In the spring of 2011, the CEO of one of the United States largest and most famous airlines

made a phone call to the head of one of the world's largest and most famous airplane manufacturers.

American Airlines Chief Gerard Arby had some tough talk for Boeing CEO

W James McNerney Jr.

You see, American was about to place an order for hundreds of new fuel-efficient jets from Boeing

rival Airbus. This must have been shattering news to McNerney.

American hadn't been an Airbus customer in almost 20 years,

and here was Arby on the other end of the phone telling McNerney, Boeing needed to act fast if it wanted a piece

of what would become the largest new aircraft deal in commercial aviation history.

Well McNerney did act swiftly, incredibly so for such a massive manufacturer.

Just three months after that call, McNerney decided Boeing was not going to design a brand

new airplane.

Instead, it was going to turn back to one of the most popular jets already in Boeing's fleet.

We are making a decision to invest in the 737 family.

We are announcing the 737 max.

This is on point. I'm Megna Chuck Rabardi and that was Nicole Piseki,

Boeing VP of Business Development in a company video unveiling the 737 max what

Boeing called quote a new engine variant of the market leading 737.

Now it seemed like a brilliant move back then because by July of 2011,

American Airlines announced that Boeing had one half its record-breaking 420 plane 16 billion dollar

deal Airbus got the other half and just two years later March 2013 McNerney told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that Boeing's business

was booming.

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