FAA eases supersonic flight restrictions over U.S., as per Trump order from 2025
In accordance with an executive order issued by President Trump in 2025, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on June 30, 2026 announced new regulations on supersonic flights over the United States, easing the half-century-old restrictions that prevented such flights.
You can read the proposed regulations here [pdf]. It states the following:
As directed by [Trump’s Executive Order] 14304, FAA proposes to repeal the prohibition on civil supersonic flight in the U.S. contained in 14 CFR § 91.817 by revising the current regulatory text in § 91.817 to provide an interim noise-based operating certification standard. Further, the proposed revision would provide the conditions under which operators may engage in civil supersonic flight without the need for a special flight authorization (SFA) to exceed Mach 1, an operation-specific authorization that does not allow for civil supersonic flight outside of research and testing purposes in isolated test areas.
To enable supersonic flight operations in the U.S., this proposal would require (1) the aircraft be operated such that sonic boom overpressure at the surface does not exceed 0.11 pound per square foot (psf), (2) the Administrator finds that the operator has shown, through measurement, modeling, or other methods, that primary and secondary (direct and indirect) sonic boom overpressure at the surface does not exceed 0.11 psf during operations, and (3) the aircraft be operated in compliance with any conditions and limitations issued by the Administrator.
It is very likely this regulation was informed by the supersonic flight tests conducted by Boom Supersonic in 2025, where its plane broke the sound barrier three times during a flight with no significant sonic booms.
The FAA hopes to get this new regulation finalized by mid-2027.
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I always liked a good sonic boom.
Like fireworks, or gunshots at the firing range.
Sounds like freedom.
Me too. I grew up near a SAC bomber/interceptor base. F-101s and F-102s were booming in local skies all the time. Nobody raised an eyebrow. Of course nearly every dad in town in those days was a veteran of either WW2 or Korea or both. NIMBY was an unknown concept where military necessity was concerned. Different times.
Walking on the seaward beach on Ocracoke Island, NC, I saw a smoke dot on the northern horizon. It got larger. Then I could discern two Phantom II’s (nothing else looks like it) growing visibly larger. They were hauling the mail, at minimum altitude, tracking the surf line. There was a person jogging toward me. The planes weren’t supersonic, but they were crowding the Mach. Not audible until they were on top of you, and the deafening boom was the jogger’s first clue that they were there. He goes flat on the ground, and I could see the crews helmet flashes. Just some Marines from MCAS Cherry Point, having a bit of fun. I bet they tell the same story; albeit from a different perspective.
The planes are supersonic, but the work on the regulations is as slow as molasses.
For a major bureaucracy, this is a sprint.
”In accordance with an executive order issued by President Trump in 2024…”
Say what? By what authority did Trump issue anything in 2024?
He didn’t. That was a typo, in the original post that I picked up now. Fixed.
Fixed in the first sentence, but not in the headline.
Thank you. Now fixed.
Thanks for correcting that.
I’ve had Trumpers tell me that Trump, not Biden, was the true president from 2021-2024, and even more that Trump’s tweets carry the force of law. I’m glad to hear that you are not one of them.
I was 11-12 in 1964 when the FAA along with the USAF did sonic boom tests over Oklahoma City. I remember seeing the contrails some days and being able to set your watch by their occurrence. I was fascinate by it.
I looked it up and they had over pressures of 1 to 2 PSF which is a lot more than 0.11 PSF. There was some damage, albeit minor, that was caused to buildings including broken windows in some prominent business buildings. A little thump like they are going to permit is less than the house shaking from a good thunderstorm. We should be seeing overland supersonic flight in the near future.