On June 5, 1963, in a speech before the graduating class of the United States Air Force Academy, President John F. Kennedy committed the United States to "develop at the earliest practical date the prototype of a commercially successful supersonic transport superior to that being built in any other country in the world...." What lay ahead was years of development, competition, controversy, and ultimately rejection of the supersonic transport (SST) by the United States.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) did considerable work, starting in 1959, on basic configurations for the SST. There evolved four basic types of layout that were studied further by private industry. The aircraft manufacturer Lockheed chose to go with a fixed-wing delta design; whereas another aircraft company, Boeing, initially chose a swing-wing design.

One problem associated with the SST is the tendency of the nose to pitch down as it flies from subsonic to supersonic flight. The swing-wing can maintain the airplane balance and counteract the pitch-down motion. Lockheed needed to install canards (small wings placed toward the airplane nose to counteract pitch down). Eventually, the Lockheed design used a double-delta configuration and the canards were no longer needed. This design proved to have many exciting aerodynamic advantages. The forward delta begins to generate lift supersonically (negating pitch down). At low speeds the vortices trailing from the leading edge of the double delta increase lift. This means that many flaps and slats could be reduced or done away with entirely and a simpler wing design provided. In landing, the double delta experiences a ground-cushion effect that allows for lower landing speeds. This is important since three-quarters of airplane accidents occur in takeoff and landing. The British-French Concorde and the Russian Tupolev Tu-144 prototypes use a variation of the double delta wing called the ogee wing. It, too, uses the vortex-lift concept for improvement in low-speed subsonic flight.

Ultimately, Boeing with a swing-wing design was selected as the winner of the U.S. SST competition. The size of the Boeing SST design grew to meet airline payload requirements. Major design changes were incorporated into the Boeing 2707-100 design. The supersonic cruise lift-drag ratio increased from 6.75 to 8.2, and the engines were moved farther back to alleviate the exhaust impinging on the rear tail surfaces. Despite the advantages previously quoted for a swing-wing concept, technological advances in construction did not appear in time. Because of the swing-wing mechanisms and beefed-up structure due to engine placement, incurable problems in reduction of payload resulted. Boeing had no recourse but to adopt a fixed-wing concept&emdash;the B2707-300. Political, economic, and environmental factors led the United States to cancel the project in 1972.

While the British-French Concorde and Russian Tu-144 fly, research is still continuing into advanced supersonic transports in the United States. Whereas, the Concorde and Tu-144 cruise at Mach = 2.2 to 2.4, and the Boeing design cruised at Mach = 2.7, configurations with a cruise speed of Mach = 3.2 have been being analyzed.