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Thousands of South Korean Doctors Stage Mass Demonstration in Seoul; Powerful California Blizzard Shuts Down Roads and Ski Resorts as Heavy Snow and Fierce Winds Slam Mountains; Firefighters Battling "Monster" Texas Wildfire Contend with Strong Winds and Heat as Residents Grapple With Lost Homes; NASA Showcases Quiet Supersonic Aircraft. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired March 04, 2024 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COY WIRE, CNN 10 ANCHOR: What`s up, lovely people. Hope you had an awesome weekend. Let`s start this week strong with some motivation Monday. Remember
complacency is the constant enemy. So let`s learn one thing or do something that`ll make us a little better today than we were yesterday.
I`m Coy Wire. This is CNN 10. And we start with doctors protesting. Thousands of doctors taking to the streets in Seoul, South Korea,
expressing support for the many more thousands of doctors who`ve been on strike for nearly two weeks.
This all because of the government`s plan to increase medical school admissions. The plan includes increasing the country`s medical school
enrollment by 2000, starting in the 2025 academic year. That would bring the total to about 5,000 per year. The government says this plan is to help
meet the challenging healthcare demands as South Korea faces one of the lowest doctor to population ratios for a developed country.
But doctors disagree with the government`s method and believes their medical school system cannot handle a vast increase of educating and
training new medical students. Also, they`re concerned that the proposed plan does not include staffing in specific fields that have already been
seeing a shortage such as pediatrics and the emergency departments.
Doctors are also worried that the addition of new doctors would lead to an increase of public medical expenses. But these protests have not really won
public support. A recent survey showed a majority of the South Koreans are siding with the government`s plan, with some critics saying, doctors are
just worried about receiving a lower income now with more competition in the field.
With a strike ongoing, the country`s health ministry says the government has already allowed military doctors and nurses to perform some medical
procedures normally performed by these striking doctors.
All right, let`s turn now to weather as we first head to the Sierra Nevada mountain region, where blizzard conditions continue to slam the area.
Dangerous, fierce winds of more than 75 miles per hour, as well as heavy snowfall threatened to dump up to 10 feet of snow in the mountains has
forced officials to close down roads and impact travel.
Many resorts on the California-Nevada border are also shut down and about 6 million people in that region are in a winter weather alert. And let`s head
to another region, the Texas Panhandle continuing to be ravaged by extremely hot and dry conditions as the biggest inferno in Texas history
rages on.
The Smokehouse Creek Fire has been burning for nearly a week now and has destroyed more than 1 million acres in the State of Texas alone. It`s a
scary and devastating reality. Many Texans are dealing with. Let`s turn to our Camila Bernal for more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It`s been windy. It is hot, a lot hotter than it`s been over the last couple of days. And it`s dry,
conditions that are making it extremely difficult for firefighters in this area that are still battling the largest wildfire in Texas history.
Containment is still very low, so there`s a lot of work to be done.
And in the meantime, you have that grieving process beginning for a lot of the families that have lost everything, the cleanup process. Like, you`re
seeing here behind me at the Johnson house, and it`s been difficult to do that cleanup because the winds have been so high. But nonetheless, you`re
seeing them right now, as they`re trying to sift through that debris, trying to look for any jewelry, anything they can find of what was left of
their home, the home that they`ve built for 20 years.
I want you to listen to what Ronnie Johnson told me when he first got here to his home after the fire.
RONNIE JOHNSON, LOST HOME IN FIRE: We came back about 10:30 that night. We kind of snuck through some ranches -- to drive up here and see it gone.
This was -- it was pretty tough.
BERNAL: And you can hear the emotion. It`s been so difficult for members of this community. It`s also had a huge impact on the cattle industry here
because 85% of the state`s cattle is raised here in the Panhandle. And so a lot of these ranchers are also having to start from zero and have shared
their struggle both emotionally and financially. They know it`s going to take a long time to get back to where they were before those fires.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Pop quiz, hot shot. While not constant, the speed of sound is typically how fast?
10,000 miles per hour, 760, 86, or 186,000 miles per second.
Air temperature affects the precise mark, but the sound barrier can typically be broken at around 760 miles per hour. Well done.
