President Donald Trump has ordered the US FAA to take steps to repeal a long-standing prohibition on overland supersonic flight within six months.
Trump has issued the executive order to rescind “outdated and overly-restrictive regulations” – originally imposed in 1973 – banning civil flight at speeds exceeding Mach 1.
It also instructs the FAA to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking within 18 months – and a final order within two years – establishing a noise certification standard for supersonic aircraft.
This would cover acceptable noise thresholds for take-off, en route flight, and landing.
As part of the sweeping change the FAA has been ordered to repeal a number of older noise-limitation regulations.
“Advances in aerospace engineering, materials science, and noise reduction now make supersonic flight not just possible, but safe, sustainable, and commercially viable,” the order states.
It covers not only supersonic operation but research collaboration between agencies including NASA to identify requirements for regulatory development and testing of technologies, supporting the FAA’s efforts to develop future procedures.
The order states that the Department of Transportation shall engage with ICAO and other partners to seek global alignment on regulatory approaches in the supersonic sector, while the FAA will seek to obtain bilateral safety agreements on supersonic flight.
Repeal of the prohibition, originally intended to prevent sonic-boom disturbance and damage from BAC-Aerospatiale Concorde operations in the 1970s, is set to benefit US firm Boom Supersonic which is developing Overture – an aircraft cruising at up to M1.7.
Boom intends Overture to capitalise on a phenomenon known as Mach cut-off, whereby the sonic boom at low transonic airspeeds is refracted by the atmospheric temperature gradient, limiting its impact at ground level.
