SSScramble

It will be the richest and most prestigious contract in the history of U.S. commercial aviation, and last week the nation's leading planemakers lined up in Washington to declare whether they wanted to bid for it. At stake was the contract to build a supersonic transport (dubbed the SST) to compete against the 1,500-m.p.h., delta-wing Concorde that an Anglo-French combine is building and plans to test-fly in 1966.

To the surprise of some, three proud companies--General Dynamics, Douglas and McDonnell--bowed out of the competition. Main reason was money: though the Government is expected to put up $750 million, the winning bidder must risk $250 million of its own--vastly more than any company has ever gambled simply to develop a plane.

Snail-Like Pace. Beyond that, each of the three had special reasons for shunning the SST. General Dynamics was not in much of a gambling mood after having lost $425 million on production of its Convair 880 and 990 jet liners; besides, it recently won the rich and controversial TFX fighter contract, and would be quite unlikely to bag two in a row from Washington. Douglas is preoccupied with its new short-range DC-9, for which it has only a disappointing 18 orders; in addition, President Donald Douglas Jr., 46, who has become the active manager of the company, is less daring than his father, Chairman Donald Douglas Sr., 71. As for McDonnell, its flinty Chairman James McDonnell, 64, would have liked the SST to satisfy his burning personal ambition to build a commercial jetliner. But his St. Louis plant is jammed with orders for F-4 Phantom fighter planes and Gemini capsules, simply lacks the space and specialists to handle the huge job. Jim McDonnell tried last March to take over Douglas to strengthen his position for the SST running, but the Douglas board rejected him.

Though worried about the heavy cost, and concerned because the Government has frittered away three years while the Anglo-French combine got a head start, three other U.S. planemakers were still determined to submit bids and specifications for the SST before the Jan. 15 deadline. The three: North American, Lockheed and Boeing.

Birdlike Wings. Each can make a good argument that it should get the award. At North American, Chairman Lee Atwood holds a trump as builder of the RS-70, whose top speed of 2,000 m.p.h. makes it by far the fastest bomber ever produced. Chairman Courtlandt Gross's Lockheed has never built a big supersonic plane but gained experience and repute with its highly successful F-104 Starfighter. President William Allen's Boeing has the most passenger jet experience as builder of the 707. It has also spent $17 million of its own on SST research, designing a plane with birdlike "variable-sweep" wings that would be extended for take-offs and landings but tuck in for supersonic cruising.

Early favorite to win the SST is Boeing. Beyond the fact that Boeing has done the most research on its own, there are political considerations. North American is well fixed for years to come with its Apollo moonshot contract, and Lockheed is relatively well-backlogged with its contracts for the Polaris missile and the new Starlifter military transport. But the end is in sight for Boeing's big KC-135 flying-tanker contract, and its current orders for Minuteman missiles will run out in two or three years. Besides, it was the loser in the hot TFX competition, and thus stands next in line to get something from Washington.

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