Clouds over the Concorde

WESTERN EUROPE

The announcement that the U.S. already has a plane flying at three times the speed of sound last week sent shock waves across Britain and France, which had been confident of winning air supremacy with their Concorde supersonic transport. Lockheed's All, and the American technological breakthroughs it implies, makes it almost certain that the U.S. will produce a supersonic plane that will be bigger, faster and cheaper to operate than the Mach 2.2 Concorde.

Headlined Paris-Presse: THE A-II AIR CRAFT A GRAVE MENACE TO THE CONCORDE. Echoed Le Figaro: THE CONCORDE IS CONSIDERED OUTMODED. In fact, the All is only one more blow to the Concorde, which has been running into increasing trouble.

More Serious Problem. The plane has been plagued by stormy arguments between its builders, British Aircraft Corp. and France's Sud-Aviation. The partners have been forced to plan ma jor structural changes and to push back the Concorde's delivery dates from 1970 to 1971, cutting its lead time over the planned U.S. supersonic craft. The Concorde will also cost more than originally intended: buyers will not pay $7,000,000 or $8,000,000 but closer to $10,000,000. Such airlines as Alitalia, El Al and Air-India have ordered the U.S. supersonic plane instead of the Concorde, and even Air France and British Overseas Airways Corp. have abandoned their single-minded reliance on the Concorde by ordering the U.S.

plane as well.

The Concorde's most serious problem -- and the cause of the delays and arguments -- is technological. As originally designed, the plane would be able to travel no farther than New York to Paris nonstop, and carry too few passengers (110 or less) for many airlines to turn a profit. In heated meetings with the French, the British have lately argued that the Concorde would be woefully outmatched by the planned U.S. plane, which will have up to 35% more speed and 100% more seats. Too much prestige is involved for the British and French to scrap the Concorde, despite rumors that they might, but they have already shelved plans to build a medium-range version of it.

Moreover, they are straining hard to add 12% more power to the Concorde's Bristol Siddeley engines and to enlarge its Sud-Aviation wings so that the plane can fly as far as New York-Frankfurt. Even with those hurry-up changes, it would not be able to reach Rome or to speed up to Mach 3. Reason: its designers are committed to building it out of aluminum, which warps and melts at the higher speed, instead of waiting to master the techniques of working with tougher titanium, used in the All.

Memories of a Comet. These are the penalties that the Anglo-French combine must pay for its urge to be first. Though Sud-Aviation began cutting metal for the Concorde in December, the U.S. is still mulling over three designs submitted by Boeing, Lockheed, North American Aviation, is not scheduled to make a choice until at least May. The news of the All, however, proved that the U.S. is ahead in aircraft metallurgy and close to matching the Concorde in other areas. Says one Sud-Aviation engineer: "We realize that the Americans can do in six months what has taken us three years."

To other airmen, today's competition seems like a reprise of the original, subsonic jet race a decade ago: Britain's Comets were the first aloft, but the Americans soon passed them with faster, larger, longer-flying 707s and DC-8s.

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