What Happened To America's Supersonic Airliner?

From Forgotten Machines · 00:14:46

Show by Forgotten Machines

On March 24, 1971, before a roll call on money for America's supersonic transport, the Senate's presiding officer warned the galleries against any demonstrations.Narrated with an AI voice. Written with AI help, fact-checked by the channel's editor.Lyle and Ruth Marsden in this story are invented. The machine, the dates, the events and every real person named are documented.The plane was the Boeing 2707, and it never flew. This episode follows it from President Kennedy's 1963 announcement and the condition he set for stopping it, through Boeing's win over Lockheed, the sonic boom tests and four votes in Congress in 1971, to the nose section that survives in Everett, Washington. Where sources differ, the narration gives each side; the figures are in the pinned comment.How this was madeResearch and script. Written with the help of an AI model (Claude, made by Anthropic), working from the sources listed below. Each factual claim is checked against those sources, and against a second source where one exists, in two separate AI fact-check passes and then by the channel's editor. Where sources disagree, the narration says so and gives each side.Narration. A synthetic voice from ElevenLabs' built-in voice set. It does not imitate anyone in the story.Approval. The channel's editor approves every episode before it is published.This episode is the full narration of the video of the same story. The video, with the archival photographs and their credits, is on YouTube: https://youtu.be/UlHyWsENZdgCorrections. If you find an error, please comment with a source on the YouTube video. Corrections are listed in its pinned comment.Chapters0:00 The Senate gallery, March 24, 19711:35 Kennedy's condition and the contest, 1963 to 19663:17 The airplane, 1966 to 19695:19 The boom, 1964 to 19717:20 Four votes, March to May 197110:11 Seattle, 197112:21 The nose, and what came afterWhere sources disagree: the full list is in the pinned comment on the YouTube video.Sources (the first five; all are listed on the YouTube video)1. Congressional Record, House, March 17 to 18, 1971, Vol. 117, Part 6 (Yates amendment, teller vote and Roll No. 25). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1971-pt6/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1971-pt6-2-1.pdf2. Congressional Record, Senate, March 24, 1971, Vol. 117, Part 6 (Roll Call No. 30 Leg., about p. 7829). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1971-pt6/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1971-pt6-6-1.pdf3. Congressional Record, Senate, May 19, 1971, Vol. 117, Part 12 (Roll No. 66 Leg., pp. 15963 to 15964). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1971-pt12/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1971-pt12-3-2.pdf4. Congressional Record, House, May 20, 1971, Vol. 117, Part 12 (pp. 16143, 16191, 16195 and 16197; Roll Nos. 104 and 105). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1971-pt12/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1971-pt12-4-2.pdf5. Voteview, 92nd Congress: House votes 14, 15, 51, 52; Senate votes 23, 54 (Voteview numbers differ from the Record's roll numbers: Voteview House vote 15 is the Record's Roll No. 25). https://voteview.com/rollcall/RH0920015The remaining sources are in the description and the reply under the pinned comment on the YouTube video.

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