In December 1966, the NBA approved an expansion team in the city of Seattle while hopeful representatives from The Boeing Company vied for a contract with the United States government to build the country’s first supersonic transport plane (SST). By the end of the month, Boeing’s proposal was selected over Lockheed Martin’s.
Boeing already employed many Seattle residents through its wartime military contracts and work on the Apollo program. The SST project promised even more economic growth and new jobs, which would encourage more migration to the region to expand the city. It was unsurprising, perhaps, then, when in February of 1967, the community selected the name “SuperSonics” for their new basketball team.
A Tale of Two Sonics
Boeing began working on the plane, the 2707, using ideas engineers at the company had been developing since the early ‘50s. Initially, the team thought supersonic passenger flight was too far into the future to pursue the project, opting to work on a subsonic jet, the 707, instead.
In the early ‘60s, rumors about an SST project in Russia and confirmation of the Anglo-French Concorde prompted the United States government, guided by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), to pursue an SST project of its own. Boeing’s ambitious design would allow a capacity of 350 passengers and included a unique "swing-wing" design that allowed the angle of the wing to pivot in-flight for optimal flight at both high and low speeds. The government contract covered most of the funding for the project, relieving Boeing of the massive financial barrier to take on such an ambitious project.
In Europe, Concorde made its first flight in 1969, following the successful flight of the Russian-built SST, the Tupolev Tu-144, in 1968. Expenses to design the American SST kept rising, forcing Boeing to scale back its plans for the 2707 and axe its unique “swing-wing” idea. Progress on the SST slowed, with the designers not even having a prototype to test.
British Airways Concorde in flight. Read More About Concorde >>
While the SST project faced challenges, the SuperSonics entered the league with a rough start. The first few seasons for the team were losing ones, but the city still attended games at the Seattle Center Coliseum (now Climate Pledge Arena) and showed its support for the growing team. During the 1971-72 season, the team finally had more wins than losses.
Unfortunately, this was the only good news for supersonic programs in Seattle that year. In spring of 1971, the Senate and the House of Representatives voted to pull all funding from the SST project. The combination of high costs and dwindling public support for the project fueled by fears of sonic boom-induced noise pollution were the primary reasons the government withdrew its support. Unable to finance the project alone, Boeing stopped all work on the 2707, ending Seattle’s SST dreams.
Gary Payton playing the Celtics, c. 1992.
MOHAI, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection, 2000.107.139.08.01, photo by Kurt Smith
In the ‘70s, the Sonics entered a golden era of basketball, led by legendary players like Fred Brown, Lenny Wilkens and Gus Williams. In 1979, the Sonics won the NBA world championship, and their success followed them through the early ‘80s, until a change in ownership and the departure of some fan-favorite players caused turbulence for the team and its fans. The team entered another golden era in the ‘90s and many Seattleites fondly remember going to games at Key Arena (formerly Seattle Center Coliseum) to watch players like Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton dominate on the court during this time.
Although the American SST program did not pan out, Concorde entered passenger service for Air France and British Airways in 1976, which lasted through the early 2000s. One popular route was New York City to London, which took just three hours. Concorde service ended in 2003 due to safety concerns and high cost of operation.
Why Did the Supersonics Leave Seattle?
At the turn of the century came another change in team leadership for the SuperSonics, this time to former Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz. Schultz clashed with players, including fan-favorite Gary Payton, who said he felt Schultz ran the Sonics more like a business than a basketball team. In 2006, the Sonics were sold to Clayton Bennett, chairman of the Professional Basketball Club LLC, based out of Oklahoma City.
Bennett moved the Sonics to Oklahoma City at the end of the 2007-08 season, which ended with a franchise low of 20-62. Notably, Kevin Durant played his rookie season with the Sonics that year and even won the NBA Rookie of the Year award, averaging 20.3 points per game.
Will the Future Be Supersonic?
Since the technology was developed, many countries’ militaries have opted to include supersonic jets in their fleet, so the technology is very much alive and thriving. As for supersonic passenger flight, NASA and Lockheed Martin have been working on Quesst, a project focused on dissipating the sound of a sonic boom to allow for supersonic flight over land. In early 2025, one American company working to bring back SSTs, Boom Supersonic, successfully flew the prototype of their jet at Mach 1.122, 12% faster than the speed of sound. Boom plans to have passenger flights on its supersonic jet, Overture, by 2029.
However, the fuel requirement to fly supersonic may keep these projects grounded. Increased awareness of fuel emissions could turn people passionate about the environment against SST projects, and the anticipated high cost of operation will create a financial barrier, leaving supersonic flight reserved for only the wealthiest travelers.
Since the Sonics moved to Oklahoma, basketball fans in Seattle have been eager to get them back. Speculation of when and how the Sonics might return circulates every so often, with the recent sale of the Boston Celtics being the newest development in the conversation. The owner of the Seattle Kraken and former stakeholder of the Celtics, Samantha Holloway, has expressed interest in bringing the Sonics back, and now that she no longer is a stakeholder in another NBA team, she would be free to do so. As of August 2025, no announcements have been made to confirm expansion of the NBA into Seattle.
The cockpit of the Boeing 2707-200 mockup at The Museum of Flight Restoration Center.
While we wait for supersonic passenger flight and the Sonics to return, the history of both can still be found in Seattle. The Museum of Flight has the nose of the Boeing 2707-200 mockup in the Restoration Center in addition to a British Airways Concorde that is open for visitors to walk through at the main Museum campus. In South Lake Union, MOHAI (Museum of History and Industry) is the keeper of all things SuperSonics, including the 1979 NBA World Championship trophy. For now, the future of both supersonic transport and the Seattle SuperSonics remains up in the air.
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Top Image Credit
Left: The Boeing supersonic transport mockup. Joe Magalhaes SST and XB-50 Collection/The Museum of Flight
Right: Fred "Downtown Freddie Brown” Brown, right, pulls the ball out of reach of Jo Jo White during a Sonics-Celtics game at the Kingdome, c. 1979. MOHAI, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection, 2000.107.028.06.01, photo by Kerry Coughlin