FAA Proposes Noise Rule for Supersonic Flight Over Land | Aviation International News

Regulations and Government

FAA Proposes Noise Rule for Supersonic Flight Over Land

NPRM seeks to end blanket overland ban

NASA’s X-59 in flight — NASA's experimental X-59 supersonic demonstrator, seen on a March 2026 test flight near the agency's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, is designed to soften the sonic boom to a quieter "thump." © Jim Ross/NASA

By Hanneke Weitering • Science & Technology Editor

June 30, 2026

The FAA has proposed replacing its decades-old ban on civil supersonic flight over land with a noise limit, allowing aircraft to fly faster than Mach 1 over the U.S. as long as the sonic boom they produce does not reach the ground above a set threshold.

Under the notice of proposed rulemaking that FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford signed on Tuesday, operators could fly supersonically without a special authorization if sonic boom overpressure at the surface stays no higher than 0.11 pounds per square foot. That performance-based standard would replace the speed-based prohibition the FAA enacted in 1973.

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