Trump Clears U.S. For Supersonic Flights Ending +50 Year Ban

The new Trump executive order requires the FAA to repeal its “prohibition on overland supersonic flight, establish an interim noise-based-certification standard, and repeal other regulations that hinder supersonic flight.”

Commercial aviation is currently prohibited from flying at supersonic speeds over the continental United States.  The Concorde is not flown anymore, but when it did, it was out of New York, so the sonic boom occurred over the Atlantic Ocean.

The military has specific areas where supersonic flight can occur.  Northwestern Ohio is one such area, with local media warning residents of the possibility of sonic booms.   Most military supersonic flight occurs over the Mojave Desert, near Edwards Air Force Base.  Test flights have occurred there since the 1950’s, and is where American Hero, Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier flying the X-1 in 1947.

Here’s a good Modern Marvels video I used to show in class called, Breaking the Sound Barrier.

The sonic boom from a supersonic flight can be massive and destructive.  At air shows, the Navy’s Blue Angels or the Air Force’s Thunderbirds don’t go supersonic, but mistakes have been made.  In this case, an F-16 went just over the speed of sound at an altitude of 3600 feet, and did $22,000 worth of damage.

President Trump signed the executive order repealing the ban on supersonic flight for commercial aviation because the company, Boom Supersonic, has developed a new aircraft.

When the experimental XB-1 aircraft broke the sound barrier three times during its first supersonic flight on 28 January, it did not produce a sonic boom audible from the ground, according to US company Boom Supersonic.

The jet still produces a sonic boom, but the pressure wave bends back up into space, away from the ground.  The phenomena is called, Mach cutoff, and is based on the refraction, or bending, of waves.

The speed of a wave depends on the medium through which it travels.  When a wave moves into a medium with a different wave speed, it refracts.  You can see this effect if you are underwater, and look up.

If you directed a narrow-beamed flashlight at these swimmers, the light would hit the top of the water, and reflect back toward the bottom of the pool.  A person standing on the edge of the pool, would not see the flashlight beam because it reflected back down.  That is called, “total internal reflection”.

If the light was directed in front of the lead swimmer, toward that circle of sky, the light would be visible.

That’s what the Boom Supersonic jet does.  The speed of sound at a high altitude is slower than it is on the ground.  The sound wave would refract away from the ground.

“This confirms what we’ve long believed: supersonic travel can be affordable, sustainable and friendly to those onboard and on the ground,” said Blake Scholl, founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic, in a press release.

Supersonic flight may not become affordable and sustainable.  The ticket price for a supersonic flight from New York to London on the Concorde was about three times the price of a conventional first class ticket. Fuel consumption goes up dramatically at supersonic speeds.

President Trump seems to be removing FAA restrictions to allow Boom Supersonic the opportunity to make a go of it.  Whether or not their flights will be commercially viable, aviation will benefit from the research and development.