Word: boom
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...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...
Shurcliffe then moves on to paint a grim picture of what the real sonic boom would be like. The chapters on "Annoyance and Injury to People" conjures up visions of light sleepers being rousted from their beds by sudden booms and surgeons making tragic blunders when boomed at the operating table. There are statements from newspapers telling about deaths from sonic booms, and even psychologists' analyses of the "irritation and frustration, as well as dramatic declines in work efficiency" that chronic booming would produce...
...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...
...calculated prophecy. Working from probable SST flight paths, he predicts that some $3,000,000 worth of buildings, windows, and furniture would be bomed out of existence on every day of full national SST operations. And in addition to this house-shattering, Shurcliffe says that chickens will suffocate in boom panics, cattle will stampede, and fish will flee from boomed water areas...
...obsolete before it is built. His argument here probably got a boost when the Russians unveiled their prototype SST late last fall; but even that has caused a semi-backlash, as a few Congressmen have urged the U.S. to step up its race to beat the Russians to the boom...