into writing this book, just copy-pasted articles from the old folders and that's it. Anyway, many interesting facts for av-geeks.

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

An odd book as it purports in the title to broadly explore the business rivalry between Airbus and Boeing yet (and surfaced by the author in the preface) it grew out of a biography of John Leahy) and vacillates between the two sometimes frustratingly.
It's well written and thoroughly detailed. The detail applies to both protagonists in the first instance, but at a personal level really only to the one time Chief Salesman and President of Airbus. The author lays his cards bare but one wonders if it is too little of each book.
It's an enjoyable and recommended read but important to realise it is not an exhaustive look at the level of the business rivalry but really the role and personality of an individual embodies in a corporate history.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent

This was one of the most interesting and informative books on the airline industry and the people whose names have appeared over the years not only in mainstream news but in exclusively business publications. It is timely and for those interested in flying and business a great escape.

[Hassan Deen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great read for understanding the Boeing and Airbus Duopoly. While this book is written with more time dedicated to Leahy you do get a sense of both the shortcomings and strengths of Airbus and Boeing. At times the book did feel a little disorganized, with some topics not being explored in detail until later in the book.

[Leandro Di Tommaso · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although in this book Hamilton clearly shows some preference for Airbus, I believe it’s a well written account of how competition between Airbus and Boeing unfolds over time. It’s really interesting to understand the drivers that move each company into developing their airplanes and I think Hamilton does a good job at that.

[Ayushman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great historical narration that would have immensely benefitted from having a focussed narrative and a stronger editor.

[Srinivas Duvvuri · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books to understand airplane sales.

[Dez Van Der Voort · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing: 4/5
Knowledge Gained: 3/5
Enjoyment: 2/5

Basically articles bundled up into a book. It was fun at the start, where we learn about john leahy, the super salesman for airbus, then it got stale when we didn't continue with that, and instead went on article after article about conglomerate wars, design bickering, and this and that. I had high hopes for this, maybe the author could write a biography for john leahy in the future.

[Lauro Rocha Borges · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice picture of aero industry

When an engineer is doing a job to design an aircraft, usually is never clear all the marketing constraints and targets. This book provides in a clear perspective all the complex process to define the wright parameters that makes a project a success. Nevertheless, a good product can still fail if sales strategy fails too. A must to read for anyone that works in aerospace.

[André · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely one for the armchair CEO, and as such, highly recommended, as it provides - just like Hamilton's Blog - excellent and unique insights.
That said, the book could have done with a bit more proof-reading, and it could have done with a clearer structure. It starts off as a sort of biography of John Leahy, then jumps into one of the major deals he closed at American Airlines, and then it covers all the major strategy decisions at Boeing and Airbus (whether related to Leahy or not), and ends with an chapter on Leahy's retirement and legacy.
This is all very insightful, but it mostly reads like a series of long-form articles, not so much like a coherent book with an underlying storyline.

Still - highly recommended if you have any interest in the business side of commercial aviation!

[Connor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth a read as it contains lots of great stories and anecdotes.

However the book is poorly written and edited. It reads as if written by 5 different people and pasted together. It is a shame and would have benefitted from a good editor.

But if you have an interest in Airbus and Boeing try to look beyond this and you'll discover some great stories.