A new rule proposed by the US Federal Aviation Administration would lift a long-standing ban on commercial supersonic flights in the United States. This could pave the way for a possible return of commercial supersonic airliners – as long as such aircraft can minimize the ground-level effects of their sonic boom.
Following US military tests involving supersonic flights in US cities such as Oklahoma City, Chicago and St. Louis in the 1960s, the FAA originally banned overland supersonic flights by civilian aircraft in 1973. But the Trump administration has supported repealing the ban to pave the way for supersonic airliners that can operate without the disruptive sonic boom. The FAA’s new rulemaking action on June 30, 2026, therefore, follows the direction of an executive order issued by President Trump on June 6, 2025.
The new proposed rule would replace the 53-year-old prohibition with an interim “noise-based” certification standard, which requires any sonic boom overpressure at the surface to be below 0.11 pounds per square foot. This proposed standard is based on Colorado-based startup Boom Supersonics, which has demonstrated quiet Mach cutoff flights with its
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