U.S. Aims For 2,000 M.F.H. Plane

Grey River Argus, 2 September 1948, Page 3

U.S. Aims For 2,000 M.F.H. Plane

(Received September 1, 9.0 p.m.) NEW YORK, August 31. An attempt to design an aeroplane that will fly 2,000 miles an hour, at a height of 40 to 60,- miles ,is being undertaken in a secret project, the United States Air Force revealed today in a guarded announcement. The project, still in the designing stage, is the X 3 of the Douglas Aircraft Corporation. A design is sought for a ’plane capable of a speed three times that of sound, with a ceiling of 200,000 to 300,000 feet.

“Douglas has made over sixty different design studies, ranging from a stubby, blunt-nozed model to a long, slender’ fuselage, that qomes to a long, slender point fore and aft,” the Air Force announcement said. “Ram-jet and turbo-jet types of propulsive units, both singly, . and in combination, have been studied as possible propellants.”