Cooper Did Not Work on the SST
Another "interesting particle" found on the Norjack Tie is Cadmium. While 86% of this element today goes into making batteries, during WWII it was used on flatware, as cadmium plating prevented rust. Too bad it was poisonous.
Still, it was useful as it protected metals against the elements. It was used to plate patio furniture, trailer hitches, all types of hardware, fishing reels, you name it. It was also used to plate wrenches, ratchets and entire tool kits available at most hardware stores.
And since titanium was rare, it didn't bother Joe Shmoe that his tools would leave a corrosive residue on his home improvement projects. It didn't affect steel or aluminum, just titanium.
See, before the SST project (the Boeing 2707), they had a spy plane called the A-12, later the Blackbird. They noticed a weird phenomenon happening only in summer - a spot weld would fail in 6 weeks. But a spot weld made in Winter would not. As it turns out, the local water was chlorinated in summer, and the chlorine corroded the titanium.
Then another weird thing started to happen. Bolt heads started to inexplicably drop off in high heat. It was found that mechanics using cadmium-plated tools were leaving a residue of the metal on the bolts, and the cadmium was trashing the titanium.
After that, they made a clean sweep of the site and removed all cadmium tools from all tool boxes. (You are not allowed to view links.
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As the SST was going to have a titanium fuselage, there would be no cadmium in that work environment, or likely any part of the plane.
So either he picked up the cadmium elsewhere, like on his patio furniture, and here's where some of us start admitting that these particles are not just from smoking and working, or he didn't work on the SST.
Compounds containing cadmium are used in black and white television phosphors, and in the blue and green phosphors for color television picture tubes. Cadmium sulfide is used as a yellow pigment, and cadmium selenide is used as a red pigment, often called cadmium red.
Many were surprised when Boeing got the SST contract in 1966, Lockheed's experience with high-speed flight had made them the front-runner in many people's opinion, and their delta L2000 design looked less risky, even allowing for the Mach 2.7 speed.
They were proved right, the VG 2707 proved an impractical design, the weight of the huge swing-wing mechanism was excessive, and early tests with models indicated the wings would need strengthening.
The second 2707 VG design moved the huge GE4 turbojets to the massive horizontal stabiliser, a bitter Lockheed engineer commented 'I guess they had to put 'em there to prevent them from burning the tail off!'
With the swing wings, the complex triple slotted trailing-edge flaps, leading edge flaps, all the other flight controls plus the complex droop nose, the 2707 had 59 moving surfaces, concerning to some potential pilots.
In 1969, Boeing changed the 2707 design to the -300 tailed delta. Much more conventional, but the Mach 2.7 speed required extensive use of titainium, and those GE4's, each with some 60,000lbs of reheated thrust, would have been much noisier then even Concorde's engines.
As we all know, aircraft noise and pollution had become serious issues by 1970, the 2707 had enemies, though some were more concerned with 90% of the 2707 development coming from tax $. Must have been quite a sight to see right-wing republicans allied with enviromentalists!
Finally, in March 1971, Congress voted by a majority of one to stop funding 2707 development, the wrong-headed initial designs had lost too much time and money.
Lockheed's design probably would have flown, though whether it would ever had entered service is another matter, the Boeing SST, though much bigger than Concorde, (230 pax), had about the same range. I think the L2000 would have been similar.
Apart from the remains discussed previously, there was a legacy from the 2707 program still with us, late in the project, Boeing were looking at cathode-ray tube displays for the 2707, though a flight engineer would still be required, along with plenty of conventional instruments for the Capt. and F/O.
Here it is mentioned in a 68 flying magazine issue, Boeing Commercial Airplanes starting experimenting with CRT's in 66-67. Coopers model clip on tie stopped being manufactured in 65. Timeline fits.
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