S.S.T. PROJECT LIKELY TO DIE AFTER SENATE VOTE

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32565, 26 March 1971, Page 9

S.S.T. PROJECT LIKELY TO DIE AFTER SENATE VOTE

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, March 25. The United States supersonic airliner seemed all but dead today only six days being left before Government money runs out. Chances of raising sufficient cash elsewhere to keep the multi-million dollar project alive are slim.

Even the most sanguine supporters of the aircraft—America’s answer to the BritishFrench Concorde and Russia’s Tupolev 144 doubted if they could keep it going after the Senate voted 51-46 against it last night.

The Senate’s refusal to provide $134 million in taxpayer's money to sustain the project until the end of the financial year sounded like a death knell. Soon after the Senate vote, the American Broadcasting Company reported that United States aviation firms were trying to form a consortium to thwart what the network said was a SUSIOOO million offer from Japanese industry to buy the entire S.S.T. project This was denied by officials in Tokyo and there was no confirmation of the report in Washington. Uncertain vote It was uncertain up to the last minute whether the Senate would follow the House of Representatives and vote against the funds, despite warnings from the White House that it might cripple an already ailing aerospace industry and deal a body blow to American prestige as a leader in world aviation.

The vote was a triumph for defenders of the environment against unknown damage caused by supersonic flights, and for those who argued for a different set of

national spending priorities that a prestige aircraft catering for what Senator Edward Kennedy called a few international jet set travellers. Ironically, it was his brother President John Kennedy, who launched the United States on the S.S.T. project more than seven years ago. Although technically, the project could be revived by funds provided in the Budget for the next financial year, it seems to have finished for the Boeing Aircraft Company in Seattle, which was developing two test prototypes, and for General

Electric, which was building the engines. Mr Bob Whithington, Boeing executive in charge of the programme, said after the vote that it was all over as far as his company was concerned. Out of the S.S.T.

“We are out of the S.S.T.” he told a reporter. He said the lay-offs of up to 5000 workers might begin in about a week. Thousands more were to be expected in the weeks to come at companies subcontracted for S.S.T. work.

A General Electric spokesman said that about 1500

men would probably lose their jobs although the company would try to place them in other work. The Govemmnet’s sevenyear honeymoon with the S.S.T. has already cost the United States $864 million. President Nixon wanted $290 million for the present financial year—including the $134 million Congress refused to allocate.

After that, it was said, only $350 million more would be needed to finish and test two prototypes by the end of 1973.

Mr William Magruder, the Government administrator for the S.S.T. programme, told reporters that the overall cost for terminating the project would be $llOO milion. Remote chances He said that the chances were extremely remote for raising outside financing in the six days left before the present funds expire. “I do not see at this time, in view of the Senate’s action, any response by the private sector to keep the programme alive,” he said. Several surveys of possible alternatives—including, presumably, Govemmentguaranteed loans—still showed direct Congressional financing to be the cheapest method, he said. Mr Magruder said that a committee of California and New York banks would give him their answer today on whether the money might be forthcoming, but Mr Magruder seemed to doubt that it would be.