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I do generally agree with you, but I'm not really talking about engineering or physics, I'm talking about social acceptance. If - via engineering, physics, mag
by sjm-lbm 11y ago
I do generally agree with you, but I'm not really talking about engineering or physics, I'm talking about social acceptance.
If - via engineering, physics, magic or whatever - sonic booms can be minimized to the point of being indistinguishable from general background noise (or even only as intrusive as current subsonic airliners), I could be convinced that an SST project has a bright future. Until then, I don't think that they will - your first post mentioned that "the whole house shaking" didn't really seem to be hardship when it happened during the day; I'm merely commenting that there are some studies that indicate society as a whole isn't so accepting.
- TheOtherHobbes 11y agoI used to live near an army training area. There were regular artillery exercises, and the bigger shells would literally shake the walls of the house. The smaller shells just made things fall off shelves. I think any design that literally goes "boom" over land, even a little, isn't going to work. It's too much of an open legal target. The design really does need to be damn near silent, or at least closer to a mild and unobjectionable "whomp", to have any hope of commercial success.