All right. You might remember, we were talking about the speed of sound about a month ago when we mentioned the development of a new supersonic
plane, we`re taking a closer look today at what aerospace and defense company, Lockheed Martin has built and debuted for NASA. The experimental
plane is called the X-59, and it`s a quiet supersonic aircraft. NASA is looking to possibly revolutionize the air travel industry. And by that, I
mean go really fast, so fast that it could travel faster than the speed of sound. Take a look at this piece, profiling the X-59.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the X-59 quest, a new plane built by Lockheed Martin for NASAs. NASA is hoping it will be able to solve a problem that
has stopped commercial airplanes from flying really, really fast. That`s because --
CATHY BAHM, PROJECT MANAGER, LOW BOOM FLIGHT DEMONSTRATOR, NASA: When an aircraft goes supersonic faster than the speed of sound, it creates shock
waves.
MICHAEL BUONANNO, X-59 AIR VEHICLE LEAD, LOCKHEED MARTIN SKUNK WORKS: When I heard a sonic boom for the first time, I finally understood why it was
such a big deal. If something`s traveling supersonically, you can see it coming, but you won`t hear it at all until it`s already passed you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As you can imagine, sonic booms can be disruptive to life on the ground. So disruptive that in 1973, the United States
government, along with much of the world banned all civilian aircraft from supersonic flight over land.
BAHM: For the U.S., it`s a speed limit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only civilian jet to ferry passengers faster than the speed of sound was the Concorde.
DAVID RICHARDSON, X-59 PROGRAM MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR, LOCKHEED MARTIN: But it was only able to fly over the ocean supersonic. So you could do London to
New York, but you had to slow down before you got to New York and be subsonic. So the routes were very limited.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Concorde was a celebrated technical achievement and an exclusive luxury for its passengers. Limited roots and heavy fuel
consumption meant that operating the Concorde was not good business. However, it stopped flying in 2003.
But if supersonic airplanes could fly over land, they can fly anywhere. And the business proposition changes. NASA and Lockheed Martin are hoping this
crazy looking airplane is a step in that direction.
RICHARDSON: It`s designed to go supersonic without making the loud sonic boom, that -- that we`ve been accustomed to hearing for decades now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To understand how this might work, it`s important to understand how a sonic boom happens.
BAHM: Just like a boat, when the boat is moving, you get the weight coming off of -- of it. And it is with it the entire time it`s traveling.
Similarly for supersonic aircraft, the shock waves come off the aircraft and travel to the ground the entire time it`s flying supersonic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So when engineers designed the X-59, they used smooth and long aerodynamic lines to limit those shock waves from reaching the
ground.
BAHM: The engine is above the wing and that`s so that the shock wave from the engine isn`t able to go down to the ground. It just goes up.
BUONANNO: It is still audible, like a quiet thump. And most people, if they hear it, won`t even notice it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: NASA is aiming for a first test flight of the X-59 in the spring of 2024. Poetically, over the same patch of California desert,
where Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier in the X-1.
RICHARDSON: NASA can take that data and then be able to present that to the regulatory authorities, to actually repeal the overland supersonic
limitations, or was that we have today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A change in regulation could lead to a surge of investment in the next generation of commercial supersonic aircraft, making
travel faster than the speed of sound, more accessible to everyone. And that could send massive shockwaves through the air travel industry,
shockwaves that NASA and Lockheed Martin hope will sound more like a thump.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Mad props for today`s story getting a 10 out of 10, an OBI wan-of-a- kind. C-3PO`s head, the iconic movie prop from the 1983 Star Wars movie, "Return to the Jedi," up for auction by actor Anthony Daniels who played
the jittery droid. At last check, the bid was $350,000, but it`s expected to sell for up to 1 million bucks. So if you have some extra money in your
penny jar, jar, you can snag it.
Who`d have thought that you can buy Star Wars good guys gear at auction? I hear the villain stuff is sold at the Darth Maul. But wookie here, I also
heard that Jedi Masters drive cars made by Toyota. May the fourth be with you today, March 4th, that is.
Before I go, we`re sending a love and a big shout out to Pleasantville Middle School in Pleasantville, New York today. Thank you for subscribing
and commenting on our "CNN 10" YouTube channel.
And this shout out goes to Gaudet Middle School in Middletown, Rhode Island, rise up. Thank you for spending part of your day with us. We`re
going to be right back here tomorrow. I`m Coy Wire. And we are CNN 10.
END
