Design, Operation and Support of the Boeing Supersonic Transport: A description of the variable geometry SST project and the support programme envisaged

THE aviation industry is undertaking development of the most comprehensive support programme in its history—the support programme for the supersonic transport. Boeing's SST, for example, will cost over $35 million and will cruise at 30 miles a minute at altitudes of 60,000 ft. or more. The aircraft is being designed to achieve a dispatch reliability of 99 per cent, a design life of 50,000 hours, and a utilization potential of 3,000 hours per year to meet fully its economic objectives. The kind of support programme the SST will require can only be found by examining some of the aspects of this new aeroplane.