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Join Wundry Plus in the Wundery app or on Apple Podcasts. from Wundery I'm Lindsay, and this is American scandal. On July 7th, 2024, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge of conspiring to defraud the federal government over the two fatal 737 max crashes in 2018 and 2019.

The company has also agreed to pay a nearly half billion dollar fine and spend roughly

another 450 million dollars more to upgrade its safety programs.

But whatever the final outcome, it's a far cry from the old slogan,

If it's not Boeing, I'm not going.

The tragic loss of life and ongoing safety concerns raised the question, how did we get here?

Boeing was once the pride and joy of American aviation.

Its B17 and B29 bomber planes helped win World War II. In

1958, Boeing 707 series ushered in the age of commercial jet travel when Pan American

World Airways began flying from New York to London.

And for decades, the Seattle-based company dominated commercial aircraft manufacturer with little

competition.

But then Airbus came onto the scene.

Aviation companies from France, Germany, Spain, and later Britain joined together to compete against Boeing.

It took a while for Airbus to become a serious rival,

but in 1992 the company secured a deal with United Airlines

to lease 50 A320 planes, and forever after it was game on between Boeing and Airbus.

My guest today is Scott Hamilton. He's been tracking the Boeing

Airbus rivalry for years as well as the change in Boeing's corporate culture. He's an aviation

industry consultant for Lehem Company based in Wheaton, Illinois.

He's also the author of Air Wars, the global combat between Air Bus and Boeing.

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