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Submission + - DOT announces "Return of Supersonic Flight" for commercial airlines (faa.gov)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Gemini summarized ...

The FAA’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), released on June 30, 2026, marks the first formal regulatory step toward lifting the 53-year-old ban on civil supersonic flight over the continental United States.

Core Objectives of the Proposal
  • Replacing Speed Limits with Noise Standards: The proposal would replace the current, blanket speed-based ban (dating to 1973) with a performance-based noise standard. Aircraft would be permitted to fly at speeds exceeding Mach 1 over land, provided they do not generate surface-level noise (sonic boom overpressure) exceeding a specific threshold of 0.11 pounds per square foot (psf).
  • En-Route Focus: This specific proposal addresses en-route cruise noise. It does not set standards for takeoff and landing, which the FAA plans to address in a separate proposal later this year.
  • Implementation of Executive Order 14304: This action fulfills part of the June 2025 Executive Order signed by President Trump, which directed the FAA to modernize aviation standards to ensure the U.S. remains a leader in aerospace innovation.

Why Now?
The FAA is citing significant technological advancements as the justification for this shift, specifically:

  • Aerodynamic Innovation: New airframe designs and propulsion systems—exemplified by testing of NASA’s X-59 "quiet" demonstrator—can now break the sound barrier while reducing the sonic boom to a low-intensity "thump" that is manageable for ground-level communities.
  • Operational Techniques: The use of "Mach cutoff" flight techniques, where speed, altitude, and atmospheric conditions are synchronized to ensure sonic booms refract back into the atmosphere rather than reaching the ground.

Next Steps

  • Public Comment: The proposal (Docket FAA-2026-6935) is now open for a 45-day public comment period.
  • Future Regulations: The FAA intends to finalize both the en-route noise standards and the upcoming takeoff/landing noise standards by mid-2027.
  • International Alignment: The FAA is working alongside the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and foreign aviation authorities to ensure that these domestic standards eventually align with global frameworks for international supersonic operations.

By establishing these metrics, the FAA aims to provide manufacturers—such as those developing next-generation supersonic transports—with the clear regulatory guidance needed to finalize aircraft designs and move toward commercial certification.

Comment The jokes write themselves (Score 2) 51

The man of the hour is so high on his own farts he's building a pipeline to import dinosaur farts. Not that he's a dinosaur, after all those makeovers, he even almost looks human. No wonder he wants to leave earth, we're running out of his favorite fuel in only a few hundred years. His fleet of methane-thirsty sky leviathans need to be ready to get him to his moon lair before he's stranded down here with the apes. The engineers keep insisting methane is an efficient rocket propellant, but that is exactly the sort of cover story one would expect from a man whose personal energy policy consists of huffing his own press releases.

If optimism were a construction material, there would already be beachfront property on Mars complete with valet parking and a frozen-yogurt franchise. His companies are powered by a management philosophy best described as "What if a caffeine overdose became a corporate structure?" Deadlines arrive, explode, and are immediately replaced by even more ambitious deadlines.The good news is we're meeting one deadline: His head will be big enough to shield Earth from the sun before it's really a problem.

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