Dan Hansen: Spokane Supersonics has a nice ring to it

I was skeptical when I read that Spokane was on a list of potential places to build the Spike Aerospace S-512, an aircraft that would break the sound barrier. But it hasn’t gone viral on Facebook, so I guess it isn’t fake news.

Kind of funny when you think about it. Spokane has a reputation as a place where things move slowly. I mean, Sweden hadn’t invented the meatball when we started lobbying for an Ikea store.

But if we get lucky, we could be building 18-passenger planes that would top out at Mach 1.8 – more than 1,300 mph. Getting through airport security would take longer than flying to San Francisco. (I hear they have a nice Ikea.)

All I can say is, if Spokane gets the next supersonic aircraft, then we should also get Seattle’s old NBA team.

Fifty years ago this month, two events rocked Seattle: Congress selected Boeing over Lockheed to develop a supersonic transport, a 300-passenger jetliner that would cruise at three times the speed of sound. And the NBA picked Seattle for its newest basketball franchise.

With the Soviets among the countries working to develop an SST, the federal subsidy was a matter of Cold War pride, as well as economics. Experts predicted subsonic aircraft were about to become obsolete.

Boeing had more than 100,000 employees in 1966. My dad was a model-maker at the wind tunnel, where he would help test the SST.

For a while, Seattle was supersonic silly. I had a picture of the SST next to my bunk bed. The new team was named the Seattle Supersonics.

Boeing kept working to develop the 747, but pulled some resources from that project to help with the supersonic aircraft.

“Boeing was pretty much counting on the SST. That’s where the future was going,” said Ted Huetter, senior public relations manager for the Museum of Flight in Seattle. “The space race was on, and technology ruled. Everybody thought, what about jetliners? How far can we take this? How fast can we go?”

Four years after the first check arrived, Congressional critics cut off funding. That was a big factor in the “Boeing bust” of 1970 and ’71, when the company laid off 50,000 workers. Unemployment rates soared, property values plummeted, and a billboard suggested that the last person leaving Seattle should turn out the lights. My uncle invited our family to move to Colorado, saying Dad could work with him as a cabinet maker.

“The SST became known as the plane that almost ate Seattle,” author Russ Banham wrote in his 2015 book, Higher: 100 Years of Boeing.

Of course, Boeing recovered. Seattle’s economy diversified. Home values rose (and rose and rose). Dad survived the bust and stayed at the wind tunnel another quarter century. Subsonic aircraft still own the sky, although British Airways did offer commercial flights aboard the famous Concorde SST from 1976 until 2003, flying at twice the speed of sound.

And in my senior year of high school, the Supersonics won a national championship.

As the decades passed, people forgot the meaning of the team name. It’s just a hunch, but maybe if the name had been more current with the times, Seattle would have fought harder to prevent the team from moving to Oklahoma City. The Seattle Traffic, perhaps.

Spokane is a basketball town and Spokane Supersonics has a nice enough ring. We should definitely press Spike Aerospace and the NBA to make this a package deal.

That’s if you’re an optimist. If you’re a pessimist, this whole thing might go terribly wrong; Spokane could lose the SST and a beloved team.

Which team? Well, just ask yourself which one has a mascot named Spike.

Millwood resident Dan Hansen is a former Spokesman-Review reporter and editor. He can name the starting lineup for the 1979 Supersonics, but not one player for the Oklahoma City Thunder.