Legislation to Lift Ban on Supersonic Flight Filed by North Carolina Senators

North Carolina’s two U.S. senators filed legislation Wednesday that would rescind the 52-year-old ban on passenger supersonic flight over the United States.

The legislation — there’s also a U.S. House version — would require the Federal Aviation Administration administrator to issue regulations legalizing civil supersonic flight.

Ted Budd is primary sponsor of the U.S. Senate version of the “Supersonic Aviation Modernization (SAM) Act” with Thom Tillis as a co-sponsor. Budd serves on the senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committee.

FAA regulations have prohibited all supersonic flight over the U.S. since 1973 — regardless of whether a sonic boom reaches the ground.

The bills are in direct response to Boom Supersonic’s demonstrations in January and February that supersonic flight can take place over land at a certain height without the disruptive sonic boom.

If Boom’s Overture commercial passenger aircraft is approved for supersonic flight over land, a flight across the U.S. — beginning potentially as early as 2029 — could be at least 90 minutes quicker than current top flight speeds under what Boom is calling “Boomless Cruise’ mode.

“The race for supersonic dominance between the U.S. and China is already under way and the stakes couldn’t be higher,” Budd said in a statement.

According to the news release, China recently announced plans to develop supersonic passenger aircraft.

“To maintain our global leadership in aerospace innovation, we must modernize air travel by lifting the outdated ban on civil supersonic flight ... allowing for faster air travel,” Budd said.

“This is a critical step to ensure America leads the next era of aviation.”

Boom reached a key milestone June 17 with the completion of its $500 million “superfactory” at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro.

The airport factory has 150,000 square feet on the production floor, 24,000 square feet for office space and 5,000 square feet for the receiving area.

The company has pledged to create at least 1,781 jobs at full production by 2029-30.

“Supersonic flight without an audible sonic boom should obviously be allowed,” said Blake Scholl, Boom’s founder and chief executive.

“The ban on supersonic has held back progress for more than half a century. I urge Congress to pass (the act) so we can all enjoy faster flights and maintain American leadership in aviation.”

Sonic booms have been demonstrated to cause structural damage, such as cracked windows and damaged roofs, while being a brief, but disruptively loud noise considered minimally harmful to humans and animals.

Boom’s supersonic data points from Jan. 28 and Feb. 10 test flights at Mojave Air and Space Port in California demonstrated that the sonic booms were not felt on the ground.

A NASA chart explains the air pressure science behind a sonic boom: essentially that “air reacts like a fluid to supersonic objects. As objects travel through the air, the air molecules are pushed aside with great force and this forms a shock wave much like a boat creates a bow wave.”

“The bigger and heavier the aircraft, the more air it displaces.”

Scholl said the technological breakthrough wasn’t as much the design of XB-1, and soon to be Overture, but rather determining “the altitude and the speed relative to the current atmospheric conditions.”

“Sound waves bend toward colder temperatures in the upper atmosphere, so they make a U-shape as they come off the aircraft,” Scholl said.

“If you fly at too low of an altitude or are going too high of a speed, those waves will hit the ground, and that’s when you hear a sonic boom.”

Scholl said that under the appropriate flight conditions, typically an altitude of 35,000 to 36,000 feet, the sound waves flow to a “cutoff altitude” before curling upward “so that no one ever hears it.”

The Overture airline is projected to fly at an altitude of up to 60,000 feet.

Boom plans to initially operate Overture at Mach 0.94 over land. That speed is about 20% faster than today’s subsonic jets, but below the breaking of the sound barrier at Mach 1.

Each one-tenth beyond Mach 1 represents a 10% increase beyond the speed of sound, so Mach 1.1 is 10% faster, Mach 1.2 is 20% faster and Mach 1.3 is 30% faster, and so on.

The plan is to break the sound barrier over water at up to Mach 1.7.

Supersonic commercial airline flight also has been banned over land by global aviation law.

The International Civil Aviation Organization, representing 193 countries including the U.S., agreed in April on new global supersonic aircraft noise standards, based in part on Boom’s new technology.

The next step comes in October when the proposals will be considered by the International Civil Aviation Organization Council.

The global group also said its work on sustainable aviation fuels — another key operational factor for Boom’s Overture — “will accelerate the certification of new sustainable fuel pathways, which are critical for achieving the sector’s vision of 5% carbon dioxide emissions reduction through cleaner energies by 2030.”

The International Civil Aviation Organization also aligned on a recommended new standard for landing and takeoff noise that takes into account Boom’s planned advanced noise reduction procedures.

Boom’s Overture passenger aircraft will have the same landing and takeoff noise footprint as today’s subsonic long-haul aircraft.

Boom’s next development step is proving commercial supersonic flight is valid, sustainable and scalable for an aircraft projected to hold between 65 and 80 passengers.

Boom already has 130 orders and pre-orders from United Airlines, American Airlines and Japan Airlines.

The Overture timeline at Piedmont Triad International Airport remains:

The initial Boom projection is producing up to 33 Overture aircraft annually at a projected price tag of $200 million apiece.

The goal is to produce 66 Overture aircraft annually at full production.

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