William A. Shurcliff, a physicist on the Manhattan Project who subsequently became a leading opponent of supersonic transport and President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, died June 20 at his home in Cambridge, Mass.
Shurcliff, who spent the latter part of his career designing and promoting solar energy systems, was 97 and died from complications of pneumonia, according to his granddaughter Elizabeth Shurcliff.
Possessor of a strong social conscience spurred -- at least in part -- by his participation in the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan during World War II, Shurcliff turned his strong intellect and will to a variety of causes. They ranged from a 1938 effort to bar German scientists from visits to American laboratories to a recent outburst against the possibility of developing three-dimensional televisions for the home.
He also played a major role in the effort to block development of an American supersonic transport, or SST, arguing that the sonic booms created by the aircraft passing over U.S. airspace would have devastating psychological and financial effects.
Flying at the estimated speed of 1,800 mph, the SST would leave in its wake a 50-mile-wide "bang zone" that would startle unsuspecting residents, shatter windows and lead to the collapse of unstable buildings. Shurcliff argued that a fleet of 150 American SSTs would leave behind $1 million in property damage every day.
In 1967, he organized Citizens League Against the Sonic Boom, which began with only nine members but grew to 1,250 members in 39 states within six months.
About the same time, climate researchers began arguing that emissions from the SSTs would damage the Earth's ozone layer, allowing increased penetration of harmful ultraviolet radiation.
Swayed by these arguments and others, Congress became convinced that the $3 billion necessary to bring the plane to fruition was an unwise investment, and the project was killed May 20, 1971.
Shurcliff was less successful in his efforts against the Strategic Defense Initiative, Reagan's 1983 proposal to use ground- and space-based systems to protect the United States against a ballistic missile attack.
Using an approach he had employed in his battle against the SST, Shurcliff wrote all the members of the National Academy of Sciences, seeking their opinions about the practicality of the system commonly known as Star Wars.
