Supersonic Teaching

Like a vapor trail in a clear winter sky, a trace of the supersonic transport lingers on. Congress shot down the SST last spring after a titanic propaganda battle between environmentalists and the aerospace industry. But one weapon in the fight, a pro-SST primer published in 1969, is still being used in some of the nation's elementary schools.

Teacher's Guide for SST-T-T (Sound, Sense, Today, Tomorrow, Thereafter), a 7 3-page booklet published by the Department of Transportation, contains suggested writing and research assignments and fables aimed at promoting supersonic travel. The booklet's cast of characters includes Marita the Supersonic Pussycat (the first feline to fly to Paris on the SST), Deci Belle (a "smooth chick with good looks" who "was attracted to noise --the louder the better"), and The House That Had to Move ("Now the airport has room to grow. More jets can do their job of helping people travel"). As part of a role-playing exercise, students are told to imagine that they are head of the Federal Aviation Administration confronting a group of cit-izeras concerned about the SST's sonic boom: "You must convince them that the program is important and should continue by presenting the facts about sonic booms and their effects."

According to DOT Secretary John Volpe, 50,000 copies of SST-T-T have been distributed to educators as part of the department's Interagency Aircraft

Noise Abatement Program. The expense has been minor, but still the booklet has been plagued by that old aerospace problem, the cost overrun. Costs have exceeded the budgeted $5,000 by $2,871.42.

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