Hi all. First of all let me apologize for exploiting this forum for something not strictly related to a PMDG product, but, and I've used this very valid reason before, this forum is in my opinion the one around that hosts the most technically sound, knowledgeable and pleasurable crowd, a community within a community if you want.

Coming to my question then.

Can anybody advise me a good book about the aviation industry? I'm particularly interested in something about the development/strategies of the modern aviation companies/bodies as opposed to the more technical side.

What got me wondering was the sort of dichotomy between operators that focus on one brand of aircrafts as opposed to those who have more, thinking about Boeing/Airbus obviously and what's the point in having different planes that could cover the same role (see B73xs vs Airbus A32xs and B76/77s and A33/38s)

Thank you all

Not exactly what you're asking for but there's a great older book called "Hard Landing" that I read years ago about the business and financial side of things in the US airline industry that's pretty eye opening - it's all about deregulation and the series of "leveraged buyouts" and bankruptcies in the 80s and 90s (Braniff, Eastern, Continental, etc):

http://www.amazon.com/Hard-Landing-Contest-Profits-Airlines/dp/0812928350

There's been rumors for years that he's working on a new book called "Harder Landing" about events post 9/11 to the present, but it hasn't materialized thusfar.

I've just finished "How Boeing Defied the Airbus Challenge: An Insider's Account" which talks about the last 20-25 years of war between Boeing and Airbus. It's mainly talking about the heavy aircraft, early etops, 2 vs 4 engines, and the 330/340/380 vs 777 and 747. it is somewhat biased towards Boeing as it's written by a former Boeing person but it is really worth a read.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Boeing-Defied-Airbus-Challenge-ebook/dp/B003T0G656/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1368080530&sr=1-1

Those sound good! I'll definitely give those a try thank you!

Airbus A380 vs Boeing Dreamliner Jeffs Mills

 

This is a good read