Boeing's Forgotten Failure

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The Boeing 2707 was Boeing's answer to the Concorde. It could carry more passengers, fly further and at a speed that left the rival European creation in its wake. But Boeing's version of a supersonic aircraft would never make it to the market and leave behind a legacy of failure. What was the Boeing 2707? What would it be like inside? And why it was never built.

America always considered itself at the forefront of aviation technology. While it had been beaten to the market for the world's first jet-powered commercial transport, its Boeing 707 had cemented its place as the gold standard of aviation travel.

But the times were changing. New military technology had opened up the possibility of faster than sound commercial aircraft, turning all-day flights into meer hours, allowing passengers to eat one meal in one hemisphere, before catching the same sunset in another.

In 1962, when it became clear that the European Concorde would go ahead, with the dreaded soviets right behind, the American government gave a signal for local builders to start work on what would become the home-grown version of the supersonic transport. President John F. Kennedy tasked the Federal Aviation Administration with "national aviation goals for the period between now and 1970".

Many believed that the future lay in Supersonic transport, and aircraft designs like the Boeing 747 would only be a passing fad.

The race was on.

The aircraft would need to fly between Western Europe and the Eastern USA without stopping to refuel, a range of at least 3,500 nmi (6,400 km). It would also need to bring traveling fast to the masses, and have a seating capacity of at least 150 passengers.

But unlike their European counterparts, America had a trick up its sleeve. The Concorde design was built around a lightweight, traditional aluminum-alloy airframe.

America on the other hand had experience with other materials like titanium. A titanium airframe had been used on the famous A-12 Blackbird, with an estimated top speed of Mach 3.35 at 85,000' feet.

Thus this aircraft design would need to be built from a titanium structure and for lack of a better phrase, leave the rival Concorde back in the dust.

The US government would launch a contest between three different SST projects - One from Boeing, Lockheed and North American Aviation.

The North American Aviation NAC-60 design didn't make it to the final selection round after being deemed too small and slow.

Lockheeds version would be called the L-2000 and seat over 273 passengers.

The Boeing effort would be called the Boeing Model 733-197, It would have a variable geometry wing, which gave the airframe the ability to take off and land at lower speeds and in less distance than would a comparable fixed-wing aircraft. It would carry 277 passengers (30 first-class and 247 in economy) & be called the 2707-100.

In 1966, the two remaining designs, 2707 and L-2000 went head to head, with the Boeing 2707 ultimately winning the contract in 1967. Lockheed's L-2000 was judged simpler to produce and less risky, but its performance was slightly lower and its noise levels slightly higher.

Boeing's design for the aircraft would go through several iterations, with a -200 model having canards at the front of the plane. The titanium joint to swing the wings out proved much too heavy and was abandoned for a delta-v design. The Boeing 2707-300 seats only 234 passengers and would cost the program 2-years in delays.

Orders by October 1969, for 122 Boeing SSTs by 26 airlines, including Alitalia, Canadian Pacific Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Iberia, KLM, Northwest Airlines, and World Airways. The future was here.

What about onboard?

It had two aisles, with 2-3-2 row seating arrangement at its widest section, with the seats getting smaller as the body tapered off. In the main economy cabin, there were retractable televisions. In the first-class area, every pair of seats included smaller televisions in a console between the seats. But the cabin had tiny windows, only 6 inches wide.

Boeing was confident to have prototypes in early 1967 and the first flight could be made in early 1970 - with the first airline flying a Boeing supersonic transport by 1974.

Why was this incredible machine never built?

The first was the sonic boom. Whilst overblown, the fact is that sonic booms do cause ground issues and would be a significant factor to overcome. Secondly, environmental groups also claimed that 500 SSTs flying daily would deplete the ozone and cause increased humidity in the atmosphere. Lastly, and likely the most important, it came down to money. There wasn't any appitiate for big spending projects.

The cancellation of the program in 1971 had far-reaching consequences. Boeing had to downsize its workforce by 60,000 employees, and a downturn in the airline market.

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