On the Line

Despite the fact that the Administration at year's end named Boeing and General Electric as the winners of the competition to build the U.S.'s first supersonic jet transport, the big bird has remained in a stall. In a bind over budget and congressional problems, President Johnson held back on funds that Boeing and G.E. need to make prototypes. Last week, however, the Administration hit on a new maneuver to start the SST toward the sky.

Quite simply, the Administration wants more tangible support from the most voluble champions of the SST. This week chiefs of the plane's U.S. customers--eleven airlines and one leasing company--will meet with Federal Aviation Agency brass to hear a plan for their direct participation in the prototype financing. The FAA wants them to chip in $1,000,000 for each of the 58 planes they have on order, over and above the $100,000-a-plane deposits they have already made. Later, foreign airlines, which have signed up for 56 SSTs, may be asked to join in too. The lines may also be asked to make "progress payments" on their $35 million jets.

Beyond their relatively small deposits, the only monetary stake the airlines have had in the SST until now has been an agreement to help the Government recoup its investment by paying royalties once their planes are delivered. To be sure, the "progress payments" will not account for much of the two prototypes' estimated $5 billion cost, 90% of which will be paid by the Government. But the airlines' show of confidence could have some clout with an ornery Congress that includes liberal Democrats who fear the poverty program will suffer from the SST.

Currently living on a month-to-month basis, the SST must get some $250 million in new funds if construction is to begin this summer. And rather than see their delivery dates postponed well beyond 1974, the airlines are likely to come through with the cash. As it is, the Administration ploy is no great surprise. New Transportation Secretary Alan S. Boyd, whose department will take over the SST, was not exactly speaking sotto voce last month when he told Senators at his confirmation hearings that "I would like to see private enterprise put up as much money as it possibly could. You know, there is a lot to be said for having your own money on the line to spur a program along."

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