SEATTLE, WA — The front section of a full-scale mock-up of Boeing’s gigantic supersonic transport will be delivered to the Museum’s Restoration Center at Paine Field on Friday, April 12.
Boeing built a full-scale, wing and fuselage proof-of-concept mock-up of the proposed airliner in the late 1960s. In 1966 the Boeing SST proposal was chosen by the U.S. government to be the country’s first supersonic airliner, then in competition with the European Concorde and the Soviet Union’s Tu-144 SST programs.
The Boeing proposal was a huge airplane that would be faster and carry twice as many passengers as the Concorde. The Boeing project was cancelled in 1971; the prototype unfinished. The Museum’s artifact is the 85-foot nose section of the 318-foot fuselage mock-up.
The artifact will be stored at the Museum’s Restoration Center until it can be permanently exhibited at a later date.