Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced a new noise-based certification standard for supersonic aircraft on Tuesday, marking the Trump administration’s latest step toward lifting decades-old restrictions on commercial flights faster than the speed of sound.
The proposal follows President Donald Trump’s June 2025 executive order directing federal agencies to accelerate the return of civil supersonic aviation. The rule would replace outdated regulations with standards based on an aircraft’s noise performance rather than a blanket prohibition on overland supersonic flight.
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Since 1973, the Federal Aviation Administration has generally prohibited civilian aircraft from flying faster than Mach 1 over the United States because of disruptive sonic booms. The agency now says advances in aerospace engineering, aircraft design, and flight techniques have made that decades-old ban obsolete.
“Restoring supersonic flight over land isn’t just about speed, it’s about unleashing American innovation and ushering in a Golden Age of Travel,” Duffy said in a statement. “Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, we are working at lightning speed to safely enable the next quantum leap in aviation technology.”
The announcement comes as NASA continues testing the experimental X-59 Quesst aircraft, developed with Lockheed Martin to demonstrate that aircraft can exceed the speed of sound while producing only a quiet “sonic thump” instead of an explosive boom.
The needle-nosed aircraft first flew in late 2025 and recently completed its first supersonic test flight, reaching Mach 1.4, which is roughly 925 mph, at an altitude of 55,000 feet.
“Advances in aerospace engineering, materials science, noise reduction, and new operational concepts will eliminate the old sonic boom,” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said. “This means we can ultimately repeal the ban from the 1970s on supersonic flight over U.S. territory while minimizing noise impacts to residents.”
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The U.S. imposed the overland ban after military supersonic test flights in the 1960s generated widespread noise complaints in cities including Oklahoma City, Chicago, and St. Louis.
Commercial aircraft designed after the X-59’s technology could cut commercial air travel time in half, with a trip from Washington to London taking close to four hours instead of seven. The Concord, a supersonic passenger airplane, was retired in 2003 after its high maintenance costs deemed it unprofitable.
