American Supersonic Airliners: Race for a Dream (part 1)
By odd world
Boeing-2707 SST - Supersonic Marvel, Largely Forgotten Today
Capable of transporting 296 passengers across the ocean at 2900 km/h. - 40 years ago, in 1968.
The Sixties were simply amazing times for fascinating technology development. In the automotive industry, the "American dream" of a powerful full-size car was still very much alive. In space exploration, we reached out to the Moon. In air travel, the dream of a supersonic passenger plane seemed almost certain to become reality. Witness "Boeing-2707" SST (Supersonic Transport):
America enters the race... Well, it was good while it lasted
It all started in 1952 with small-scale studies of SST designs by Boeing, but things heated up significantly when in 1962 the governments of Britain and France decided to join efforts in the creation of a supersonic "Concorde" airplane. The intrepid Russians also came up with the Tu-144 (no less capable, but plagued by accidents). The American government nearly panicked and responded with its own program SCAT (Supersonic Commercial Air Transport) in 1963, which got endorsement from President Kennedy himself. The race for dominating supersonic airways was on. (At that time it was believed that all future commercial aircraft would be supersonic). The goal was to produce a commercial aircraft capable of carrying 250 passengers (twice as many as the Concorde) at Mach 3 speed and a trans-Atlantic range of 4,000 miles. Such was the dream, loftier than the European projects, which energized American designers and manufacturers, almost on par with the idea of reaching the Moon.Boeing 733 - from "delta wing" to "swept wing" designThe proposed plane would be almost twice as large as the Concorde, cost two times more and require twice as much time to build, but it would be the "American Dream" plane, the future of the world's airways (FAA estimated 500 of such planes in use by 1990)
Some initial concepts from the 50s:
Conceptual development of wing geometry (with variations on delta-wing and swing-wing themes):
The variable geometry wing already had quite a history in US (read this article), plus there was considerable data accumulated by the military in developing the XB-70 "Valkyrie" strategic bomber and YF-12 «Blackbird» spy plane. Engineers of the new Boeing plane boasted that European supersonic aircraft is based on already nearly obsolete technology, and while American model may not be the first, it will certainly end up to be the best.
Air tunnel testing of Boeing 733 model:
Some of these concepts looked like F111 fighters with variable geometry wings (a legacy from the TFX program), the others could pass for the upcoming Rockwell B-1 bomber. Some progress was being made, but Boeing did not enjoy a monopoly on SST research for long - in 1964 the government started a competition for preliminary designs: "Boeing" and "Lockheed" were chosen, but "North American" (responsible for the X-15 Rocketplane) was strangely declined. Thus, two giant corporations were pitched against each other, and the design race nicely heated up.
Lockheed 2000 - an honorable mention.This baby was admirably full-size: some models could transport up to 300 passengers with range of 3500 miles. The Lockheed mock-up was proudly presented to the judges in 1966, but rival Boeing-2707-100 already could take that many passengers and more, with better aerodynamics and less noise pollution. Boeing emerged the sole winner of the government contract.
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Comments
So where are they now? Why was it not developed? Any chances now?
wow this is really great hub....you have excellent explanation of the topic...i wish america works out something much better after the conrcode disaster....i have seen that video and it was horrible......anyway thanx for sharing such a great latest update....have a look one this....i am sure you will love to see this.
http://hubpages.com/hub/Worlds-most-costliest-phon and the next one is
http://hubpages.com/hub/Worlds-Most-Expensive-iPho
thanx
O W
Great hub with great pictures.
As far as I know, Boeing has never produced a production plane that was supersonic, even the B1 was subsonic.
This could account for why the SST failed to make it to production.
Too bad, it would have been nice to have seen both the Concorde and the SST in action at the same time.
Barbara 3 years ago
you have a wonderful website. It is a honor for me to leave a message for you. I love your airplanes.