Boom & Bust

It sounded like artillery fire rolling in over the rocky desert floor, but the sonic booms generated by the F-104 Starfighters did nothing more than rattle the windows of the 18 buildings spread out over five acres at White Sands Missile Range, N. Mex. The first pass by a Starfighter produced a shock of 4 Ibs. per square foot of overpressure.* Another boom was boosted to 6 Ibs. per square foot, and subsequent booms raised the overpressure to as high as 10 Ibs. per square foot. But nothing broke. Officials of the Federal Aviation Agency began to break out in smiles. Maybe the booms sure to be caused by high-flying supersonic transports would not be so bad after all. It was obvious that plaster and glass were standing up well. And they were getting hit with five times the average jolt that supersonic planes gave the 750,000 residents of Oklahoma City up to eight times a day in tests earlier this year. During those tests, the FAA answered 12,558 telephone calls and letters of complaint from irate Oklahoma City residents, paid out $8,608 to settle 163 small damage claims.

A lot of hopes were riding on the White Sands tests. If all went well, the agency would have a firm and convincing argument against the ever-increasing complaints of private citizens. Such an argument will surely be needed as U.S. plans to develop, test and produce supersonic commercial airliners get off the drawing boards and into the nuts, bolts and hardware phase.

In all, the FAA put their manufactured desert town through 15 sonic booms over a three-hour stretch. So well did the buildings bear the booms that a disappointed CBS camera crew left before the show was over. Then, for that inevitable one last picture, a Starfighter was ordered to make a low-level pass at subsonic speeds. But the pilot miscalculated, the speed indicator climbed, and the results were spectacularly embarrassing. Just as FAA Deputy Administrator Gordon Bain was answering a reporter's question about the psychological reaction to sonic booms, a walloping blast shook the walls, Bain and the newsmen.

A heavy ruby-glass ashtray flew off a desk and sprayed shards over the floor. Outside, both panes of a mock-up storefront were smashed, a glass window in a trailer caved in, and 16 out of 90 panes in a small greenhouse were shattered. The plane had come in at about 650 m.p.h., just over the speed of sound. Distressed FAA officials estimated the overpressure at 25 Ibs. to 40 Ibs. per square foot, but there was no way to be sure; they had already turned off their test equipment. What was scientifically certain was that a big enough boom at a low enough altitude can cause real damage.

* Pounds of pressure above the normal atmospheric pressure, which is 2,111 lbs. per square foot at sea level.

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