From: "John Clark" <jonkc@worldnet.att.net>
>>Brian D Williams <talon57@well.com>
>>It wasn't technology that doomed the first SST's it was politics,
>>specifically noise and pollution.
>Noise, pollution and sonic booms are valid concerns but what
>really doomed it is economics, nobody could figure out how to
>make money off a SST because only an elite few would be willing
>to spent 3 or 4 times as much a flight just to save an hour or
>two. But build a cheap one and they will come.
I'll admit it's a possibility, especially since Americans in
general are seasoned airtravelers with considerably more money to
spend (I realize that point's debateable). I didn't detect anything
in the article to indicate cheapness, in fact it looked more
elitist than ever.
The other problem is the omnipresent NIMBYism present in american
society today. I live under a flight path to O'Hare airport and am
accustomed to the noise, yet I am surrounded by people who knew
that when they moved here, bitch constantly about the noise, and
are determined to try and control the airport. If these things are
one decibel louder than a current jet, expect massive opposition.
At the very least they could be excluded to over water flights.
Brian
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