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detour transportation COURTESY PHOTOGRAPHY Will Commercial Supersonic Flight Resume? Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947 and the Concorde entered commercial airline service in 1976. It's about time to zip around the globe again. I wasn't lucky enough to fly in the supersonic Concorde back in the days that Air France and British Airways carried well-heeled and expense account travelers at twice the speed of sound (Mach 2). I have a few friends that made those three-hour journeys from New York or D.C. to London or Paris. It was a costly first-class ticket and they didn't get one of those keen seats that unfold into a bed. But at that alactrity you hardly needed a night's sleep. Fast-forward to today when that East Coast to Europe trip takes a bit over seven hours and more than ten hours from San Diego. ese days if you book first class on long flights, you'll want that comfy seat that converts into a bed. at's also true in your Gulfstream G700 or even Air Force One. ose options may soon change according to a couple of supersonic startups. In vivid contrast to its company name, Boom Supersonic has made substantial progress in quieting the noise reaching the earth from its supersonic aircraft. e trick is flying at an altitude and airspeed where a sonic boom is refracted in the atmosphere and doesn't reach the ground. e company asserted that its aircraft design coupled with sophisticated altitude and speed control systems would deliver this hushed overflight and its XB-1 supersonic test plane recently proved the concept. It wasn't a noise ruling that's held back non-military supersonic flight, it was our government-imposed speed limit proclaimed by the U.S. Congress 52-years ago. Since speed doesn't have to be directly connected with sound, on May 14 a congressional group introduced the Supersonic Aviation Modernization Act. e bill reasonably asks the FAA to allow flights over land at any speed as long as they don't produce a sonic boom at ground level. en on June 6, President Trump weighed in with an executive order directing the FAA to lift the ban with the same logic. ese recent government moves are a shot in the arm for the relatively few aviation startups with plans to build commercial supersonic aircraft. BY BRIAN DOUGLAS ranchandcoast.com 96 SEPTEMBER 2025 RANCH & COAST MAGAZINE