Congress Killed the Boeing 2707: America's Supersonic Transport

The Boeing 2707 was America's planned supersonic transport, designed to carry 234-300 passengers at Mach 2.7. It was a behemoth of an aircraft, measuring 306 feet long and featuring a drooped nose borrowed from Concorde.

In 1969, the full-sized mockup of the 2707 sat in a Seattle hangar, gleaming under fluorescent lights. Twenty-six airlines had placed deposits, with 122 orders on the books. But two years later, Congress killed the program by popular vote, terminating funding in March 1971.

The Boeing 2707 was designed to be faster and larger than Concorde, which had just begun development. The original swing-wing design proved catastrophically heavy, leading Boeing to abandon it in favor of a fixed-delta configuration.