Lockheed L-2000

The Lockheed L-2000 was Lockheed Corporation's entry in the 1960s government-funded competition to build the United States' first supersonic airliner. After President Kennedy committed the government in 1961 to subsidise 75 percent of development, the program was launched on 5 June 1963 with the aim of an aircraft carrying about 250 passengers at Mach 2.7 to 3.0 over 4,000 miles, more than twice the Concorde's passenger load. Lockheed began studying supersonic airliners in 1958 and moved from a straight wing with a canard to a highly swept cranked arrow and finally to a double delta wing with four engines. The L-2000-7A design was to seat 273 passengers, with a length of 83 metres and a maximum takeoff mass of about 268 tonnes. The L-2000 lost the contract to the Boeing 2707, which was itself later cancelled, and nothing was built.