Word: sonically
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Safe in a concrete bunker, tense men at a periscope window kept their eyes on Sonic Wind No. 2, a squat, steel sled with the menacing look of a robot spider. Beneath its red-and-white-striped cab, a string-straight rail track ran across the shimmering heat of Holloman Air Force Base. A patch of blue water dammed up between the rails stretched toward the end of the line, 3,500 ft. away...
From the sled's tail end, nine rockets exploded; the Sonic Wind whipped down the track, shot forward by 70,200 lbs. of thrust. Trailing a 35-ft. tail of fire, it roared out from under the speeding observer plane. After 1.8 seconds, the rockets sputtered out. Metal scoops below the sled plowed into the dammed-up water. Spray exploded into a brief fountain as the Sonic Wind slammed to a stop...
...fire crew inched toward the still monster to douse its blackened rocket chambers with a blanket of foam. The sled's tail flared into a puff of flame, like a last gesture of defiance, and the test run was over. A quick check of the chronographs showed that Sonic Wind No. 2 had hit 995 m.p.h...
...earth. But if all goes well, one man will. Lieut. Colonel John Paul Stapp, a 45-year-old Air Force surgeon with the deceptive paunch of a country doctor, the ramrod posture of a professional soldier and the relentless curiosity of a dedicated scientist, plans to ride the Sonic Wind even faster. Space Surgeon Stapp intends to ride at more than 1,000 m.p.h...
...Among the Rivets. To Colonel Stapp, that hair-raising sleigh ride will be another day of body-jarring work in a career that has made him the No. 1 hero of Air Force men. Last year, riding an earlier version of the Sonic Wind, he reached a speed of 632 m.p.h., faster than the flight of a .45-cal. bullet, far faster than any earthbound man had ever traveled before. At the end of the run the sled went down from 632 m.p.h. to a dead stop in 1.4 seconds. As the sled decelerated, Colonel Stapp was subjected to more...