Supersonic Flight Inquiry Sought

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32222, 14 February 1970, Page 11

Supersonic Flight Inquiry Sought

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) WASHINGTON, February 13. A L’nited States politician today urged the Nixon Administration to inquire into the possible effects of supersonic airliners on land and ocean wildlife, and to find out whether such aircraft could alter the earth’s radiation balance.

Mr Henry Reuss (Democrat, Wisconsin), recommended that the study should be made by the President’s newlycreated Council on Environmental Quality. The Administration has al-

ready said that there will be no supersonic transport flights over populated areas, but Mr Reuss, who has opposed the S.S.T. project as “a distortion of national priorities,”

said in a letter to the council’s chairman (Mr Russell

Train) that the study should nevertheless focus on how sonic booms will affect wildlife in unpopulated areas, ocean-going vessels and ocean life.

“And what of the large quantities of water vapour which will be introduced into the stratosphere by S.S.T. flights?” Mr Reuss asked in his letter. “The President’s task force said that cirrus clouds formed by this vapour could alter the radiation balance of the earth, and some scientists have suggested that these clouds could reduce the amount of sun-

light reaching the earth, and usher in a new ice age.”

Mr Reuss asked that a full report be submitted to the President before he presents his environmental quality report to Congress.