President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday that directs the Federal Aviation Administration to lift the 52-year ban on supersonic flight over U.S. soil, marking a major policy shift that occurred just weeks after lawmakers introduced bipartisan legislation with the same aim. The order instructs the FAA to end the overland supersonic ban and create noise-based certification standards, allowing faster-than-sound travel as long as no audible sonic boom reaches the ground.
“The reality is that Americans should be able to fly from New York to LA in under four hours,” Michael Kratsios, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, told reporters Friday.
The move could help accelerate commercial supersonic flight development, including efforts by Boom Supersonic. In January, Boom’s XB-1 demonstrator became the first privately developed civil aircraft to break the sound barrier over the continental U.S.
Asked for comment Friday, Boom CEO Blake Scholl wrote “Booooom!” in an email to TechCrunch. Added Scholl, “The sound barrier was never physical — it was regulatory. With supersonic legalized, the return of supersonic passenger air travel is just a matter of time.”Â
Trump also signed two other future-of-flight executive orders Friday: one to speed up drone commercialization and electric vertical takeoff vehicle development, and another to establish a federal task force on drone flight restrictions.
