33 MILES A MINUTE: The Story of Air Transport

by D. S. Halacy ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 17, 1966

You can't go around the world in two days yet, but you will when the Supersonic Transport (SST) gets off the ground, and that's what Mr. Halacy's treatise is all about. He makes the customary obeisance to everything airborne from Icarus to Lindbergh to the Boeing 747 (do children still believe in the miracle of flight?) but his heart is on the drawing boards and production lines where the SST is taking shape amid continuing controversy. The SST program was charged with being dangerous and unfair--""dangerous because it would encompass too many new factors at once to permit a safe airplane and unfair because it would be built under government subsidy with tax dollars taken from people who might never fly in their lives."" The author disposes of the possibilities of danger with a flock of assurances based largely on circumstantial evidence; he overrides the second objection--and other social considerations--by stating that ""it is in our national interest to continue to lead in the air."" This particular point of view crops up again and again in the subsequent step-by-step account of the competition between the British-French Concorde Mach 2.2 project and the U.S. Boeing and Lockheed Mach 3 program. This reads like a research paper (dull) made from index cards supplied by the airplane manufactures (one-sided). The SST may or may not be in the public interest, but this is not likely to interest much of the public. A sixteen-page photographic insert will provide the only illustrations; index and bibliography promised also.

Pub Date: Oct. 17, 1966

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Messner

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1966

Categories: NONFICTION