Ear‐to‐ground

A team from Lockheed led by Carl Kotchian, executive vice‐president, were in London towards the end of October to confer with B.O.A.C. on their SST proposal. International and some U.S. domestic airlines had been asked to submit comments to the F.A.A. on the two U.S. SST proposals by October 31, and the company wanted to make sure that B.O.A.C. had no queries in their submission before the deadline. A decision on Phase 3 of the U.S. SST programme, which covers the construction of two prototypes and a hundred hours of development Hying, is to be taken by January 1, 1967.