FAA proposes permitting overland supersonic passenger flights using boomless cruise technology to replace decades-old ban

Your 6-hour flight from LA to New York is about to become a 3-hour flight. And it's legal because engineers figured out how to bend sound.

Since 1973 it's been a federal crime for any passenger plane to fly faster than the speed of sound over American soil. That's why your cross-country flight takes the same 6 hours it took your parents in the 80s. Planes got safer and more efficient. They never got faster. The law made faster illegal.

The original reason was real. In the 60s the government flew supersonic jets over Oklahoma City 8 times a day for 6 months to test public reaction. The booms cracked plaster, broke windows, and generated nearly 10,000 complaints. So the FAA banned the speed itself.

Here's what changed. The speed of sound isn't constant. It shifts with air temperature, which shifts with altitude. Fly high enough and fast enough in the right conditions and the shockwave physically bends, curving back up into the sky before it reaches the ground. The boom still happens. It just never lands.

NASA measured what people underneath actually hear: a faint rumble about as loud as normal street noise. No crack. No broken windows.

So the FAA's new rule flips the logic. Instead of banning the speed, it caps the sound allowed to hit the ground. Stay quiet and you can fly as fast as the plane will go. Boom already proved the tech works in a real test flight last year.

The last time you could fly supersonic, a Concorde ticket cost about $12,000 round trip and only crossed the ocean. The next version flies over land, over your house, and you'll never hear it coming.

Your 6-hour flight from LA to New York is about to become a 3-hour flight. And it's legal because engineers figured out how to bend sound.

Since 1973 it's been a federal crime for any passenger plane to fly faster than the speed of sound over American soil. That's why your cross-country flight takes the same 6 hours it took your parents in the 80s. Planes got safer and more efficient. They never got faster. The law made faster illegal.

The original reason was real. In the 60s the government flew supersonic jets over Oklahoma City 8 times a day for 6 months to test public reaction. The booms cracked plaster, broke windows, and generated nearly 10,000 complaints. So the FAA banned the speed itself.

Here's what changed. The speed of sound isn't constant. It shifts with air temperature, which shifts with altitude. Fly high enough and fast enough in the right conditions and the shockwave physically bends, curving back up into the sky before it reaches the ground. The boom still happens. It just never lands.

NASA measured what people underneath actually hear: a faint rumble about as loud as normal street noise. No crack. No broken windows.

So the FAA's new rule flips the logic. Instead of banning the speed, it caps the sound allowed to hit the ground. Stay quiet and you can fly as fast as the plane will go. Boom already proved the tech works in a real test flight last year.

The last time you could fly supersonic, a Concorde ticket cost about $12,000 round trip and only crossed the ocean. The next version flies over land, over your house, and you'll never hear it coming.