Word: sst
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...companies are under strict orders to keep their proposals secret, but enough has already leaked out to produce some reasonably accurate ideas about designs for the SST, as the supersonic is known in aviation. The most salient point about the U.S. SSTs is their unexpected size. All three planemakers proposed SSTs measuring about 210 ft. in length (v. 153 ft. for the longest Boeing 707 and 180 ft. for the Anglo-French Concorde supersonic). The big planes are designed to carry 150 to 210 passengers, depending on seating arrangements, and attain a speed of Mach 3 (three times the speed...
Snail-Like Pace. Beyond that, each of the three had special reasons for shunning the SST. General Dynamics was not in much of a gambling mood after having lost $425 million on production of its Convair 880 and 990 jet liners; besides, it recently won the rich and controversial TFX fighter contract, and would be quite unlikely to bag two in a row from Washington. Douglas is preoccupied with its new short-range DC-9, for which it has only a disappointing 18 orders; in addition, President Donald Douglas Jr., 46, who has become the active manager of the company...
Though worried about the heavy cost, and concerned because the Government has frittered away three years while the Anglo-French combine got a head start, three other U.S. planemakers were still determined to submit bids and specifications for the SST before the Jan. 15 deadline. The three: North American, Lockheed and Boeing...
...Lockheed has never built a big supersonic plane but gained experience and repute with its highly successful F-104 Starfighter. President William Allen's Boeing has the most passenger jet experience as builder of the 707. It has also spent $17 million of its own on SST research, designing a plane with birdlike "variable-sweep" wings that would be extended for take-offs and landings but tuck in for supersonic cruising...
Early favorite to win the SST is Boeing. Beyond the fact that Boeing has done the most research on its own, there are political considerations. North American is well fixed for years to come with its Apollo moonshot contract, and Lockheed is relatively well-backlogged with its contracts for the Polaris missile and the new Starlifter military transport. But the end is in sight for Boeing's big KC-135 flying-tanker contract, and its current orders for Minuteman missiles will run out in two or three years. Besides, it was the loser in the hot TFX competition...