The Nation: Smooth Landing For the Birds

The SST bites the Big Apple

Air France Flight 001 sliced through the morning mist. The approach and landing were loud enough to drown out the protests of 15 pickets forlornly shouting "Stop the SST!" by an expressway ramp outside the terminal, but the noise level was a comfortable 14 decibels below the limit set by the Federal Aviation Administration. Moments earlier a Boeing 707 had registered slightly louder on a routine approach. Two minutes and five seconds after Flight 001 landed, British Airways Flight 171 touched down. The two Concordes then taxied to the terminal in a kind of victory parade,...

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