Boeing WITHOUT the SST Project?

I was looking over the Lockheed L-2000 project tonight and it got me thinking about what might have happened had it gone further. Does anyone have some insight into what might have happened with Boeing, especially around the 747, were Lockheed selected for the SST? Ignoring whether this is likely to change the SST program itself, is there a lot of fallout otherwise? I have to wonder if the Tri-Star might disappear and the 747 be less cargo optimized, but what that means I don't have a lot of feeling for...
 

Archibald

Banned
Lockheed would have sunk in 1971. Even without the SST, every single aircraft they tried in the early 70's blew in their face. F-104 flying coffin plus the briberies. SR-71, AH-56 Cheyenne, D-21, A-12: one-shot wonders, cancelled or with little production runs. Tristar: nearly sunk RR. C-5 Galaxy: wings cracks and major scandal.
Lockeed was rescued by Nixon only because of their Polaris / Trident SLBM.

Boeing 747 was kind of backup to their SST: the first order from PanAm come in April 1966, so it ran in parallel with the SST.

More generally: the SST program was a poisoned chalice from day one, in June 1963. It is just like the 1976 presidential election: with perfect hindsight, you'd better lose it than win in :p
 
Cheyenne floundered on the fact that was too expensive and the speeds it was doing encroached on Air Force territory. They weren't going to allow the Army to have that capability.

By the time it was cancelled, all the bugs had been ironed out.
 

Archibald

Banned
No question of this, I'm a die hard fan of the Cheyenne, it is helicopters very own CF-105 Arrow. I don't think Lockheed made a lot of money on that program, it was cancelled just before production started.
 
If they did build it there is only one route it could be used on and BA/AIR FRANCE has the monoply on that route.
 

Archibald

Banned
Or trans-Pacific, but it would need to stop in either Anchorage or Hawaii to make it between Tokyo and Los Angeles.
 
I read a book written by a senior Boeing engineer. ..... Thermodynamicist ..... who lead Boeing engineers during development of 747, SST and early stealth airplanes .... cannot remember his name .....

Anyways ....

Boeing engineers worked themselves to exhaustion simultaneously designing 747 and SST .... almost bankrupted Boeing.
747 was a major gamble, but seen as a side show.
Launch clients asked for freighter 747s early in the "sizing" process. To simplify loading, Boeing started with a cargo door in the nose. To simplify control routings, they installed the cockpit above the cargo compartment ... and added a fairing behind the cockpit. Boeing engineers initially wanted to only install crew rest facilities in the fairing.
OTOH airline marketeers saw the upper deck as prime real estate for an upper class cocktail bar .....

In short, the 747 prototype would have flown earlier and more gracefully, with lower risk of bankruptcy.
 
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