New York to Los Angeles in 3 hours? Executive order could make it possible by 2027, reopening the door for commercial supersonic flight
August 9, 2025
Supersonic commercial travel could soon be coming to the U.S. following a new executive order lifting a 52-year ban on overland commercial supersonic flights.
While supersonic flights could cross the Atlantic, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) banned overland commercial supersonic flights in 1973 in response to public pressure over noise concerns.
The new executive order, issued on June 6, lifts that ban and lays out a timeline for the introduction of noise-based certification rules for supersonic flights.
This move could cut travel time between New York and Los Angeles almost in half, from six to just 3.5 hours.
Before the ban, the U.S., France, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union all pursued commercial applications for supersonic aviation technology.
But each country’s supersonic aircraft created deafening, window-shattering sounds at ground level.
The Soviet Union's Tu-144 design, meanwhile, depended heavily on loud afterburners for the aircraft to reach Mach 1 (767 mph, or 1,235 km/h) --- or faster than the speed of sound.
Today, companies like Boom Supersonic create "boomless cruise" where an aircraft can fly above 30,000 feet (9,100 meters), reach Mach 1 and produce no ground-level sounds --- a phenomenon known as Mach cutoff.
Boom's aircraft achieved this milestone in January 2025, when it completed a test flight that successfully propelled sonic booms upward, causing them to dissipate before reaching the ground.
Boom faces competition from Lockheed Martin and its research partner NASA in the form of their X-59 supersonic demonstrator jet.
The X-59's design places the airplane's engines on top of the fuselage, helping to limit the shock waves, and the resulting noise, that reach ground level.
The regulatory timeline for this technology can be considered aggressive.
The new directive calls for a repeal of prohibitions on supersonic flight by Dec. 3, establish noise certification standards by Dec. 6, 2026, and implementation of final rules by June 6, 2027.
By comparison, rulemaking for usage of commercial drones went from government mandate to final implementation in four years.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/06/leading-the-world-in-supersonic-flight/
-General Kwast
I would think they have 'Mass Reduction' & other goodies in some the new military fighters & bombers. jmo
Who knows...they got swirly orbs that make planes disappear an sheit
Watch out, I got banned for a day for posting that vid. 🤨😮
No doubt.
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Or you could bring the B-58 back to life and do it in just over two hours.
About the Convair B-58 Hustler (Too good, scrap it) The B-58 Hustler Association is dedicated to providing all the facts about the United States’ best strategic bomber of its time. You’ll also learn about the crews and maintenance personnel that kept the B-58 at the forefront of our nation’s strategic deterrence. This bomber was the one feared most by our enemies during the Cold War.
The B-58 was a four engine, delta wing bomber, capable of speeds in excess of Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound). It carried a crew of three: pilot, navigator/bombardier, and defensive systems operator, each sitting in tandem in individual escape capsules. Although it was a strategic bomber, it was years ahead of its time in technological innovation and could out maneuver, out turn, and out climb most fighter aircraft of its day.
Flying at either high or low altitude it was unbeatable in speed, navigational accuracy, and its capability to accurately deliver bombs on target. Before it was fully combat ready, a B-58 crew, competing against more experienced B-47 and B-52 crews, did the unthinkable. It took first place for bombing accuracy at the 1960, Strategic Air Command, Bombing Competition. This bomber then went on to capture numerous international speed records winning five aeronautical trophies: The Thompson, Bleriot, Mackay, Bendix and Harmon trophies. The Hustler also set 14 world speed records in international competition. Many of the Hustler’s records are still intact today.
The B-58’s navigational and bombing accuracy; its capability to fly close to the speed of sound at very low altitudes; its ability to avoid detection by enemy radars; and its ability to withstand heavy turbulence at low altitudes, made it the bomber with the highest probability of destroying its assigned targets. Even when the Soviets introduced highly accurate surface-to-air missiles, B-58 crews adapted their tactics to low-level penetrations and flights to their targets. Its range, with one refueling, was more than adequate to reach its targets and its strategic value actually increased when forced into this low-level penetration mode.
The B-58 began its operational career in 1960 as Convair, its maker, started delivering the ‘Hustler’ to Carswell Air Force Base in Texas and Bunker Hill Air Force Base in Indiana. Carswell B-58s were later moved to Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas. Follow along and get the rest of the rest of the story using the menus above.
Learn more in this great interview with Colonel George Holt Jr. by Joe Coles of Hush-Kit Aviation Blog
This is great. Thanks. One of my favorite movies is Fail-Safe (1964) and they used them, even the placement of the three men in the plane was inaccurate, that first introduced me to this beast. I remember my stepdad telling me one time though that the Hustler was prone to engine fires, that was pretty much its only fault. He later worked on the B-1 and told me that the Lancer had some initial electrical problems, but it is a big, beautiful beast in its own regard. I met someone who served in Afghanistan who said the locals could always tell when a B-1 was called in because of its distinctive roar and the ability to drop a massive load of bombs at low altitude. It would scare the shit out of them. Man, I love this stuff. Not to discount the B-2 or even the B-52, but the Hustler still remains my favorite plane, with the B-1 a close second.
The tooling used to build Concorde still exists at BaE Filton airfield, stacked away in a room in Component stores.
If you need it to build another one....
What about that supersonic underground subway like tunnel that Musk was working on?
The Concorde and Tupolev-144 had service ceilings of 60,000 and 66,000 feet respectively. The SR-71 had a service ceiling of 85,000 feet. The shock overpressure diminishes with higher altitude, as the basic air pressure gets smaller.