The return of civilian supersonic flight to the United States may be a bit closer after President Trump signed a new Executive Order (EO) on June 6, 2025, directing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to repeal three regulations (14 CFR 91.817, 14 CFR 91.819 and 14 CFR 91.821) that had severely restricted such operations until this date.
President Trump wants these regulations, which, for all practical purposes place a ban on civilian supersonic flights in the US, replaced with a new interim noise-based certification standard.
This executive order, which has been signed alongside another one aimed at boosting the emerging US drone industry, directs the Administrator of the FAA to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to establish the new noise standards for supersonic aircraft under 14 CFR Part 36.
It also requires the relevant federal agencies to evaluate the feasibility of integrating supersonic flight operations in US airspace management systems and to engage in conversation with their counterparts in other countries to define an analogous international framework.
This decision has been welcomed by supersonic flight entrepreneurs, such as Blake Scholl, founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic. This startup has been working already for a number of years on a supersonic airliner, called “Overture”, which has garnered the interest of a number of operators, such as United Airlines.
Proponents of supersonic flight revival claim that technological advances make it possible to develop an aircraft with a low sonic boom. This concept was successfully tested in January 2025 with the first flight of Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 demonstrator over the Mojave Desert, California.
While this executive order may fast-track regulatory changes, it is not the only initiative to change the existing legal framework hampering the development of civilian supersonic flight in the United States.
In May 2025, Senator Ted Budd, from North Carolina, introduced the ‘SAM (Supersonic Aviation Modernization) Act’, which aims to codify a new noise-based approach to supersonic flight regulation and build a long-term legislative framework for the development of supersonic travel in the US.
