Mark Wagner

This books covers the development of Boeing 787 (Dreamliner) from the late 90s to mid 2010, which means, it ends before the first deliveries, but after the first flights (according to wikipedia it "entered commercial service on October 26, 2011").

As literary work it will never be considered great. As a story it also leaves a lot to the reader. It never dives into the causes or effects beyond what is told on press conferences.

I started reading this book because I was curious, and continued show more reading it because I work in an industry with as much attention and pressure as the airline industry. I had hoped I would be able to learn from their mistakes but since the book never actually concluded where things went wrong, or where the mistakes were made, it's hard to learn.

The only wisdom I bring home is that too tight deadlines lead to mistakes which increases the delays, but that is not something revolutionary. Setting deadlines is always a guesswork between what is feasible and achievable and what is acceptable by the market, and having to make tough decisions close to the deadline is part of any large project.

So a total of two stars for the effort, and because I don't know of any better book if you're interested in this project. show less