Scott has written a lively and candid successor to "The Sporty Game". Scott's breadth of access to industry luminaries, who spoke so candidly really made this book. Even in retirement, Connor, Leahy, and others are like war horses who continue to throw grenades while at the same time offer candid mea culpas on the part of their company's arrogance, product short comings, and billion dollar miscalculations.

The inside story of the Boeing vs Airbus games of chess, continually manipulating into making moves with program like the A380, MAX, 787, A350, 777-X and A330neo reads like The Queen's Gambit but also Lord of the Flies. The stakes couldn't be higher.

This book is really broader than just A vs B. Scott delves into China, Embraer, Bombardier, and much of commercial aviation's history over the last quarter century - including a refresher on how the tragic mismanagement of McDonnell-Douglas and its 1997 merger with Boeing has ramifications today.

Air Wars is anything but a dry text. It's a bona-fide page turner.

It's a great book, and it is written in an interesting style, where every chapter is complete in itself. That makes it a great bedtime read, or indeed any time when you want to pick up a book and read for a limited time. I'm delighted I bought it. Quotes from real people involved are especially valuable, and the history of John Leahy is fascinating. I think it illustrates the fact that people who sell a lot of expensive product are not "salespeople" but customer consultants. Understanding their needs and building an offer that meets those needs.

That being said, the chapters overlap a lot in time, so the downside of the book is that you don't get a really good picture of everything that was happening at any particular time. It was useful to have a chart that showed the timeline of airliner introductions. Maybe a time line showing how chapters overlap might be useful !

Do buy the book. It is great.

At first as I began reading, I thought it would be about the science of the planes. I soon realized it was the politics behind both companies. I really started enjoying this book and pretty soon I couldn't wait to continue. It was fairly balanced between Airbus and boeing, which also kept my interest even though it changed between the two quickly. As an aviation enthusiast I would recommend this book to any one!

Although this is written as a tribute to John Leahy, head of sales for Airbus, 98% of it covers a myriad of confusion, mistakes, and wrong guesses by Boeing, Airbus, the market, and government agencies. Hamilton's background is a writer for aviation trade magazines, not books. The publication reads like a compilation of 33 years of magazine columns and articles glued together. The real story of John Leahy so far has yet to be written and would be a must read for every business and sales organization world wide. We still have to wait.

SO far ahead of its time, that it states exactly what is going out in Boeing today!

This book offers unique insight in the notoriously secretive industry, revealing many business practices and decision making processes by both Airbus and Boeing. It is focused mostly on sales and does not cover a lot of aircraft engineering, except when relevant to sales. It also describes Bombardie C-Series and 737MAX sagas, as well as coronavirus pandemic impact on the industry. Many names are mentioned and their roles in each of the companies. Much of the information in the book is already available from other sources on the Internet, but the book presents a well-writted, condensed summary. Feels a bit rushed towards the end of, but overall a very good read.

A wonderfully written book by Scott Hamilton that takes the reader inside the world of commercial aviation. A must read for anyone who loves the world of airlines and aviation.

The first time I have seen a written account of how tried and gained from Boeing. Very interesting.

Excellent récit, pédagogique et emaillé de détails/témoignages/anecdotes d'acteurs de ces années - que ce soit d'Airbus, de Boeing ou des compagnies aériennes. Il faut connaitre un peu le milieu aéronautique pour apprécier, mais cela reste très accessible (y compris l'anglais utilisé :-)

After reading Air Wars I discovered that the introduction I was about to write to summarize this book had already been very well expressed by Laura Mueller, of Airfinance Journal. Her comment can be found at the back of the book and goes like this:

« Air Wars is more than a story about the global combat between Airbus and Boeing. It's a business strategy story pitting the world's two giant airplane manufacturers against each other and how they pursued sales campaigns and product development. It's how Airbus overtook the market leader, Boeing and how Boeing's own decisions helped lose that lead. »

That is exactly what this book is all about, more than a supposed "biography" of John Leahy, Airbus' top salesman. I would say that it's more about the professional career of Leahy than a biography per se. In fact a substantial portion of the book only mentions Leahy once in a while and he is completely absent in some chapters.

If there is one thing I would criticize this book for is the way the 27 chapters have been organized, as they do not form a coherent whole and sometimes overlap with disorienting repeats. That being said, there are few mistakes or errors in this book. Much more numerous are the interesting things I learned anew, or had never heard about before. For you will find in this book informations you won't see anywhere else. It is important to know that Hamilton had access to John Leahy a number of times during the writing, either by phone or direct contact. The same thing applies to other protagonists of this book, but not all.

Air Wars does have a main hero, as the book cover suggests, but a single one unfortunately, when we know that many other people also played an important role in this conflict. And there is not much drama either, as one would expect to find in a real war. Besides, instead of several wars we should be talking about one continuous war encompassing several major battles. That's why I am not very confortable with the plural in the title. I also find it hard to swallow that without Leahy Airbus would not be where they are today, because this business is not a one-man show. It might have taken a bit more time without Leahy but the quality of their people and the products they were offering would eventually have taken them where they are right now. For the writing was on the wall before Concorde made its first flight, even though the company we know today was only created the year after. In my opinion where Leahy made a real difference was in helping Airbus to develop the US market.

All in all, despite being well written, this story does not come out as a thriller or a page-turner, as I was expecting. It also lacks the human element, except for a number of personal stories recounted most of the time with little colour or emotion. For instance, I would have liked to hear what Leahy had to say about Europe in general and France in particular. How was life in Toulouse for an American? Was he happy to leave and come back home? Or does he miss his time in Europe? And how did his family adapt? Instead it's all about business. This made the reading a bit dry at times. I know that Scott Hamilton had enough material to write a 650 page story and had to leave a lot behind. Still, it seems to me that it would not have been that difficult to interspace the main narrative with a few personal anecdotes here and there, not related to the job or business, in order to spice the book a little.

But this is minor quibble, and I would not want to finish this review without mentioning that what I have always appreciated with this author, and this book is no exception, is his absolute neutrality. Proof of it is that Airbus fans say that he sides with Boeing, while Boeing fans are convinced he favours Airbus. This explains why he is so well respected, if not necessarily liked, by both aircraft manufacturers, Airbus and Boeing.

Editor's work certainly allows for much improvement. Claims of J. Leahy pseudo-biography are pretty much clickbait.

A good read if you're into aviation. Typical of most areas of aviation, the author uses a LOT of acronymns throughout the narrative which sometimes made it a bit difficult to follow each time I picked up the book...having forgotten what they stood for. All in all an interesting insight into the marketing and sales tactics used by Boeing and Airbus (and others) in their fight for market share.

Het is OK als een ander een autobiografie voor je schrijft, want niet iedereen is een goede schrijver, maar dit is alleen 'van horen zeggen'. Ik vind dat misleidend.