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| URL:
http://riceornot.ricecop.com/?auto=83969 |
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| Comments: 7 (Read/Post) Favorites: 0 (View) |
Submitted
on: 01-06-2011
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Category:
Other Vehicle |
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Description:
The Boeing 2707, an overly-ambitious aircraft that never flew. When the Concorde SST was under development in 1963, the US decided that SST's were the future of air travel and in 1964 decided that it was imperative that the US build it's own SST, offering to subsidize 75% of the cost. Boeing's design, the 2707 (named because it's target cruise speed was Mach 2.7) was the winning design. |
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| #1 |
1-06-2011 @ 09:36:16 AM |
| Posted By : Low-Tech Redneck |
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The original concept was that the 2707 would be all-titanum, as opposed to the aluminum-titanium alloy of the Concorde, thus it would fly faster, eventually it was hoped to regularly hit speeds as high as Mach 3. The proposed 2707 would also feature variable-geometry (swing wings) that would allow slower take off speeds and would seat up to 277 passengers.
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| #3 |
1-06-2011 @ 09:43:43 AM |
| Posted By : Low-Tech Redneck |
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Boeing confidently announced that the plane would be operational by 1974, and that 1000 of them would be flying by 1990. In reality, the overly-optimistic claims quickly fell apart. The swing-wing mechanism proved too heavy to incorporate into the airframe, increasing pressure from the public citing environmental/noise concerns and rising fuel costs made airlines shy from SSTs, and economic pressure resulted in all federal funding being cut in 1971, effectively dooming the project. Boeing itself nearly went bankrupt, having spent millions on the aborted plane, and having nothing but two half-finished plywood mock-ups to show for it. In the aftermath 60,000 workers were laid off, and the 2707 was dubbed "The airplane that ate Seattle".
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| #4 |
1-06-2011 @ 09:46:38 AM |
| Posted By : Low-Tech Redneck |
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#2, SST's have no future unless there is some major-advancement in materials or engines, as the thing that doomed the Concorde was the operational costs, for all it's technological marvel (which it was) it failed as a commercial airliner, propped up only by heavy government subsidiaries, it's telling that the only two airlines to ever operate one were those from the parent countries of the company that built it. (Air France/BA)
They're amazing, but too darn expensive to fly.
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| #5 |
2-13-2011 @ 10:04:13 PM |
| Posted By : Low-Tech Redneck |
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The only lasting impact the plane actually had was to the city of Seattle's basketball team, who started play around the same time and got the name "supersonics" as part of the SST craze of the era.
Like the plane, they're now defunct too
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