In 1961, President John F. Kennedy committed the government to subsidizing 75% of the development of a commercial airliner to compete with the Anglo-French Concorde then under development. The director of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Najeeb Halaby, elected to improve upon the Concorde's design rather than compete head-to-head with it. The SST, which might have represented a significant advance over the Concorde, was intended to carry 250 passengers (a large number at the time, more than twice as many as Concorde), fly at Mach 2.7-3.0, and have a range of 4,000 mi (7,400 km).