Supersonic flight is making a comeback decades after the Concorde. But one big hurdle remains

The skies of Oklahoma City roared for six months in 1964 as military aircraft intentionally rattled the population below with a daily barrage of thunderous sonic booms. It was a controversial test — the consequences of which have lingered to this day.

The booms — 1,253 in total — were part of an effort by the US Federal Aviation Administration to gauge the public’s attitude toward supersonic flight. Faster than the speed of sound, such flights hold the potential to cut travel time in half. But the test was a major catalyst would eventually spell doom for commercial supersonic journeys over the United States.

Congress canceled funding in 1971 for Boeing’s proposed supersonic aircraft, the 2707, leaving only two contestants in the passenger supersonic race: Europe’s Concorde and the Soviet Union’s ill-fated rival model, the Tupolev Tu-144. Then, the FAA effectively banned civilian supersonic flight over land in the US in 1973 by prohibiting civil aircraft from flying faster than Mach 1, or the sound barrier, thus preventing sonic booms. Concorde became the only commercial supersonic airliner, flying the skies from 1976 to 2003. The jet never had a successor.

Now, some 50 years on from the ban, a new era of supersonic flight seems within reach. The FAA in June for reimagined rules on supersonic flight. The document includes switching from a speed-based to a noise-based standard and repealing the 1973 prohibition. The agency is aiming to finalize these new standards by mid-2027.

“It’s a long time in coming,” said Juan Alonso, a professor in the department of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University in California. “I think it’s a welcome legislation, and I would say NASA and the US industry have been pushing in this direction for a very long time.”