Boeing 2707: the American Supersonic that Never Flew

Unknown to many, back in the sixties, Boeing, designed a supersonic commercial aircraft that it called Boeing 2707. At the time, it had even registered 122 orders. The aircraft was intended to carry nearly 300 passengers at 1,800 mph (Mach 2.7). This was 400 mph more than the Concorde with three times as many passengers.

So as not to leave the field open for the Franco-British supersonic aircraft, the Kennedy administration had launched a call for tender in the early 60’s that was eventually won by Boeing in 1966. The American government chipped in 75% of the cost of development.

A life-size mock up was built with a tiltable nose for better visibility at take off and on landing. It also had four turbo engines like the Concorde. As for the wings, the idea of a variable geometry wing was finally dropped in favour of a delta wing due to weight considerations. This story comes to an abrupt end however in 1971. Too expensive to develop, a gas-guzzler for kerosene, too noisy to fly supersonic over land: for all these reasons, the plug was pulled on the Boeing 2707 project and no flight-test aircraft was ever built.

That mock up however can still be seen today in the Museum of Flight Restoration Center in Everett, Washington state (USA).