Word: sst
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Almost from the start, the U.S. effort to build a supersonic jet transport has been buffeted by technical, financial and political turbulence. The resulting delays have already set back development of the plane by at least a year. Last week the Johnson Administration let it be known that the SST faces a further slowdown, which will keep it from entering airline service at least until 1976 or '77, instead of 1974, as originally planned...
...adding a pair of stubby movable wings on the forward part of its fuselage. Goofs and glitches always creep into the early blueprints for any new aircraft, but lately Boeing President William M. Allen has been telling airline customers that engineering "miscalculations" were serious enough to send the SST "back to the drawing boards." They involve questions of aerodynamics, air flow into the plane's four engines, attitude control, engine placement and a considerable underestimate of necessary fuel space...
...have concluded that the plane would have a range of only 2,300 miles with 292 passengers, instead of the 4,600 miles that Boeing is contractually obliged to deliver. Allowing Boeing more time to revamp the plane to meet its performance pledge, said Major General Jewell C. Maxwell, SST Development Director of the Federal Aviation Administration, "will hasten the day when we will have a safe, successful and profitable SST in commercial service...
...program remains a prime target for a vociferous and growing minority. "A toy for the international jet set," Wisconsin Democrat William Proxmire called it in a Senate speech last fall. In his budget for the fiscal year starting next July, President Johnson has already trimmed his request for SST funds to $223 million, an $80.6 million increase from fiscal 1968 but only half of the boost that the Administration proposed last summer. Slowing development further would mollify congressional economizers by permitting additional cuts...
...does not have the answer to one objection raised to his paper at the A.I.A.A. meeting: the creation of a sufficiently strong electrical field might require too much power to be economical. But he points out that there would be less drag or air friction on a charged SST, reducing the power necessary to fly it at a given speed and altitude. He suggests that only further tests with larger models and wind tunnels-now being considered by Northrop, Boeing and NASA-can determine if the system is practical...