CEPPO- From your response I can tell that you do understand performance and know something about how aviation works. Congrats, most do not.
Aviation has been in a long battle with airport communities as far as noise goes. Yes we have come great strides from the 707 days. We used to be able to look at an engine configuration and make some changes and get several dB out of the noise footprint. Now we struggle to get tenths of dBs. The only way that noise will ever drop below the noise floor will be speed to increase climb performance.
The only way to get a supersonic airplane to make noise requirements without putting a muffler on each engine the size of a school bus is to make it leave the area so fast you thought you heard it but when you looked it wasn't there.
Noise used to be the last considered when designing an airplane. Now it must be considered first, in the middle, and last.
All I was really trying to get across is that all things evolve and those that cling like babies to the past and do not reach out to see what is possible hurt aviation. I am for safety in the end at all times. I have parts that I personally designed and certified that fly on hundreds of aircraft worldwide. These parts must hold up in the most crittle phases of flight, takeoff and landing. If one of those fails and kills a plane load of people I would leave aviation. It just wouldn't be worth it anymore. The same with the performance stuff, if I thought it was dangerous and not just a different way of looking outside the box, I wouldn't be pushing it.
I am sure that when the first guy said I am going to put a human in a missle and send him into space got laughed out of the room.
[This message has been edited by 747FOCAL (edited 14 March 2001).]