There was a government arranged meeting betweeen Boeing and Soviet engineers to discuss working with titanium for the SST: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-sp

There was a government arranged meeting betweeen Boeing and Soviet engineers to discuss working with titanium for the SST: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/the-titanium-gambit-3804526/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/the-titani... In the alpine climbing world Soviet climbers used titanium gear that was considered very good and light. Some of it was from scraps and spare material, but they had access to titanium.