Posted on 07/01/2026 5:28:36 AM PDT by Red Badger
The Department of Transportation announced today a return to a technology of the past that feels like it's from the future.
Supersonic flight is returning to commercial airlines once again.
For too long, outdated rules based on old technology held back American aerospace innovation. Now, we are updating those rules for the first time since the 1970s.
Today @USDOT announced a new proposal to enable civil supersonic flight by replacing speed limits with noise… pic.twitter.com/vwR4J88W1F— Director Michael Kratsios (@mkratsios47) June 30, 2026
But it's going to make a return under the Trump DOT.
Here's Transportation.gov:
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy today announced the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is taking a pivotal step toward enabling civil supersonic flights over the continental United States. Thanks to massive innovations in supersonic technology, it will be possible to safely operate these innovative aircraft without a sonic boom. When operational, next-gen supersonic planes will drastically reduce travel times - enabling faster movement of people and goods.
Today's proposed rule sets a noise-based certification standard for supersonic aircraft. In addition to this first rule, the FAA plans to propose another rule later this year, establishing landing and takeoff noise standards for supersonic aircraft.
Together, these actions will give manufacturers the guidance they need to finalize their designs and bring these exciting innovations online.
Just because regulations have prevented supersonic commercial flights doesn't mean that the professionals haven't been working on designs.
These new regulations that focus on sound help provide the framework for engineers to work within.
Aircraft flying at supersonic speeds - Mach 1 and above - are traveling approximately 770+ miles per hour. Commercial airlines generally fly between 550 and 600 miles per hour.
One key to enabling supersonic travel is reducing the noise experienced by sonic booms. One means of achieving this is using a flight technique called Mach cutoff where the aircraft design, atmospheric conditions, speed, and altitude work in combination to ensure the sonic boom bends and refracts back into the atmosphere, significantly reducing its ground-level impact.
The FAA is collaborating with the International Civil Aviation Organization, NASA, industry, and academic institutions and applying their research to inform supersonic noise standards.
This is exciting news for plane nerds.
Now, the real question is, How many illegal aliens can we fit on one of these bad boys?
Great tune that one.
L
Pretty much predicted AI:
A just machine to make big decisions
Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision
We’ll be clean when their work is done
We’ll be eternally free yes and eternally young
From China to a U.S. maternity hospital in 3 hours.
People will be able to get here faster to drop their babies.
When you have to be somewhere.
I wonder if they solved the problem of the skin melting glass from going 1200mph?
One pilot, no luggage. No passengers. Its mine! All mine!
I still listen to their music just about every day.
All my playlists on all my devices are loaded with it.
Supersonic transport for commercial airliners was never even close to cost effective.
LOL! You owe me a keyboard!
Can they be large enough to make transport on them “economical?”
The old Concordes were cool, but the payload was pretty meager.
From what I heard yesterday is that they are going to direct the sound upwards, so it goes into the atmosphere first, where it bounces back to the ground. It would be diffused enough to make the impact modest compared to the old SSTs.
I’m sure it’s scalable upwards!...............
I noticed that too.
AI creator can’t spell.
Not Steely Dan. Donald Fagen’s solo album.
Notice that the shockwave is larger on the bottom than the top.
The new design criteria for supersonic flight makes the shockwave smaller overall by making the nose extremely elongated and thin, and then the majority of what’s left is deflected up into the sky instead of down to the Earth...........
“Aircraft flying at supersonic speeds - Mach 1 and above - are traveling approximately 770+ miles per hour.”
In reality:
The speed of sound at 50,000 feet is approximately 573 knots (659 miles per hour). This speed can vary slightly based on temperature and atmospheric conditions.
Anyone read a report of how noticeable the shockwave from the X-59 test flights is?
That's a return to sanity. The problem isn't speed, it's sonic boom on the ground. If you can go "mach fcck" at altitude and not annoy people or damage property on the ground, there's no reason for government to prohibit you doing it.
BRAVE AI:
The X-59’s shockwave has not yet been directly measured for ground noticeability during its initial supersonic flights in June 2026.
Current Masking: During the first supersonic runs (Mach 1 to Mach 1.4), the X-59 was trailed by F-15 chase planes whose conventional sonic booms acoustically masked the X-59’s quieter signature.
Technical Validation: These early flights were designed to validate computational fluid dynamics models using shock-sensing probes on the chase planes, rather than to demonstrate the quiet boom to observers.
Future Measurement: The actual acoustic footprint and ground noticeability will be assessed in Quesst Phase 2, expected later in 2026, which will involve community overflights to collect human-perception data.
Design Target: The aircraft is engineered to produce a sound comparable to a car door closing a block away (approx. 75 perceived-level decibels), significantly quieter than the 105 dB boom of the Concorde.
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