Jun 112016
An early Boeing concept for the 767. This was designed for cruise at high subsonic speeds; the unusual “wasp-waisted” fuselage was to give the configuration the area ruling needed for low-drag transonic flight. This concept, studied by Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed, NASA, Bell and others, arose after the spike in oil prices in the early 1970’s and the demise of the SST program. The goal was to create a jetliner that could fly just as fast as possible while still being economical with fuel. But production costs of the curvy fuselage and wings doomed the effort.
This scan is from a print currently on ebay.
Manufacturing technology today is MUCH better than it was in the mid-1970’s….