Synopsis
Karl Sabbagh’s Twenty-First-Century Jet: The Making and Marketing of the Boeing 777 offers an extraordinary, behind-the-scenes look at the birth of a modern commercial airliner. Written alongside a BBC television series, the book chronicles the massive, multi-billion-dollar gamble Boeing undertook in the early 1990s to design and build the 777 from scratch. Sabbagh was granted unprecedented access to Boeing's engineering bays, executive suites, and assembly floors, allowing him to capture the intense human drama, technical triumphs, and high-stakes business decisions that defined the project.
At the heart of the narrative is a radical shift in corporate philosophy and engineering methodology. The 777 was the first commercial aircraft to be designed entirely on computers using 3D digital software, eliminating the traditional, costly need for full-scale physical mockups. Beyond the technological leap, Boeing fundamentally transformed its workplace culture by pioneering the "Working Together" philosophy. Instead of designing the plane in isolated silos, Boeing formed cross-functional Design-Build Teams that brought together engineers, manufacturing specialists, and even major airline customers like United Airlines, British Airways, and ANA. This collaborative approach ensured that the people who would fly, maintain, and build the aircraft had a direct hand in its conception, successfully breaking down centuries-old walls of corporate bureaucracy.
The book masterfully balances complex engineering challenges with the sheer economic anxiety of global aerospace competition. Sabbagh details the grueling pressure of designing massive components, such as the aircraft’s signature folding wingtips and the most powerful jet engines ever built, while simultaneously managing a global supply chain where parts manufactured across the world had to fit together with sub-millimeter precision. As the narrative builds toward the aircraft’s triumphant first flight and subsequent FAA certification, Twenty-First-Century Jet transforms from a technical documentary into a compelling human story about the triumph of collective ingenuity, showcasing how thousands of individuals managed to orchestrate one of the most complex engineering feats of the modern era.