Feb 212012
In 1963, supersonic transports were obviously just around the corner. One aspect of the concept that received a lot of study was the nose of the aircraft. The needs of low high-speed drag conflicted with the need for the pilots to see the runway; in the end, the vast majority of all large SST designs used “droop” noses. But alternate ideas were examined, such as this Lockheed concept where the nose rolled to the right, providing the pilot with excellent forward visibility (of course, visibility to the left would be fairly horrific).
