FAA will likely end the ban on supersonic flights

“The Federal Aviation Administration has proposed a new rule that would allow civilian aircraft to fly faster than Mach 1 over the United States if their sonic booms stay below a strict noise threshold at ground level. If finalized, the rule, along with another planned rule that would set landing and takeoff noise standards for supersonic aircraft, would end the 1970s ban on overland civilian supersonic flight,” reports The Doomslayer.

Gizmodo explains:

The Federal Aviation Administration announced a proposed rule change Tuesday that would lift the ban on supersonic flights over the continental U.S. by non-military planes, a policy that’s been in place since 1973.

Planes traveling over Mach 1 typically cause sonic booms, shock waves made by planes traveling faster than the speed of sound. Sonic booms over the land can cause property damage, as they did in the 1960s when military planes would shatter windows and break dishes in the homes below.

New technological advancements have made the 53-year-old ban obsolete, so the Trump administration wants to return over-land supersonic air travel to the U.S.. The Concorde, which flew from 1976-2003 and could travel from London to New York in just three hours, flew primarily over the Atlantic Ocean where sonic booms rarely disturbed humans living below.

‘Advances in aerospace engineering, materials science, noise reduction, and new operational concepts will eliminate the old sonic boom,’ FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said in a statement. ‘This means we can ultimately repeal the ban from the 1970s on supersonic flight over U.S. territory while minimizing noise impacts to residents in communities along the route and near airports.’

The FAA said in its announcement that the agency plans to propose another rule this year that will establish landing and takeoff noise standards for supersonic aircraft traveling over land. The goal is to give private manufacturers guidance so they can finalize designs that will allow supersonic travel over the U.S.

Another big change in the sky is the proliferation of drones. On some American farms, there are drones with artificial intelligence that spray fungicides to kill pests. As Bloomberg News notes, “These aerial acrobats use less than a tenth of the energy of ground tractors — and they don’t squash the crops, rut the earth or even touch the soil.”

Walmart uses drones to deliver products to some customers. It recently expanded its use of drones to three more states.

Drones are saving lives in malaria-infested western Kenya.

Drones are also providing vaccines to immunize hundreds of thousands of children in the west African nation of Ghana, protecting them against potentially lethal diseases.