Mar 14 1978
From The Space Library
Noise levels of Concorde departures at New York's John F. Kennedy Intl. Airport continued to be lower than those measured at Dulles Intl. Airport near Washington, D.C., according to the FAA's February monitoring report. On approach, average Feb. measurement was 98.7db at Cedarhurst on Long Island, compared with a cumulative average through Jan. of 100.4db. Vibration tests conducted by NASA during Feb. had shown the relationship between structural vibration and aircraft noise to be the same for Concorde as for other jet aircraft; the relatively higher levels of structural vibration measured during Concorde operations resulted from overall higher sound levels rather than from any unique characteristics of the Concorde. The FAA's monitoring equipment had recorded no ;sonic booms for the 103 Concorde operations during Feb. (FAA Release 23-78)
JSC officials were puzzled after a weekend surprise, the Houston Post reported: 240 000 or so people came out to see the Shuttle orbiter Enterprise. With interest in the space program supposedly flagging, the question was why so many-some of whom walked for miles to get to the Space Shuttle orbiter-showed up to see an airplane-like craft just sitting atop a large airplane. The newspaper quoted a highway patrol trooper with 9yr of traffic-patrol duty: "Never in my life have I seen people come like that." Largest previous crowd had been the 135 000 who turned up at Ellington Air Force Base for a 2-day Blue Angels show. Charles Biggs, JSC exhibits manager, said JSC had made no effort other than the usual press releases to attract a crowd, "no bands, no celebrities, no giveaways, just the orbiter sitting there." A tour guide commented: "What I think is that this is different than Apollo and going to the moon. I think the Shuttle is coming closer to the people. It is something they can relate to. They wanted to know when they can go on it." (Houston Post, Mar 14/78, 3A)
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