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Supersonic Spies

Viewing Ideas

Before Watching

The political climate of the cold war fueled the race for technological and military supremacy between the West and the Soviet Union. Have students review the technological "firsts" between the West and the Soviet Union (see partial list below). Ask students how they would define technological supremacy. At face value it may seem like the USSR comes out ahead. But do they? How might this competitive atmosphere have affected efforts to build the first supersonic passenger jet?

Date	Country	First
1947	US	person to break the sound barrier: Charles "Chuck" Yeager in a Bell X-1 plane
1952	Britain	commercial jet liner: deHavilland Comet 1 goes into service
1957	USSR	space satellite: Sputnik 1 orbits Earth
1959	USSR	space probe: Luna 2 reaches the moon
1961	USSR	person in space: Yuri Gagarin orbits Earth in Vostok I
1963	USSR	woman in space: Valentina Tereshkova
1968	USSR	supersonic passenger jet flight: TU-144
1969	US	to walk on the moon: Neil Armstrong and Edwin ("Buzz") Aldrin of the Apollo 11 mission
1971	USSR	space station: Salyut I is launched
1975	US/USSR	joint Soviet-American space project: Astronauts aboard Apollo and Soyuz craft rendezvous in space
1981	US	space shuttle: United States launches reusable space shuttle Columbia

After Watching

Discuss the political climate that now exists between the West and the former Soviet Union. How might this affect technological development?

Supersonic Spies

Original broadcast:
January 27, 1998

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