Word: sst
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Congress has voted to kill the billion-dollar supersonic transport. Rarely before have the lawmakers denied funds for a program billed as essential to American primacy in the world. President Nixon observed last week, after the Senate had joined the House in ending further federal subsidy for the SST, that the congressional action "could be taken as a reversal of America's tradition of staying in the vanguard of scientific and technological advance." Says Paul Seabury, a Berkeley political scientist: "It is the first time in American history that a major technological innovation has been shot down...
Third-Rate. The SST went down despite just such warnings from its backers. "If you're talking about no SST," said Washington's Warren Magnuson just before the Senate voted, "you're talking about no American SST. You will be leading America down the road toward becoming a third-rate nation in aviation. We'll be running into a technological Appalachia around here if we're not careful." The vote was another blow to the nation's beleaguered aerospace industry (see BUSINESS). Afterward Magnuson put a brave face on what had happened-"this...
...defeated the SST, however, felt that mass transit and the need for housing-and many other urgent domestic issues-far outranked the SST. Several of the House freshmen who unexpectedly tipped the balance against the aircraft said as much. Democrat George Danielson of California: "The need to solve other greater social and economic problems was the most compelling factor. The biggest issues are pollution, better housing, more educational opportunities and mass transit." Democrat Nick Begich of Alaska: "The people do not want this airplane. There are other human resources and public works projects that have a higher priority...
...Angeles Times, which supported the SST, admitted that the aircraft "became a symbol to a lot of people-a symbol of resistance to the so-called 'militaryindustrial complex.' a symbol of resistance to technological spoliation of the environment, even a symbol of distaste for President Nixon." Senator Adlai Stevenson III declared: "Congress has not been faced with an issue of such symbolic importance in many years." It was a rare occasion, notes TIME Senior Correspondent John Steele, for asking some fundamental questions: "Do we really need this? Is it so important to be first in every phase...
Genuine Advance? To John Burke, dean of social sciences at U.C.L.A., the defeat of the SST marks "a change in our civilization's idea of progress." If that is so, it has its dangers, for, as Boorstin points out: "We can't give up the exploring spirit. We can't legislate against progress. Our problem is to find ways of continuing to explore the unknown and still keep our lives decent...