TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY JET: THE MAKING AND MARKETING OF THE BOEING 777 BY KARL SABBAGH

In a sentence, Twenty-First-Century Jet is the story of how the Boeing 777 -- the most modern airliner in the skies today -- was conceived, marketed, designed and tested. Don't think of this as an aviation book, though. Building a new plane is one of the biggest business gambles there is, so there's some marketing and a bit of corporate culture. There are chapters about how Boeing brought customers into the design process, about the computer modeling which did away with mock-ups and about the plane's computerized controls. Most of all though, it's a good read. Karl Sabbagh is very good at spinning all the separate elements of the process together into a coherent and engaging whole. I highly recommend it. There are a few photos and quite a few sketches, but if you want more, you might try Motorbooks International's Boeing 777 by Norris and Wagner. Or visit Boeing's Web site ( http://www.boeing.com ) to see how Boeing sells planes. ($25, hardback only. $128 million for the plane)

-- Christof Spieler, Graphics Editor

This item appeared in the Features section of the December 6, 1996 issue.

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