An Uneasy Crown

One after another, U.S. airlines are ordering jets from European planemakers. Last week it was Pan American, which placed a hefty order for 160 French Dassault ten-passenger Mystere 20s at $775,000 each. Pan Am plans to sell (and maybe lease) the twin-engined executive jets to corporations and individuals in the U.S. and Canada. The purchase is one more blow to U.S. airframe makers, who are feeling the in creasing pressure of aggressive competition from European planemakers.

A Place in Line. American, Braniff and Mohawk airlines recently ordered a total of 31 British Aircraft Corp. BAC One-Eleven short-range jet transports worth $83.7 million. At the other end of the jet spectrum, among the big long distance models, Continental Air Lines fortnight ago signed up for three Concorde Mach 2.2 supersonic jet trans ports being built by a British-French consortium for delivery beginning in 1970. Pan Am has already ordered six Concordes -- and TWA seems certain to follow. The orders are a form of insurance by the U.S. airlines to ensure them a place in line for the Concorde, and their down payments will be returned if the Concorde does not meet the promised specifications; but that is little solace for U.S. airframe makers, who are now in high confusion over American plans for an SST.

With double government financing, the British and French have moved along quickly with design work on the Concorde, which is due for its first test flight in 1966. Washington waited until last June before deciding to help under write the heavy cost of developing a supersonic, and practically nothing has been done since. No funds have yet been appropriated; even after they are, a long process of initial design competition, proposals and discussions must follow. In fact, there is still a major division over the crucial question of how fast a plane to build. The airframe makers want a Mach 3 jet (2,000 m.p.h.) that will leapfrog the Mach 2.2 Concorde; National Airlines President Lewis Maytag Jr. and American President C. R. Smith both want slower planes; and Federal Aviation Agency Administrator Najeeb Halaby has not made up his mind.

No Promise. The European frame-makers, who earlier were soundly drubbed in the subsonic long-range jet market by Boeing's 707 and Douglas' DC-8, are now beating Americans at their own game. American Airlines three years ago suggested that it would like a short-range jet. While U.S. airframe companies stalled, British Aircraft, which had the One-Eleven on its drawing boards, built in the features that American wanted--with no promise of an order. Just to please Customer Pan Am, Dassault willingly redesigned its Mystere 20* to make it larger and switched to General Electric turbofan jet engines. If such aggressiveness continues and U.S. framemakers offer no better fight, the U.S. could be toppled from the position of planemaker to the world, which it has held ever since the first DC-3 lumbered down the runway.

*Named to take advantage of the reputation of Dassault's well known military jets.

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