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I. INTRODUCTION When the NAS-NRC Committee on SST-Sonic Boom was formed at the request of President Johnson during the summer of 1964, one of the tasks it undertook was to estimate the probable human response to the commercial supersonic transport (SST) which was then being contemplated. The decision to proceed with a prototype, and the award of contracts to produce that prototype have since been made. In the meantime, a number of sonic boom research efforts involving human response have been completed, both in the United States and Europe. The most recent major study was the one conducted at Edwards Air Force Base, California in 1966-1967.* As a result of such research, the concern of the Committee on SST-Sonic Boom in mid-1968 is considerably different from what it was over three years ago. What seems called for at this juncture is an intensive long-range analysis based on varied measures of individual, group and community response to different levels of sonic boom over- pressure and an intensive and continuing exploration of all technical possibilities for designing a commercial SST that will produce a lower level of boom which the public will find generally acceptable. Since field tests and laboratory research have not yet defined this level of overpressure, future research efforts should be concentrated in that direction. The Subcommittee on Human Response has focused its efforts on a better understanding of human response to the boom. Other facets of a proposed national program of research on the sonic boom such as structural response, factors concerned with the generation and propa- gation of the boom, meteorological effects on the sonic boom as it is transmitted through the atmosphere, and the possibility of future tech- nological breakthroughs are covered by other Subcommittees of the parent Committee. The brief list of Subcommittee recommendations of proposed human response research. II. RECOMMENDATIONS The research recommended below is urgently needed irrespective of whether the current design of the supersonic transport flies *Sonic Boom Experiments at Edwards Air Force Base, Interim Report, July 28, 1967, prepared by Stanford Research Institute, Contract AF 49(638)-1758. â 1 â
