Leapfrogging the SST

There has been so much talk concerning the pros and cons of the SST that it has tended to blind us to the obvious: There may be an alternative to the SST—a superior solution to the problem of high-speed transport. For, if we examine fundamentals for a minute, the basic problem that the SST proposes to solve is that of traveling from one point to another, and something might be able to do the job better than a conventional jet aircraft.

Permit me to offer that which I am immodest enough to call Kallis’ Law of Transportation Dynamics: Barring a worldwide calamity that would herald the collapse of civilization, we will travel faster and faster to our destinations by means of technological advances until natural law intervenes. If there is validity in the law I have just proposed, then if nothing better comes along in the meantime we will be riding SSTs, be they Russian, Anglo-French—or American.

SK

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Stephen A. Kallis Jr.

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There has been so much talk concerning the pros and cons of the SST that it has tended to blind us to the obvious: There may be an alternative to the SST—a superior solution to the problem of high-speed transport. For, if we examine fundamentals for a minute, the basic problem that the SST proposes to solve is that of traveling from one point to another, and something might be able to do the job better than a conventional jet aircraft.

Permit me to offer that which I am immodest enough to call Kallis’ Law of Transportation Dynamics: Barring a worldwide calamity that would herald the collapse of civilization, we will travel faster and faster to our destinations by means of technological advances until natural law intervenes. If there is validity in the law I have just proposed, then if nothing better comes along in the meantime we will be riding SSTs, be they Russian, Anglo-French—or American.