Basic HTML Version
Wíde World Photo
1
l(eystone Photo
TWO CONTESTANTS IN SST RACE
-
Top, the Russian version (TU144).
Bottom, the British-French entry (the Concorde.)
a severe multibíllion-dollar drain.
Without the supersonic transport, the
United States is in grave danger of los–
ing both a billion-dollar international
business and worldwide prestíge - not
to mention the $708 million which the
government has already invested in the
project. Thousands of workers would
lose their jobs.
With these weighty economic factors
any ecological drawbacks are secondary
considerations to most planners. For
the British, French and Soviets, it seems
they already are. In the United States,
resulting damage to the environment ís
stiU being hotly debated.
Perhaps the most frightening ecolog–
ical consideration is that scientists are
not sure
what
may happen when giant
supersonic transports buzz around the
globe. But due to economic consid·
erations, there is mounting pressure to
venture where angels fear to tread. This
in spíte of such warnings as the one by
Willíam W. Kellogg, associate director
of the National Center for Atrnospheric
Research in Boulder, Colorado: ' 'When
you change something on a global basis,
you had better watch out!"
A Booming Business
One possible drastic side effect of the
SST would be harmful sonic booms.
Planes flying at subsonic speeds
(slower than sound) create sound waves
which diffuse in all directions. But a
plane moving along a straight route at
speeds faster than sound ( 650-760
m.p.h., depending on temperature) will
create a forceful shock wave that is not
exactly music to one's ears.
Oklahoma City was used as a testing
ground for the effects of sonic booms
in 1964. About 27% of those who
underwent daily sonic bombardment
found the experience
INTOLERABLI!,
even though the boom schedule was
announced well in advance. Fifteen
thousand people complained to author–
ities, and 4,000 filed damage charges.
More recently, sonic-boom test Bights
have taken place over British cities.
After a series of eleven Bights over
Bristo~
London and Dorset, 12,000
complaints were received and 788
claims for damage were lodged. One
poll reported that 53 percent of Bristo–
Jians think that booms are líkely to
cause serious discomfort to people.
37
In France concern at the effect of
supersonic bangs mounted when a farm–
house collapsed in the northwest, kill–
ing three. Survivors said they heard a
loud sonic boom just before the roof
beams feU in.
In the autumn of 1970, Concorde
made a series of
sup~rsonic
tlights clown
the west coast of Britain. A certain
number of complaints followed. Con–
corde's makers, British Aircraft Corpo–
ration, however, assured the general
public that their SST operating into or
out of Great Britain should never boom
over Great Britain even if there isn't an
overland ban.
Consider also the following facts.
Air normally has a sea-level pressure
of 2,116 pounds per square foot. A
shock wave that increases this pressure
only
l.
5 to
2
pounds theoretically
should do no harm.
The SST is expected to create no
more than two pounds overpressure, but
this is not entirely predictable. Shock
waves are often unexplainably ampli–
fied by turbulent air. According to
B.K.O. Lundberg, Director-General of
the Aeronautical Research Institute of
Sweden:
"If
the average intensity is
allowed to be 1.5 pounds per square
foot, booms will frequently damage
buildings, break windows and shock
people."
But boom damage isn't confined
to
broken windows, cracked plaster and an
annoyed populace. Professor Zhivko
Angeluscheff, a member of the Medical
and Science Academies of New York,
daimed duríng the aonual meeting of
the European Union Against Aircraft
Noise that sonic booms
injure brain
ce/Js.
In a test made in Oklahoma, he said
6,000 to 10,000 chickens tested died in
a very short period following repeated
bangs. Post mortems showed their nerve
cells were swollen and toen.
If
all animals and humans are
affected the same way, it is frightening
to realize what might result. At super–
sonic speeds the SST would produce a
swath of thunder
fifty
miles 1uide
a!J
along the flight path!
If
the govern–
ment were to allow regular flight
patterns over the U. S., up to 40 million
Americans would be bombarded as
often as
FfFTY
times a day! In Europe