Being number one -- Trading places -- Folly and hypocrisy -- Market share, the airlines' enemy -- Playing the game -- Meltdown and merger -- The very large airplane -- A challenge from Asia -- Muddling through, more or less

Chronicles the high-stakes rivalry between the world's two largest aircraft manufacturers--companies that will bet the house on a single airplane. Long one of America's most successful corporations--and its biggest exporter--Boeing struggled to maintain 50% of the market share for commercial aircraft after being overtaken by European upstart Airbus in the late 1990s. But Airbus did not remain on top for long--by 2006, the company suffered from mismanagement and had adopted the kind of complacent, risk-averse culture that had once characterized its competitor. Incorporating interviews conducted throughout the industry, Newhouse takes us inside these two firms to help us understand their struggle for supremacy in a business based as much on instinct as on economics. He also explores the problems that now face both companies: potential competition from China and Japan, the challenge of serving Asian markets, and the need to undo years of mismanagement.--From publisher description