FAA proposes ending 50-year U.S. overland supersonic flight ban with noise-based rules

Supersonic passenger flights could return to US skies as the FAA moves to replace a 50-year overland speed ban with new noise-based rules.

Supersonic passenger flights could return to US skies as the FAA moves to replace a 50-year overland speed ban with new noise-based rules.

FAA Moves To Lift 50-Year Ban On Overland Supersonic Flights The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Tuesday moved to end the more than 50-year ban on civilian supersonic flights over the continental United States, proposing rules that would allow aircraft to exceed the speed of sound provided they don’t produce a sonic boom. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced on June 30 that the FAA has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that would replace the more than 50-year-old prohibition on overland civil supersonic flight with a regulatory framework focused on limiting noise rather than speed. As Tom Ozimek reports for The Epoch Times, the proposal marks a key step in implementing President Donald Trump’s executive order signed last month directing the FAA to repeal regulations that the administration says have unnecessarily constrained U.S. aerospace innovation. “For more than 50 years, outdated and overly restrictive regulations have grounded the promise of supersonic flight over land, stifling American ingenuity, weakening our global competitiveness, and ceding leadership to foreign adversaries,” Trump said in the order. If finalized, the rule would clear the way for what the DOT described as a new generation of commercial supersonic aircraft capable of dramatically reducing travel times while minimizing the noise impacts that led regulators to ban such flights in the early 1970s. “Restoring supersonic flight over land isn’t just about speed, it’s about unleashing American innovation and ushering in a Golden Age of Travel,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement. Current regulations prohibit civilian aircraft from flying faster than Mach 1 over U.S. land except under special flight authorizations for research and testing in isolated test areas. The FAA aims to finalize the rule by mid-2027. Shift From Speed Limits to Noise Limits Under the proposed rule, that blanket speed restriction would be replaced with a noise-based operating standard. Aircraft operators would instead have to prove through FAA-approved measurement, modeling, or other methods that their aircraft can prevent excess levels of sonic boom overpressure at the ground. By adopting a performance-based regulatory framework, the proposal would usher in what the FAA described as a clear pathway for “safe, efficient, and commercially viable operation of civil supersonic aircraft in the United States.” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said that innovative technologies have made it possible for the agency to rethink regulations adopted decades ago. “Advances in aerospace engineering, materials science, noise reduction, and new operational concepts will eliminate the old sonic boom,” Bedford said in a statement. “This means we can ultimately repeal the ban from the 1970s on supersonic flight over U.S. territory while minimizing noise impacts to residents in communities along the route and near airports.” Tuesday’s proposal follows Trump’s executive order directing the FAA to repeal the overland supersonic flight ban within 180 days and establish interim noise-based certification standards before developing permanent regulations. The proposal will be open for public comment for 45 days after publication in the Federal Register. The Transportation Department said that, in addition to this first proposed rule, the FAA plans to put forward another one later this year that would establish landing and takeoff noise standards for supersonic aircraft. “We are working at lightning speed to safely enable the next quantum leap in aviation technology and deliver an exciting new way to fly to the American flying public,” Duffy said in a statement. The FAA cited Boom Supersonic’s February 2025 XB-1 test flight and NASA’s Farfield Investigation of No-boom Thresholds (FaINT) research as evidence that advances in technology have made a blanket ban on overland civilian supersonic flight obsolete. Boom Supersonic founder and CEO Blake Scholl welcomed Tuesday’s announcement, saying in a post on X that “legalizing supersonic flight is a great way to celebrate America’s 250!” “Boomless supersonic flight is technically feasible,” he said. Tyler Durden Wed, 07/01/2026 - 23:00

The first in a series of new rule proposals will establish sonic boom regulations. The post After 53 years, the FAA wants to bring back civilian supersonic flight appeared first on Popular Science.

The FAA plans to replace its 1973 ban on civilian supersonic flight over U.S. land with a noise-based standard, potentially allowing aircraft to exceed Mach 1 as long as they stay below certain sound limits. The agency aims to finalize the rules by mid-2027, opening the door for companies such as Boom Supersonic and Spike Aerospace to operate quieter next-generation passenger jets over land. Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shared the notice (PDF) published Tuesday by the FAA. Forbes reports: Technological advances "will eliminate the old sonic boom," FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said in a statement. "This means we can ultimately repeal the ban from the 1970s on supersonic flight over U.S. territory while minimizing noise impacts to residents in communities along the route and near airports." The primary reason was public opposition to loud sonic booms. In the 1960s, a plane flying faster than the speed of sound -- about 660 mph at high altitudes -- created shock waves that traveled to the ground and reached human ears as a loud gunshot-like crack or thunder-like boom. Tests during that decade, including the Oklahoma City sonic boom experiments, found repeated booms broke windows, damaged property and generated thousands of public complaints. In its 1973 ruling, the FAA stated that due to the limits of technology at that time, "a prohibition was needed to protect the public from sonic boom .... by preventing operations of a civil aircraft at a true flight Mach number greater than 1." Several years later, Air France and British Airways introduced Concorde, and were allowed to serve New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport as long as flights remained subsonic over U.S. land. Notably, "the prestigious London-New York service was the only truly profitable [Concorde] route, supported by high-powered business and celebrity travel," wrote a former British Airways network planner for Forbes in 2021. Several U.S. companies are working on a new generation of luxurious supersonic passenger aircraft with much quieter sonic booms and improved fuel efficiency. In particular, Colorado-headquartered Boom Supersonic says it has pre-orders from United Airlines, American Airlines and Japan Airlines for its Overture jets, which will carry 60-80 passengers. Atlanta-based Spike Aerospace is developing smaller Diplomat jets for up to 18 passengers. Both companies' websites tout future transatlantic flights in under four hours. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The US is taking major steps to end its 50-year ban on overland supersonic flight, with the FAA planning new noise-based rules that could open the door to commercial passenger jets travelling at over 700mph — with transatlantic trips in under four hours.