dennis mullenberg was an engineer. when he came in following mcnerny, i remember being full of hope, oh, it's an engineer taking over. one of the first things he did was sign a new contract with spira, the engineering union. they came up with a great deal, and i thought, wow, that's a good sign. but otherwise he kept strictly to the mcnerny way. mcnerny had taken him for 18 months to chicago to be groomed for the role, and i don't think he strayed at all from sort of the financial focus that mcnerny had taught him. so mullenberg has come off very badly in the max saga. why do you think he failed? since he was this energetic engineering guy, why did he fail so badly? >> you would think being an engineer, that engineering would have primacy in the company, and everything i've been told is dennis mullenberg is a great program manager, he's detail oriented, he's driven, he rides his bicycle 140 miles a week. but it could be that the skills you need in a crisis like the max are not those of engineering, he needs someone wit

and dennis mullenberg is the one who was at the helm. at the very end of development and he had the opportunity to dig into the ground truth of what happened after the first crash. okay. does boeing of something to learn from airbus at this point given the problems with the max and the newly the new dreamliner manufacturing issues? airbus has has had a their chief pilot has always had a lot of class within the organization. i think boeing does have some some things to learn from airbus one. one thing that i learned in reporting the book is that there's a stereotype that europe with its strict labor regulations is at a disadvantage to boeing that became an advantage in some ways to boeing because it had to train its workforce. it had to rely on a highly skilled workforce. so one difference i guess this is also an airbus related question. what role did the competitive landscape play in the failures that led to the engineering problems with the max? i think boeing has. sad that you know, the the many effort cost cutting was because of the s

dennis mullenberg was an engineer. when he came in following mcnerny i remember being full of hope, oh, it's an engineer taking over. he found a contract. they did a very quiet negotiations and came up with this new deal. i thought that's a great sign. in fact, otherwise, he just kept very strictly to the mcnerny way. he had taken him for 18 months to chicago to be under his wing to be groomed for the role. i think he strayed at all from the sort of financial focus that mcnerny had taught him. mullenberg has come off badly. why do you think he failed? he was this energetic engineering guy. why do you think he failed so badly? >> i would have primacy in the company and everything i've been told that dennis is a great program manager. he's detailed oriented. he's driven. he rides his bicycle 140 mile a week. it could be the skills you need in the crisis like the max are not those of engineering. you need someone with broad judgment of what to do after something like that. a lot of ways people describe bill alallen, who w