Historical aside: Irish International SST

arubex

Here's a snippet I found in the Flight archives, in October 1969. Irish International Airlines had options / soft-orders for two Boeing SSTs!

According to an earlier list their first example would have been airframe #76, but I haven't yet found the original announcement of the order. Surely it would have been a significant event.

arubex

I also searched for Aerlinte Eireann regarding the SST but without much success. It seems that the order was placed as early as 1964.

Some details of planned routes from Aviation Week in 1969. New York, Boston and Montreal initially. The Boeing SST was being designed to cruise at Mach 2.7; Dublin to New York in 2 hours...

smurfjed

With a stopover in Shannon.

Nice find

Tenger

Feb 1964, Aer Lingus (Irish International)l odged a refundable deposit of £200,000 with the FAA in Washington to reserve 2 delivery position for SST's.
Flight of the Iolar page 146.

FYI, order for 2x B747's was placed in 1965 with delivery planned in 1971. According to the book in those heady days these were seen as a stop gap until 1985 when the SST's wold be in service.

arubex

Good stuff! Thanks Tenger

That helped me narrow-down a search of Flight's archive.

AER L1NGUS Irish International Airlines have reluctantly
joined the queue for supersonic airliners.

The airline's general manager, Mr J. F. Dempsey, always an
outspoken opponent of supersonics, said in announcing the decision
to reserve two delivery places for the United States aircraft that the
move was purely to protect the airline's long-term competitive interests.
...
Mr Dempsey amplified this point, saying: "We have not ordered
anything and don't have to consider making a firm order until
November 1, 1965. The $200,000 returnable deposit puts the Irish
airline in the 80th and 85th position for delivery of the US SST.
...

https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1964/1964%20-%200601.html

So, off I head to November 1965!

Mr Dempsey did sound rather more upbeat when talking to the NYT, though:

On the other hand, J. F. Dempsey of Aer Lingus, the Irish airline, said optimistical­ly: “The S.S.T. will come. The airlines are not chasing it be­cause they want to preserve their position. Instead, they are chasing each other. Every speaker has indicated that the blackest feature is sonic boom. I believe in the technical ability to find the solution for this.”

http://www.nytimes.com/1964/10/04/the-supersonic-transport.html?_r=0

He retired from the position in 1967, it would be interesting to see what his successor thought of SSTs.

Shannon757

Was the SST not a domestic aircraft?

goingnowhere

It was the Boeing 2707 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_2707 full trans Atlantic

Made Concorde look straightforward from an engineering point of view.

Tenger

Just did a quick search....the forward fuselage of the 2707 prototype is near San Francisco....


EDIT: actually its not anymore.......The forward fuselage was on display at the Hiller Aviation Museum of San Carlos, California for many years, but in early 2013, was moved back to Seattle, where it is undergoing restoration at the Museum of Flight.

Oh well.....

goingnowhere

Its a giant wood full size mock up sadly not the real titanium.

Be interesting to see if its the variable geometry one or the fixed wing mock up.

Could be interesting to see the SR71, Concorde and the B2707 side by side in Seattle in the future

arubex

Still picking through various references, as of the early 1970 schedule Aer Lingus was due to receive airframes 76 and 81 in April and May 1979 respectively. Probably seating around 250 passengers.

Capt'n Midnight

goingnowhere wrote: »

It was the Boeing 2707 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_2707 full trans Atlantic

Made Concorde look straightforward from an engineering point of view.

I still don't know how Boeing got that gig given their track record of supersonic planes at the time. Yes they built the 7070 but they'd built about a thousand B-47s by then, not counting B-52's or Stratotankers.

Convair already had the Mach 2 B-58 and North American had the Mach 3 XB-70 which was at the time the heaviest , most powerful aircraft ever built. So pretty much off the shelf technology. Both of which showed that sonic boom was a good excuse to not use foreign imports ban SST.


Big problem with Mach 3 is that you only need a third as many planes to meet the same schedule. So development costs which are much higher have to be spread over far fewer aircraft. Half the cost of each $2Bn B2 bomber was for development.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/North_American_XB-70A_with_Convair_B-58A_chase_aircraft.jpg/783px-North_American_XB-70A_with_Convair_B-58A_chase_aircraft.jpg