Aviation: Round 1 for Boeing

In a dingy temporary barracks along Washington's Constitution Avenue, a team of 210 Government experts has for twelve weeks carefully studied competing proposals for a U.S. supersonic airliner. The nation's ten long-range airlines also pored over the three tons of material submitted by three planemakers (Lockheed, North American and Boeing) and three enginemakers (G.E., United Aircraft and Curtiss-Wright), and made their own recommendations to the Government experts. Taking all this into account, the Federal Aviation Agency team last week made its report to Administrator Najeeb Halaby, who this week is scheduled to present to President Johnson future plans for the nation's supersonic program.

Winning by a Wing. The FAA report rates Boeing's design first, but places Lockheed's a close second. North American finished out of the money. The experts' recommendations correspond closely to the airlines' choice. With the exception of Continental, which initially chose Lockheed first and North American second, the airlines picked Boeing first—but insisted that they nonetheless want Lockheed to continue in the competition. Boeing's design embodies a "variable sweep" wing that can be extended for takeoffs and landings and tucked back for supersonic flight. Because this is such a revolutionary wing arrangement, the airlines want to be able to fall back on Lockheed's con ventional delta-wing design should the Boeing design prove too difficult.

The prestige generated by Lockheed's high-flying All certainly helped to keep the company in the race, and clearly gave it the edge over North American, which also submitted a delta-wing design. But when it came to the engines that will power the SST, the choice was considerably less clear. The FAA experts favor the G.E. power plant, but most of the airlines like the United Aircraft engine best; both are fairly conventional jet engines with extremely high thrust. Some lines, notably National, opted for the Curtiss-Wright design, which is the most advanced of the three; it features a porous turbine blade that will be cooled by the passage of air through it.

Halaby originally hoped to select a planemaker and enginemaker by May 1, but the recommendations of his staff will probably compel him to extend the competition for another year. During this time no prototypes will be built, but each contestant will produce more detailed studies to enable the FAA and the airlines to make a final choice. Though the extension may delay the date when an American SST enters commercial service to 1973, two years later than the already abuilding Anglo-French Concorde, most U.S. aviation experts feel that the additional study will help avoid costly mistakes.

Dragging Dollars. The financial side of the supersonic is dragging even more. To give it some lift, President Johnson has appointed a seven-man board of directors, including former World Bank President Eugene Black and Treasury Secretary Douglas Dillon, to advise him. The Government originally planned to put up 75% of the supersonic's estimated $1 billion development cost, but Black has recommended a costlier 90 to 10 split with the manufacturers.