Word: sst
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20th Century Sound. In a market of 500 SSTs, Boeing's profit will be a handsome $3.5 million on every $40 million aircraft sold. The SST will create 25,000 new jobs at Boeing, and another 25,000 among a host of subcontractors, chiefly General Electric, which has engines virtually ready to attach to Boeing's airframe. To forestall criticism that the SST will create few jobs in the ghettos, Boeing is seeking more black engineers...
Beyond economics, there is the question of the sonic boom, which can vary in decibel level from a shot to a 50-mile wide swath of thunderous sound, and would annoy groundlings, to say the least. Transportation Secretary Volpe last week promised that the SST will fly supersonically only over water, at least until the sonic boom is brought within "acceptable limits." Three countries-Sweden, Ireland and West Germany-have already banned SSTs over their territory. The FAA calculates that if all restrictions on supersonic flight were removed, the eventual market would jump from 500 SSTs to 1,200, adding...
There is no doubt that the SST, like the jets before it, will lure more passengers into the air. A recent survey conducted for TWA revealed that two-thirds of all passengers responding would prefer to fly supersonically, and 56% would pay a premium of $50 to do so on a 2,000-mile flight. Still, each SST will cost more than most airlines earn in a single year. Even now, the airlines are stretching the tight money market to pay for the new generation of subsonic jumbo jets and airbuses, and smaller lines only wish that the SST would...
...SST remains inevitable so long as the Concorde and the Soviet TU-144 are in the air. Yet their threat to U.S. technology could prove to be a mirage. In 1964, Britain tried to cancel the Concorde because of rising costs, but was prevented from doing so by Charles de Gaulle's insistence that Britain live up to its contract. France's new President Georges Pompidou may be more amenable to the idea. As for the Soviet entry, it is largely an unreal threat; no Western airline could risk relying on Russia for spare parts...
...push to build the SST now emanates from the sheer momentum of technology. After the SST will come the hypersonic transport, with speeds of 5,000 m.p.h., and then suborbital flight. Each step will eventually be taken for the same reason that man climbed Mount Everest: it was there, waiting to be conquered. The still unresolved questions, which Congress must answer, are whether technology must move at a forced-march pace, and whether the boom of supersonic flight in the 1970s is worth the proposed investment of national talent and treasure...