U.S. House aviation subcommittee chair targets October for markup on new supersonic flight regulations
Boom Supersonic earlier this year concluded flight tests with its XB-1 subscale demonstrator, meant to help refine the design of its planned production model, Overture. Credit: Boom Supersonic
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Calling legislative bans on overland commercial supersonic flight outdated and “ridiculous,” a leading policymaker in the U.S. House of Representatives wants to get new designs flying before the end of the decade.
Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Aviation, said he’s recently met with Boom Supersonic, a Denver-based company that earlier this year demonstrated it could fly its demonstrator aircraft greater than the speed of sound without generating a sonic boom that reached the ground. Thus, Nehls told an audience at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Aviation Summit here on Tuesday, the environment that prompted the 1973 ban no longer exists.
“When you look at supersonic, they’re saying, ‘Well, that big sonic boom, breaking grandma’s window while she’s drinking her coffee in the morning.’ That’s ridiculous,” Nels said. “Boom Aviation has proven it, and they’ve done it this year, that they can break that sound barrier and that supersonic isn’t hitting the ground.”
During flight tests, a Boom pilot manually kept the aircraft at the speed and altitude at which the sonic boom would be refracted away from the ground, but for the planned production airliners, called Overtures, that task will be done by an autopilot software the company calls Boomless Cruise.
The White House published an executive order in June ordering FAA to create rules allowing for commercial supersonic flights that meet predetermined noise standards. In May, the U.S. Senate introduced the Supersonic Aviation Modernization Act, which would revise regulations to allow for supersonic commercial flights. Nehls sponsored a companion bill in the house. The bill currently has 10 cosponsors — nine Republican and one Democrat — and has been referred to the subcommittee Nehls chairs. He said he expects the bill to be brought up in October for debate and markup, a necessary step before it can be presented to the full House for consideration.
At the summit, Nehls described the pending policy change as a way to shore up U.S. dominance in the aviation sector: “We’ve got to get more with the times. If we don’t, China will, and they’re doing it each and every day.”
With United Airlines signed on to purchase up to 50 Overtures — provided its requirements around safety, sustainability and operations are met — there’s already a demonstrated demand, Nehls said.
“We think we could have these in production, here in our fleet, so to speak, by 2030,” he said. “Let’s get it done. Could you imagine being able to go across the pond in four hours?”
Boom CEO and founder Blake Scholl, who spoke at a later session during the summit, said the order lifting the ban “blows the market wide open.”
An Overture could shave off 90 minutes from a flight from D.C. to San Francisco for around $5,000 per ticket, he said, a far lower price than that charged for flights aboard the Concordes. Despite burning more fuel than a conventional passenger aircraft and having only about 62 seats compared with up to 200 for a comparably sized Boeing 737, Scholl said the Overture would be a “flying mint, economically.”
“People pay a little more for speed, and it’s got less operating costs than a widebody, so it makes way more profit every time it flies,” he said. “And because it’s fast, you can sweat the asset. You can do twice as many flights with the same airplane crew, because the airplane’s faster in the sky and it’s faster on the ground. So it’s going to be embarrassingly profitable.”
Nehls also discussed another pressing priority: modernizing air traffic control infrastructure and addressing shortfalls in the air traffic controller workforce. He said his committee has brought in stakeholders, including union leaders and the controllers themselves, to discuss the challenges.
In addition to funding — he suggested the modernization effort could take $15 to $20 billion more than the $12.5 billion allotted to FAA in the Trump administration’s July legislative package — fixing the problem would require improving air traffic controller working conditions and quality of life, he said.
“We’re in it with both feet,” Nehls said of the changes in progress. “We have to demonstrate we’re the gold standard in aviation.”
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