President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday ending the 52-year ban on supersonic flight over U.S. land. The order directs the FAA to scrap the overland supersonic flight ban and develop noise-based certification rules that allow supersonic travel as long as no sonic boom is heard on the ground.
The move fast-tracks supersonic passenger travel. That includes companies like Boom Supersonic, whose XB-1 demonstrator cracked the sound barrier over the U.S. earlier this year.
Boom CEO Blake Scholl sent this reaction to TechCrunch: 
“Booooom!”
“The sound barrier was never physical — it was regulatory. With supersonic legalized, the return of supersonic passenger air travel is just a matter of time.”
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy director Michael Kratsios told reporters:
“The reality is that Americans should be able to fly from New York to LA in under four hours.”
Trump also signed two other executive orders Friday on future flight tech. One speeds up drone and electric vertical takeoff vehicle development. The other sets up a federal task force on drone flight restrictions.
This is a clear push to open American airspace to faster, quieter, and more advanced aircraft. Stay tuned as the FAA moves to rewrite the rules on supersonic flight.
