alternatehistory.com

As everyone probably knows the United States was hoping to build a Supersonic Transport in the 1960s to compete directly with the British/French Concorde (and it turns out the Soviet TU-144).

Neither the Concorde nor the TU-144 came close to being remotely economically viable.

There were dire predictions about the damage to the American aviation industry over the termination of the project.

In addition, the cancelation of the project was part of the justification for the approval of the American space shuttle program (helping the aviation and aeronautical industry in the U.S.).

Some questions:

1) Was there any chance the American SST would be more successful than the Concorde or TU-144?

2) Had the American SST been noticeably more successful would it have strained relations between the Americans and the British (no one cared about relations with the French).

3) After the U.S. spent billions on the SST would the federal govt. have been willing to spend billions on the space shuttle development.

4) How would the large amount of experience building a long range supersonic vehicle have influenced developments in American military and civil aviation in the future?
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