Seattle's Original Sonic Arrives

An important chunk of Seattle history -- a reminder of hope and heartbreak -- arrived back in the area Friday. But it could be years before its new owners can display it the way they'd like.

"As a museum, sometimes you have to go ahead and acquire an artifact and then figure out where you'll put it," said Dan Hagedorn, senior curator of Seattle's Museum of Flight.

In a chilling breeze and light rain, Hagedorn walked alongside the museum's newest acquisition, which just arrived from California: an 85-foot section of what was a full-scale mock-up of the Boeing Supersonic Transport (SST).

Anyone who was in Seattle in 1966 may recall the surge of civic pride and optimism that accompanied Boeing's selection by the federal government to develop and build the nation's first airliner to travel faster than the speed of sound.

Public enthusiasm was so strong that the name "SuperSonics" was a natural choice for the city's NBA team, born in 1967.

But by 1971, SST euphoria had collapsed amid prolonged debate over costs, noise and potential environmental damage. Boeing's SST program was halted before a single aircraft was completed.

One thing the company had completed, however, was a full-scale aluminum mock-up of the SST -- which included the pieces that arrived Friday on flatbed trailers after a two-day drive from the San Francisco Bay Area, where they have spent 15 years at the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos.

Although the SST section is expected to eventually be displayed at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, the pieces were delivered to Paine Field in Everett, where the museum has its restoration center and some 30 aircraft held on reserve.

Hagedorn said it's not known what became of the rest of the model. He fears it may have been melted for scrap metal after the collapse of a company that had shown off the SST as a roadside attraction in Florida.

Hiller the hero

The hero of the story, Hagedorn said, is the late Stanley Hiller Jr., a longtime Boeing board member who lived in California and founded the museum bearing his name.

He retrieved what was still available of the mock-up in Florida, bringing it to California.

Willie Turner, operations vice president for the Hiller museum, said the SST section has been a hit there. Museum-goers could walk through it, and it was the venue for a monthly story-time session for kids called "Soar with Books."

But that museum is small, and recently was given a different aircraft it wants to display -- a floatplane that in 1997 served as a support plane for pilot Linda Finch, who retraced the round-the-world flight on which Amelia Earhart disappeared in 1937.

The SST mock-up sections were purchased by the Museum of Flight last year. Hagedorn won't say the price, but said it was generated by the sale of aircraft the museum no longer needed.

Future plans

Had the Boeing SST been completed, it would have carried more that 270 passengers, more than twice that of the British/French supersonic Concorde.

It would have cruised at 1,800 miles an hour, approximately three times the speed of current passenger jets, and well beyond the speed of sound, 770 miles an hour.

Hagedorn said the SST section "deserves to be in a place of honor" in the Museum of Flight's main gallery, adjacent to Boeing Field. He anticipates having a stairway that will let people inside.

But for now, it will remain in two pieces at the restoration center. A sign, probably a modest one, will identify it and tell some of its history. It may be ready for visits sometime next week. (For details on visiting the center, see www.museumofflight.org/restoration-center).

Mike Bush, the museum's marketing director, said he doesn't know when or how the SST-mockup piece would be accommodated at the museum.

In the meantime, he's floating another idea, suggesting that if Seattle does get an NBA team back -- which backers have already said would revive the name SuperSonics -- this piece of history could be the perfect thing to display at the team's arena.

Jack Broom: [email protected]

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