North American NAC-60

The North American NAC-60 was the first American supersonic transport (SST) project. The development took place in the 1960s as part of a government-funded design competition to build an American SST[1] as the joint Anglo-French Concorde and the short-serviced Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 was underway. The design, however, was rejected in favor of the Lockheed and Boeing designs, allowing them to get further study.

North American NAC-60
Side view of a North American NAC-60
Role	Supersonic transport
National origin	United States
Manufacturer	North American Aviation
Status	Canceled in 1967

Design

In some respects, the NAC-60 was a scaled-up variant of a North American's bomber prototype, the B-70 Valkyrie. As with the B-70, the design of the NAC-60 did not include horizontal stabilizers at the tail structure, but did include a set of canards at the nose, to improve directional stability at lower speeds. (The Concorde with which it was intended to compete had a wing designed for both subsonic and supersonic flight and, as a result, did not need canards.)

Specifications (North American NAC-60)

Data from FLIGHT international [1]

General characteristics

• Crew: up to 4 flight crew
• Capacity: 187 passengers / 35,000 lb (15,876 kg) payload
• Length: 195 ft (59 m)
• Wingspan: 121 ft (37 m)
• Height: 48 ft (15 m)
• Max takeoff weight: 480,000 lb (217,724 kg)
• Powerplant: 4 × afterburning turbojet engines

Performance

• Maximum speed: 1,520 kn (1,750 mph, 2,820 km/h)
• Maximum speed: Mach 2.65
• Range: 3,389 nmi (3,900 mi, 6,276 km)

References

1. "THE UNITED STATES SST CONTENDERS". FLIGHT international. 1964-02-13. p. 235. Retrieved 2019-09-14.