(FORTUNE Magazine) – While Boeing struggles to pull out of a death spiral, Airbus today is flying straight and true. But as veteran financial journalist Stephen Aris explains in Close to the Sun (Agate Publishing, $25.95), it has been a bumpy ride--and an expensive one.

Close to the Sun chronicles Airbus's conception in 1967 through its rise to become the world's preeminent maker of commercial airplanes, and has been updated to include the dramatic resignation of Boeing CEO Phil Condit at the end of 2003.

What makes it a rollicking read is the skullduggery and intrigue that Aris uncovered among Airbus's three founders: the British, French, and German governments.

From this account it's clear that the three have rarely agreed on anything since deciding to start the company, and seem to take pleasure in undercutting one another. Particularly amusing: In the1990s, when Airbus was removed from government control and set up as an independent corporation, the British, French, and Germans each attempted to form secret alliances to advance their own agendas. It is little short of amazing that this agglomeration of self-interested national parties has been able to humiliate mighty Boeing.

While aviation buffs will find this well-told tale fascinating, there's reason for every taxpayer to take note as well: Aris calculates that Airbus has sucked up as much as $25 billion in taxpayer subsidies and asserts that Boeing has received an equal amount of indirect support in the form of "Pentagon largesse." --Alex Taylor III