COMMENTARY: Sonic boom tests offer Galveston County residents chance to earn cash

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when the idea of flying in the air was laughable at best. That didn’t stop the hundreds of people who tried, failed and continued to work to make this apparent dream a reality.

Leonardo da Vinci designed a half-dozen flying machines between 1485 and 1500. He never quite got his ideas off the ground, however.

Then, in 1843, George Cayley’s biplane glider was designed. It took another 52 years before Cayley’s design was built into a working prototype by Otto Lilienthal.

During this time, vehicles had been around in one form or another for more than 100 years, and what we know as the automobile was invented in 1885. The automobile led to the dream, shared by many would-be pilots, to invent a controlled, powered flight that one could use to actually climb high into the air and set carefully back down.

It took over 50 more years but eventually, in 1903, the Wright brothers succeeded in this endeavor. Human beings traveled through the air at last.

When cutting-edge technology caught up and introduced modern air travel, it was another huge scientific breakthrough.

Next came the idea of traveling at the speed of sound. Sure, there were many theories surrounding the idea already — what could happen, what it might sound like — but, in October 1947, Chuck Yeager was credited with being the first person to actually break the sound barrier in level flight.

This opened a world of opportunities but also challenges. Yes, you could fly farther faster but the thunderous sonic booms created by traveling as fast as sound could literally shatter glass. There were also theories that it could affect a person’s mental state. This led to a prohibition of flying an aircraft at the speed of sound over land.

Scientists quickly began the search for faster flight without the damaging sound effects.

This brings us to the present.

NASA, this month, announced its decision to test its newly developed technology that dampens the sonic boom caused by an aircraft reaching the speed of sound. The coolest part is NASA is going to test this technology over Galveston County, primarily Galveston Island.

NASA will send out letters to 500 county residents to explain the experiment and ask for volunteers to participate. Each letter will include $2 just for considering the experiment.

Any of the 500 letter recipients who decide to help NASA as it conducts this experiment will be compensated $25 a week for participating.

Sounds like pretty easy money for what could easily turn out to be one of the coolest technology advancement experiments of all time.

The experiment requires the participants to log in to a website to inform NASA whether they did, or more likely didn’t, hear anything overhead periodically. During this time, NASA will have pilots flying around over Galveston at supersonic, yet quiet, speeds.

Peter Cohen, the sonic boom test project manager, said the quieted sonic booms will sound like distant thunder.

If you are one of the recipients of a NASA letter — this golden ticket of letters, then consider yourself lucky and don’t let this opportunity pass you by. You could be at the center of a brand-new technological advancement. How many people can say the same?

All of that flight history had to come from somewhere, and history ultimately became present-day reality, not just despite the nonbelievers, but because of those who dared to dream.