Trump eliminates restrictions against supersonic flights over the U.S.
In an executive order released on June 6, 2024, President Trump eliminated the half-century-old regulations that forbid supersonic airplanes to fly over the land mass of the United States.
The Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) shall take the necessary steps, including through rulemaking, to repeal the prohibition on overland supersonic flight in 14 CFR 91.817 within 180 days of the date of this order and establish an interim noise-based certification standard, making any modifications to 14 CFR 91.818 as necessary, as consistent with applicable law. The Administrator of the FAA shall also take immediate steps to repeal 14 CFR 91.819 and 91.821, which will remove additional regulatory barriers that hinder the advancement of supersonic aviation technology in the United States.
This order makes sense for several reasons. First, the restrictions were always absurd. The sonic boom concern was always over-rated. Second, the concern increasingly doesn’t exist due to improvements in technology. In a flight test in January, the commercial supersonic airplane startup Boom Aerospace confirmed that its test plane broke the sound barrier three times and each time with “no audible sonic boom.”
Though Boom isn’t the only supersonic startup, it is far ahead of the others. It already has orders from United and Japan airlines for its Overture 80-passenger supersonic jet. This new Trump order will certainly help it attract investment capital, as well as more airlines willing to buy its planes.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
In an executive order released on June 6, 2024, President Trump eliminated the half-century-old regulations that forbid supersonic airplanes to fly over the land mass of the United States.
The Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) shall take the necessary steps, including through rulemaking, to repeal the prohibition on overland supersonic flight in 14 CFR 91.817 within 180 days of the date of this order and establish an interim noise-based certification standard, making any modifications to 14 CFR 91.818 as necessary, as consistent with applicable law. The Administrator of the FAA shall also take immediate steps to repeal 14 CFR 91.819 and 91.821, which will remove additional regulatory barriers that hinder the advancement of supersonic aviation technology in the United States.
This order makes sense for several reasons. First, the restrictions were always absurd. The sonic boom concern was always over-rated. Second, the concern increasingly doesn’t exist due to improvements in technology. In a flight test in January, the commercial supersonic airplane startup Boom Aerospace confirmed that its test plane broke the sound barrier three times and each time with “no audible sonic boom.”
Though Boom isn’t the only supersonic startup, it is far ahead of the others. It already has orders from United and Japan airlines for its Overture 80-passenger supersonic jet. This new Trump order will certainly help it attract investment capital, as well as more airlines willing to buy its planes.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
My life has been made into a hell because of the expansion of Reagan airport in DC. What used to be a quiet neighborhood in now subject to an endless barrage of plane noise after the FAA insituted its “Next Gen” flight path system. Trying to talk to the FAA is like throwing pebbles at the Kremlin. I can understand that most people may have no sympathy for people (almost all partisan Democrats living of the taxpayers) who live in the swamp that is Washington. But when you have to move out of your home because of a decision of some faceless unelected bureaucrat, a decision that is most likely due to regulatory capture (i.e., the political influence of the the airlines), you may think differently about this issue.
They say there is no noise…. when you hear it you will know if it’s true, but it will be too late!
My life has been made into a hell because of the expansion of Reagan airport in DC. What used to be a quiet neighborhood in now subject to an endless barrage of plane noise after the FAA insituted its “Next Gen” flight path system. Trying to talk to the FAA is like throwing pebbles at the Kremlin. I can understand that most people may have no sympathy for people (almost all partisan Democrats living of the taxpayers) who live in the swamp that is Washington. But when you have to move out of your home because of a decision of some faceless unelected bureaucrat, a decision that is most likely due to regulatory capture (i.e., the political influence of the the airlines), you may think differently about this issue.
They say there is no noise…. when you hear it you will know if it’s true, but it will be too late!
It’s not that I don’t feel for you. I was living a very enjoyable life in Atlanta until the 1996 Olympics came to town. When it was over, it seemed to me that the entire world had showed up for the party, but then nobody left. Traffic was worse than ever, housing prices were God-awful, and crime was spiking. So I packed up and returned to my native Indiana, and have been happier for it.
Airport noise, traffic, overcrowding… as my Dad would say, “That’s life in the big city.”
Most people who live near airports were not there before the airport.
I actually miss the F-4 Phantoms Birmingham used to have.
I think this is Trump’s best act outside of daring to support a stronger border. Too late to have saved Concorde.
Though many of you would call me a lefty in wanting public funds for LV development–the one individual I hate most of all isn’t Elon, Garver, or even Proxmire.
No, my least favorite politician is Henry Waxman.
There was a time in America when we had hijackings every week…from the camponesian liberation something-or-other’n.
But no TSA–no making granny submit to cavity searches.
I am a non-smoker–not an anti-smoker…and I liked the cigarette art…I do not like nuisance laws.
If you don’t want to hear jets–move! That’s infrastructure.
If you don’t like cigarettes-don’t smoke.
I wish I could draw figures–I have this idea of an editorial cartoon with Joe Camel holding a MAC-10 with the following word balloon:
“I’d walk a mile to smoke Henry Waxman.”
A perfect ed