Word: sst
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...sparkle or cohesion; guessing that politicians and journalists would rather develop their own cases against the planes, Shurcliffe merely presents a barrage of facts in 30 short chapters. But the facts, of course, cannot be neutral, and what emerges from the handbook is an impressive condemnation of the whole SST project...
...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...
Shurcliffe then moves into 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...
...travel time is used up by getting to and from the airport, Shurcliffe says that the difference that SSTs will make in transcontinental travel time will be worthless. Decreased reliability of the new planes may mean that more are held up at the airports; and probable limits on SST travel over major urban centers might make the SSTs as practical as Indianapolis racers on Mass...
Probably the most disturbing evidence Shurcliffe brings in is the data suggesting that SSTs would be substantially more dangerous than conventional commercial planes. Shurcliffe's documentation in his chapter on "Dangers in SST flight" is impressive, and he uses it to show two kinds of hazards...