Michaels set out to write a counterpart to John Newhouse’s timeless The Sporty Game (out of print; just 43 copies on Amazon as of this writing), which was followed several decades later by Boeing Versus Airbus (see my December 2006 letter). While the Newhouse books looked at the high politics and big business at the top of the industry, Michaels has written a comprehensive overview of the technologies and players at all levels of jetliner manufacturing. It’s just as dramatic, and, if you’re in the industry, just as useful.

The Sporty Game focused on the jetliners themselves, which, in 1982, were still a relatively youthful industry. It also focused on engines, the only non-airframe part of the industry that really mattered back then. AeroDynamic, in addition to covering jets and engines, devotes essential chapters to all major tiers of the business, including Brainiacs (avionics), Skin And Bones (materials), Interior Designers (seats and interiors), Lifeblood (MRO), Gearheads (how Pratt & Whitney’s Geared Turbofan changed the engine world), and Unsung Heroes (APUS and most everything else).

It isn’t just that AeroDynamic takes a different approach to the industry than The Sporty Game; comparing the two shows how much has changed over 36 years. So much of the value in this industry, and the profits, and the innovation, have migrated from the top primes to the suppliers. “Aviation” is almost an old fashioned term today, compared with “Aerospace.” We’re no longer looking at mere aircraft; we’re looking at complex systems that involve the integration of very high value components. The A320neo and 737MAX might represent the first time that jetmakers were forced to launch new products because of decisions taken at the supplier level (the creation of new engines, whether the primes wanted them or not).

This changing balance of power also shows why Boeing and (to a lesser extent) Airbus are now focused on reclaiming profits, intellectual property rights, and aftermarket revenue from their suppliers, with programs like Partnering for Success and SCOPe+. The book’s Supply Chain 2.0 chapter shows why Michaels is the world’s best thought leader on intra-industry relationships.

The most interesting aspect of AeroDynamic is its treatment of emerging producers. In The Sporty Game’s time, Japan was the emerging producer, an idea that fizzled in the ‘90s. If an aero industry book had been written a decade ago, China would have been the future (and in the ‘90s, Indonesia, goofily enough). Michaels avoids this trap, spending little on wannabe jetmakers and instead looks at new places where suppliers put actual work. The chapter Four Clusters and a Funeral looks at Singapore, Morocco, Mexico, and the US Southeast. There are exciting things happening in these regions, and they tell us a lot about the future. If there is a retreat from “globalism” among nationalist losers, our industry does a great job bucking the trend.

Michaels travelled to these places, and really knows what makes them tick. The chapter makes it clear that national aircraft are a fool’s game. Brazil’s national jet family will soon be in Boeing’s hands. Canada’s national jet family is now in Airbus’s hands. China’s national jet families are best regarded as winged train wrecks (I’d say flying train wrecks, but they’re not great at flying). Instead, as the four clusters clearly show, the best way to join this industry is to be a supplier, leveraging your unique strengths to fit into the global supply chain. A profitable and diversified portfolio of technologies and contracts beats building a winged tube with a flag on the tail.