Concorde Conspiracy The Battle For American Skies 1962 – 77 – Graham M Simons

As can be seen, it was once ‘Top Secret’. — Concorde would have four or five years to prove its time-saving attractions and its profitability – and to make the business traveller supersonic-minded. When the 2707 entered service on the crack routes, Concorde would be operated on the many less densely trafficked but still important routes on which the larger American aircraft would not be viable. There would be a place and a need for the two types as far ahead as one could see.

In the interval, the options arrangements had one great and lasting benefit for the Concorde manufacturers. Option-holding airlines seized the opportunity to take an active part in shaping the design. First into the field were the original three option holders: Pan American, BOAC and Air France. They set up a technical committee – speedily nicknamed the ‘Troika’ – to maintain liaison with the builders.

All of the sixteen American option holders also formed a committee under the chairmanship of William Mentzer, President of United Airlines. This was something without precedent in the civil aircraft business. Previously it had not been unusual for one or two major airlines to be associated with the Intelligence Memorandum New Evidence on the Soviet Supersonic Transport Fep-Seeret— Copy No RR tM May 196″ st development of an air-transport design, and indeed the sales of some new types had been hampered by being too closely tailored to the specific needs of a single operator.

BAC and Aérospatiale could, and did, count themselves fortunate to have the advice and the constructive criticism of major airlines, making up between them a good cross-section of the international air transport market. Their co-operation was invaluable in such areas as performance and economics, noise, interior layout, product support, ground handling and servicing, maintainability and reliability.

In parallel with design work for the pre-production aircraft, building of the two prototypes — 001 at Toulouse and 002 at Filton – was going forward, although not as rapidly as had been hoped when the programme began in 1965. Some of the problems arose from the fact that this kind of Anglo-French manufacturing collaboration was something new and needed a period for bedding down.

In a sense, the programme was a prototype and a forerunner of better things to come, just as the aircraft was.

Cover illustrations: Front: top, left: flag of the United States at the memorial to President Kennedy in Hyannis, Massachusetts. (Kelson Collection); top, right: the flag of the United Kingdom, the right way up, here viewed from behind. (Stefano Brivio Collection); middle: Air Aircraft Concorde (© Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy); bottom: Manhatten, July 1976. (Isaac Newton Collection) Back: The XB-70A was fitted with two sets of ‘passenger windows’ while with NASA, in order to demonstrate visually the American SST.

(USAF) First published 2012 The History Press The Mill, Brimscombe Port Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG www.thehistorypress.co.uk © Graham M. Simons 2012 The right of Graham M. Simons to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978 0 7524 0465 0 Typesetting and origination by The History Press Manufacturing managed by JellyfishPrint Solutions Ltd Printed in India Contents Acknowledgements Introduction —” In the Beginning 2 ‘First in the World in Air Transportation’ 3 Mack the Knife 4 Pressure to Cancel – and a Pause? 5 A Change of Tactics 6 Wiggs, Nixon, Shurcliff and S/S/T and Sonic Boom Handbook 7 Certification 8 The Coleman Hearing 9 The Battle of New York 10 Epilogue Bibliography/Research Sources Index 141 187 223 239 246 249 Zot Acknowledgements A project of this nature could not be undertaken without considerable help from many organisations and individuals.

Special thanks must go to Marilyn Phipps of Boeing Archives, Col Richard L. Upstromm and Tom Brewer from the USAF Museum, now the National Museum of the USAF, for the provision of many photographs and details. The archives of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics provided access to all their relevant material, as did Lynn Gamma and all in the US Air Force Historical Research Center at Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Alabama.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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