Trump lifts US supersonic flight ban, says he's 'Making Aviation Great Again'
- Reference: 1749279968
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/06/07/trump_supersonic_flight/
- Source link:
Supersonic flight has been banned over the US for civilian aircraft since 1973 after testing showed the noise it created was too disruptive, breaking windows in some cases. Since then, NASA and private startups have developed ways to reduce the sound of sonic booms from faster-than-Mach 1 flight, and there's currently [1]legislation before Congress to allow these high-tech aircraft to fly over the US, potentially halving the flight time between New York and Los Angeles.
Now the president has issued an order that does basically what the legislation, sponsored by four Republican senators, asked for. The FAA has also been instructed to devise a system to regulate such aircraft's noise levels in conjunction with "community acceptability, economic reasonableness, and technological feasibility," to allow flights over the homeland.
[2]
"This Order removes regulatory barriers so that US companies can dominate supersonic flight once again," the White House fact sheet [3]reads . "By removing decades-old regulatory barriers and promoting cutting-edge supersonic technology, President Trump is Making Aviation Great Again."
[4]
Startups like the aptly named Boom Supersonic have been developing high-altitude aircraft that can break the sound barrier without causing booms by using innovative airframe design such as longer noses to cause less drag, mounting engines on the top of the aircraft rather than the bottom, and using temperature gradients in the Earth's atmosphere to deflect sound waves. Test flights in January proved out the concept, and there are [5]plans for an 80-passenger aircraft by the biz, which is backed by OpenAI cofounder Sam Altman and LinkedIn impresario Reid Hoffman, among others.
[6]No-boom supersonic flights could slide through US skies soon
[7]Boom's XB-1 jet nails supersonic flight for first time
[8]NASA's X-59 plane is aiming for a sonic thump, not a boom
[9]Boom Supersonic takes baby steps toward breaking the sound barrier
While China and Europe are working on supersonic passenger travel, the US has a lead in the technology. But the Middle Kingdom, in particular, has been putting a lot of development money into such aircraft, and this is prodding US legislators to look again at the situation.
The case for supersonic passenger travel is still pretty thin - we're talking very expensive tickets for a halving of flight times. But there's money to be made and enough people (or their travel bookers) seem willing to spend it.
"Legalizing supersonic flight makes a renaissance in supersonic passenger travel inevitable. We're grateful to President Trump for his leadership," said Blake Scholl, founder of Boom Supersonic in a statement to The Register . "This important step allows us to accelerate development of our supersonic airliner." ®
Get our [10]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/17/faa_supersonic_law/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aEQNvYOb-PiwZXnJL87nZgAAAE4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/06/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-takes-action-to-lead-the-world-in-supersonic-flight/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aEQNvYOb-PiwZXnJL87nZgAAAE4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/29/boom_xb1_supersonic/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/17/faa_supersonic_law/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/29/boom_xb1_supersonic/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/30/nasa_x59_aircraft/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/27/boom_supersonic_flight_two/
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Indeed.
Another blast from the 'Couldn't make it up' dept.
(Icon depicts what they are doing to the world)
Simple guy
Seems like Trump's politics is "do the opposite / revert what Democrats did". Which is obviously the stupides thing you can do, for a multitude of reasons. But that's the only thing the demented orange man is capable of.
Absolutely insane, as usual from the trump white house.
By the time this next generation of jets is ready for commercial flight, saner heads will be back in the Oval Office, and hopefully the houses of congress, and it won't matter what trump has signed as all his idiocy will have been reversed.
"Test flights in January proved out the concept [of Boom Supersonic]"
Not really, at least not yet.
The temperature gradient means the speed of sound is lower in lower temperatures higher up and faster on the ground.
So the test flight at Mach 1.12 @ 35000ft resulted in a speed that would not have been supersonic on ground level with an 80°C higher temperature..
Therefore the supersonic shock wave generated in this test was no supersonic shock wave anymore when it reached the warmer air near ground level.
It still needs to be demonstrated, if the "up-bending" of shock waves, as suggested by Boom, in fact works for speeds up to their design target, Mach 1.7, as the gain from Mach 0.93 of today's commercial airliners to just Mach 1.1 would be too small to have any meaningful impact on travel times.
Re: "Test flights in January proved out the concept [of Boom Supersonic]"
All Boom need to do is demonstrate supersonic at a low enough premium over subsonic, Airline marketing will do the rest, it doesn't need anything 'meaningful' just use the "Ooo! YOU can fastest in the world, for only $15 more" line.
Re: "Test flights in January proved out the concept [of Boom Supersonic]"
Correct, but a low premium will probably not be achievable.
Much higher material/quality requirements to the air frame, higher maintenance cost due to higher stress on all parts, nearly doubled fuel consumption - combined with a narrow body holding a much lower number of seats will IMHO result in a very "exclusive" price point at 300-500% the price of a sub-sonic ticket..
Opposite direction of the market
The time between plane design and flight keeps increasing over the last 1-2 decades, with only Airbus and Embraer having consistent orders and revenue, supersonic flight will not change that, because unless you have a major shift in engineering, the complexity of the plane is much higher, not lower.
So unless you convince major airlines to buy this jet, it's going to be Concorde all over again (except in China), where only the very rich will fly this, but it won't survive a volatile market or economy.
The A320, the most succesful jet in production, has a cruise speed of ~800kph.
A fast train can cruise ~250-300kph.
The massive overhead of 2x 2-3 hours in each airport just to board means that you lose the advantage of having double the speed and no intermediate stop for a lot of destinations..
So instead of launching a startup for billionaire passengers, if you streamline the airports to check in as fast as trains (not impossible), then you've dramatically reduced the travel time.
If you want to go green, then invest in long distance high speed trains between major hubs, while optimizing the short distance connections.
For trans-continental you need air travel, for continental the current necessity is mostly the result of poor infrastructure planning.
For example, flying from Glasgow to Spain is cheaper than a train Manchester - London if time it right.
In Italy a Ryanair-like startup for the high speed train network was so succesful that the government had to step in to protect the national airline for fear it would take too much of a hit on the North/South trips, so it can be done, and fairly quickly as well if you have consistent, well thought out planning and execution.
"so that US companies can dominate supersonic flight once again"
Um, outside military jets, I'm having a hard time remembering _any_ supersonic planes made by US companies, nor any commercial services other than (UK/French) Concorde.
Which made for BA perhaps three quarters of a billion quid over its lifetime, and left the UK and French governments with a two and a half billion development cost.
"so that US companies can dominate supersonic flight once again"
Once again? When did US companies ever dominate supersonic flight? The supersonic Boeing was cancelled in 1971 and the ban came in in 1973 suitably in time for Concorde in 1976.
Edit: Beaten by six minutes.
Re: "so that US companies can dominate supersonic flight once again"
I'd be happy to wager a moderate sum of money that Trump thinks Concorde was American.
[1]Trump races to fix a big mistake: DOGE fired too many people
“They wanted to show they were gutting the government, but there was no thought about what parts might be worth keeping,” said one FDA staffer who was fired and rehired. “Now it feels like it was all just a game to them.”
Pretty much a "numbers" game.
[1] https://archive.md/pBz6W
Pretty much a "numbers" game.
Trouble is, after getting to 10 Trump runs out of fingers.
Burning vastly more fuel for a slightly shorter journey.
Making Climate Change Great Again.