Word: airings
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...really want planes whooshing through their skies at supersonic speeds. More specifically, Shurcliffe wants to convince Congressmen. Since the federal government is being asked to shell out, bit-by-bit, most of the $1 billion it will take to get the first supersonic transports (SSTs) into the air, the League feels that turning off the federal financial tap will effectively ground the SSTs...
...most obvious objection to SSTs is that they cause sonic booms. The problem, as Boeing engineers and the Air Force know so well, is inherent: since the SSTs' only virtue is their ability to go faster than subsonic planes, and since the increased speed inevitably means creation of a boom, there's no way to get rid of the problem while keeping the SSTs' benefits. After pointing this out (in a chapter puckishly called "Is there a cure for the boom?"), Shurcliffe tells why booms from...
FIRST, he says, there is the psychological effect. The Air Force has run a series of tests purporting to prove that people don't really mind being boomed from above, but Shurcliffe says that the tests don't really prove that. The test booms were only 60 per cent as strong as real SST booms would be, he claims, and people in the test cities knew the booms would be coming at regular intervals--somewhat like a clock striking the hour. Even so, Shurcliffe says, people in the test areas weren't happy with booms...
...then there is the physical damage sonic booms may cause. The "Disasters caused by sonic booms" tells of some of the famous boom catastrophes. Shurcliffe has a knack for the cute story, and his most picturesque tale here is of the Air Force official whose speech minimizing sonic boom problems was interrupted by a sonic boom that blew out windows all around...
...baths for lunch, but the boy stayed behind because he was scheduled to have a massage at 2 p.m. So for the next hour, he alternately lay in the baths, and out in the sun, yielding himself to the water, and then absorbing the great strength of the open air, feeling the mountains around him, feeling the ocean far below, sitting cross-legged on one of the rest tables, naked, naked and free, staring out into the endless time and endless space of the West...