Legend and Legacy: The Story of Boeing and Its People

Serling's book is a very good history of the Boeing company, one of the better ones I have read. It is quite detailed. The book covers Boeing from its beginnings to 1991. It does a very good job of covering all the company's activities, from building bombers to commercial jets to missiles and spacecraft. He also discusses activities at Wichita and Philadelphia. Serling also does a very good job of placing the importance of these accomplishments in their context in terms of what they meant to the company. Serling uses plenty of first person accounts, ranging from executives, managers, engineers, accountants, machinists and test pilots. However, it is weighed more in favor of those who were managers and engineers. There is relatively little about the company's labor history or strikes as compared to other books about the company. A bibliography would have been very welcome. He does list in the introduction those who contributed, but a comprehensive list of his sources would have been helpful. I recommend this book to all who want to know about the story of the Boeing company.

This is a great read for anyone involved in any way with aviation; from the pilots to feds, to managers and engineers. The Boeing Company's history is covered in a way that gives a broad view of nearly the entire history of Aviation.