Travelers in Atlanta and New Orleans have been frustrated by long waits at TSA security checkpoints during the partial government shutdown, as spring break travel peaks. (WAGA, WVUE)
US air travelers could begin traveling faster than the speed of sound if a House bill passes the Senate.
The House voted to legalize supersonic flight in a decisive bipartisan vote on Tuesday, with the bill passing unanimously on a voice vote early in the morning.
The world’s top passenger jets were banned by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 1973 out of concern, and no such planes have ever been produced in the US by an American-owned airline.
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Boom Supersonic XB-1 Flight 12 test flight, taken on Jan. 28, 2025. (Supersonic Boom)
The bill, spearheaded by Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, will give the FAA a year to revise its rules to allow passenger planes to land faster than Mach 1.
But the caveat of those planes is that they must not be heard or heard by people on the ground, thus eliminating the concern of noise pollution.
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A January 1973 photo of the Concorde, a Franco-British supersonic airliner. (STF/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Nehls, who chairs the House Transportation Committee subcommittee on aviation, told Fox News Digital that his bill “will ensure that the United States does not fall behind our foreign adversaries in aviation innovation.”
“For decades, agency regulations have held back American innovation and high-flying aircraft. My bill stops that and safely ushers in the next era of aerospace innovation. The Senate must act quickly to pass this legislation to implement President Trump’s executive order and ensure that the US is a world leader in aviation,” said Nehls.
Boom Supersonic, the company behind the bill, told Fox News Digital, “We’ve shown that civil supersonic flight can be safe, efficient, and quiet. Today’s bipartisan vote is an important step toward reversing the executive order signed by the President last year that repeals the 50-year-old law, clearing the way for all of us to enjoy aviation.”
Nehls’ bill follows an executive order launched in June last year by President Donald Trump, which the White House said would roll back five decades of “outdated and overly restrictive laws.”
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Concorde Airlines is now a British-French company, famous for operating trans-Atlantic supersonic flights for 27 years in the late 20th century.
But Concorde flew its last commercial flight in 2003 after experiencing high costs, maintenance costs, and a significant decline in passenger flights following the fatal Air France crash involving a Concorde flight in July 2000, the only fatal aircraft accident in its operational history.
