Project Blue Book file, RB-47, July 17, 1957

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

consistently voted for the SST. This year, after four days of hearings, the House Appropriations Committee voted 7 to 2 in favor of the SST. The vote in the full committee was 26 to 15. In the Senate, where the full Appropriations Committee heard two days of testimony, the SST was supported by a three-to-one margin—a vote of 17 to 5. This kind of evidence supports my belief that digests of major issues—condensations of important subjects—can't do the job. We have to find ways to communicate in depth, from a solid foundation of facts.

A fifth post-SST observation I would share with you concerns the all too-human tendency to draw erroneous conclusions from superficial understanding of a situation. I offer in evidence the Junior Senator from California.

Now, there are many plausible reasons why a particular Senator might choose to vote against the SST. Like Secretary Volpe, I do not question the motives of any Senator or Representative who voted to kill the program. I am sure those who did so acted in good conscience. I am disturbed. however, when a Senator from the State of California announces he is in opposition because he believes the SST is "so terribly wrong for California."

I cannot say Senator Tunney did not believe this, or that he voted in bad faith. I do suggest, however, that the industry has to do a better job, especially in California, of assuring that those who represent that state are properly and fully informed. It is understandable that a

Concorde is lying.

for two years, in both Britain and France. A dozen Concordes are on the assembly lines. In Russia, the TU-144 is being groomed for commercial service, which may begin sooner than anyone will admit.

Everyone in the industry also knows that people always have opted for speed. where speed is available at a reasonable price . . . practical. feasible, convenient. When the jets cut flight times in half. piston-powered aircraft gradually faded from the airways. Flying actually became cheaper. With another 50% reduction in flight time. subsonic jets will give way to the supersonic on over-ocean routes where the sonic boom will not be annoying or damaging.

The SST day is just over the horizon. Its day will dawn. as surely as the days of other. better modes of transportation have come. It will not spoil the environment. It will not fly empty. for want of passengers. It will not cause the ice to melt and make skin cancer more common.

But what will happen, unless something now unforeseen occurs. will be that America. for the first time in history, will be left at the starting gate, and our aviation industry—second largest industry in our country—may well go the way of shipping. electronics, steel, autos, movies, and other once dominantly American exports: down. swamped by the advanced products of other nations.

When we look back on history, it wasn't our capacity for winning that made America great: it was our willingness to take a chance. It's almost

our atti tudes—by taking refuge in guarantees rather than in risks. And by becoming enmored of personal security and individual welfare at the expense of long-term national interests—we may erode all we have won and, as columnist William S. White suggests, "adopt weaknesses as a national policy."

In the SST battle. we made a mistake—we did not communicate as fully or as effectively or as soon as we should have. But it is not our nature as Americans to make the same mistake twice. If the aviation industry is to survive, let alone prosper, we must speak out for what the industry can do for a better America—will do. given the chance.

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## McDONALD:A LAST RESPECT

With deep sadness we received the news that Jim McDonald, author of the UFO case study on page 60, has taken his life.

It is too early to know if McDonald was right or wrong. It is our hope. however, that his article in this issue will be read by scientists and engineers with the attention and impartiality that McDonald—and the observing aircraft crew—deserve.

Jonahia P. Koehler

Chairman, UFO Subcommittee, AIAA

Astronautics & Aeronautics