You And Me And The SST

[Music] [Music] This is the view from 60,000 ft at more than twice the speed of today's jet airliners. It's what we'd see up there flying in a supersonic transport. We will be soon, you know. The question is, will it be an American SST? Will it be made in the USA? [Music] The British and French already have an SST. They call it the Concord. [Music] And the Russians have one. Theirs, the TU14, flew first. I'm Bob Considine. I've got a personal interest in the SST, and I'd like to tell you about it. 10 years ago, we were just moving into the jet transport era with the Boeing 707. Some people were against it at the time. I was on the first transcontinental 707 flight from Seattle to Baltimore. I covered that historic event. I wrote about it then and I'll write about the American SST when it goes into service. Some people are against that today. They may be overlooking quite a story. Many stories really. For example, there's the construction story. Behind doors like these is where they'll build the American supersonic transport. So, let's have a little straight talk about you and me and the SST. First of all, we Americans are good at building airplanes and the engines that power them. Because of our experience and ability, four out of five commercial planes flying in scheduled service around the world right now were built here in the USA. Our leadership in commercial aviation means a lot to you, to me, to the whole country. That's one thing at stake with the SST. For understand this clearly, supersonic transports are going to be in service whether or not the United States builds them. The airlines of the world will buy and operate them. They must stay with the competition. If they buy an American model, the money stays in the family, so to speak. If they buy a foreign model, the money goes abroad and so does leadership in aviation. We'd work hard for that leadership. Some of us feel we ought to make the effort to keep it. We Americans weren't the first to dream that one day man would fly. [Music] [Music] But the dream caught us up and we lived it and we made it happen. What began in its infancy with the tinkering of bicycle mechanics has grown into an industry respected around the world for its products and the advanced technology which creates those products. That technology can now produce and power the world's finest supersonic transport. It won't be just another airplane, but one that will outfly and outperform anything the competition can put up and make a handsome return on our investment doing Let's talk about the investment story for a minute. There are many ways to tell it. It's all about what we'll get back over and above what we spend in the development and production of the first two prototype models of the SST. Because of extremely high development costs, the government and you and I as taxpayers are helping repeat helping to finance the project through the prototype stage. But the payoff in job benefits, for example, will begin with prototype production. Once in full swing, the SST project will provide employment for more than 50,000 aerospace workers directly associated with the program. Considering that roughly two support people are needed for each prime job, that means we're talking about jobs for 150,000 people. And that's just the visible surface of the iceberg. [Music] From these jobs will come tech support for necessary community services clear across the country. Vital revenues needed to make our cities better places in which to live. The incomes of those involved in the SST project will help to bolster our domestic economy. And the results of their work, the airplanes they produce will help our foreign trade picture immensely. Because of course we Americans are big importers. [Music] The SST is something to balance our imports with exports, increase our foreign sales, help keep the balance of trade in our favor. One American SST sold abroad will pay for 20,000 small foreign cars, 400,000 silk suits, 10 million transistor radios, and what's the market for our SST? Well, by 1990, we expect to sell a minimum of 500 SSTs, and the potential is much higher than that. Trans Oceanianic airlines are opening up all around the world. Air travel and freight shipments are setting new records every month. There's nowhere to go but up. With the sale of about 300 SSTs, the federal government will recover all money it has invested in building the first two aircraft. And when sales reach the estimated 500 minimum, the government will have gained a return of about a billion dollars in addition to the original investment of about$1 and210 billion. It's conservatively predicted that over the 20-year period, 1970 to 1990, foreign sales of our supersonic transport will total about $13 billion. This is a pretty good return on an original investment of about 1 and 210 billion. An investment is the word. The airlines themselves have invested $60 million in the SST prototype development and they've laid out over $22 million in the form of deposits on delivery positions for the aircraft for a total of 82 million. There's that kind of confidence in the industry about America's ability to turn out a first rate aircraft. That confidence is based on the record of solid performance behind all those who will have a hand in producing our supersonic transport. [Music] At Evenendale near Cincinnati, Ohio, General Electric is manufacturing the engines that will power America's SST. These development engines are already under test. They've already proved by far the most powerful aircraft engines ever produced anywhere. Each one provides a thrust equal to the combined horsepower of more than 700 medium-siz automobile engines and three to four times the power of current commercial aircraft engines. The advancements in materials and design that produce these engines is one factor that makes the SST possible. The list of major suppliers and subcontractors who also will be working on the SST makes this a real all America project. In Nashville, Tennessee, Avco Corporation will fabricate part of the supersonic fuselage. As a leading subcontractor of major airframe components for many of today's largest airliners and newest cargo transport aircraft, we at AVCO look upon the SFT >> on Long Island. The Fairchild Hiller Corporation will build another section of the fuselage. >> As president of the machinist union here at Republic, I have complete confidence in the ability of our workforce to be a major asset in the production of the SST. The tail assemblies you see here are constructed of 50% titanium, the metal which will be used in the construction of the supersonic transport. >> At Dallas, Texas, the LTV Aerospace Corporation will build still another section of the fuselage. >> 11 months I was working for a cotton gin and it was seasonal work. Now I'm going 309 as an assembler >> and in aerospace firms in Middletown, Ohio, Los Angeles, Chula Vista, Downey, and Hawthorne, California. Other major subcontractors on the SST team will be supplying a whole range of items. [Music] In fact, about one half of the work on the SST will be done by subcontractors. And the result? Well, since it hasn't been built yet, I can't take you on a guided tour, but I can tell you what the SST will be like. It will carry about 300 passengers in all the comfort we've come to take for granted in modern aircraft. Soaring to altitudes of above 60,000 ft, the American SST will cruise at 1,800 m an hour over the oceans, where sonic booms will pose no problem. Over populated areas, it will fly at subsonic speed, but even so, it will fly about 15% faster than subsonic jets. With a fixed sweep wing and conventional tail, this titanium aircraft will shrink this earth of ours in terms of travel time to a point where no two major cities in the world will be more than half a day apart. The boundaries of our lives will be swept back as never before as all the world becomes one neighborhood. Well, that's what's ahead of us in the supersonic era. That's the story on America's SST and what it'll mean to you and to me and our country in the years to come. We have a history of leadership in all forms of transport from the time of the Yankee Clipper ships right up to this very day. And I suppose every great step forward has been questioned, even opposed by some people who wonder if it's worth the effort and expense. Of course, it is. And for many reasons, economic advantage, world trade benefits, national prestige. We have to maintain our leadership in aviation and we will. That leadership is being challenged abroad. But then it's our tradition to respond to such challenges. So we'll have our SST and the day is not too far off. [Music]