FAA proposal: Supersonic airliners can fly over US cities if they’re quiet

The FAA proposed noise standards for civilian supersonic aircraft, moving to lift the decades-old ban on flights exceeding Mach 1 over U.S. land due to sonic booms. The proposal establishes a noise-based certification threshold of ground-level overpressure at or below 0.11 pounds per square foot to enable supersonic flight over the continental United States. The approach uses a flight technique called Mach cutoff, which combines aircraft design, atmospheric conditions, speed and altitude to make the sonic boom bend and refract up into the atmosphere—significantly reducing the ground-level impact.

Source: Ars Technica | 2026-07-02