WHAT NEVER FELL · 24 MAR 1971 · WASHINGTON
The sky that kept its thunder
In March 1971 the United States Senate voted, 51 to 46, to cancel the Boeing 2707 and abandon supersonic flight. This is the timeline where three senators chose otherwise, the American delta flew, and the world learned to cross an ocean before lunch.
You are reading the timeline that almost was · notes marked THE RECORD are real history
24 MAR 1971 · WASHINGTON
March 1971. Britain and France are already building Concorde, and the United States means to answer it. The Boeing 2707 is drawn larger and faster than the European ship: a titanium delta for almost three hundred people, cruising near Mach 3. Two prototypes are on order in Seattle. But the program has run over budget, and the country has turned against its noise. A supersonic jet trails a shockwave that strikes the ground as a sonic boom, and no one wants it over their town. The Senate now votes on whether to keep the federal money that keeps the 2707 alive.
In the timeline recorded here, three senators change their minds, and the money holds. The whole quarrel had been about a sound. A supersonic ship drags a wall of pressure behind it. Where that wall reaches the ground it lands as thunder, a double clap that can rattle windows for miles. Washington decides to build the machine and to quiet the sound later. The American delta will fly.
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