The Intelligent Aerospace take:
June 25, 2019- Kratsios, President Donald Trump's nominee to be chief technology officer of the United States, argues that the time is now to re-embrace civil supersonic flight. Acting FAA administrator Daniel Elwell announced at the Paris Air Show that the agency would be overhauling supersonic air travel regulations to open up supersonic travel in and over the United States once again. Engineers have quieted down the once cacophonous sonic boom into something a bit less jarring, though a study shows that supersonic aircraft could consume 5 to 7 times as much fuel as subsonic passenger aircraft and heavily impacted air traffic regions could be exposed to 150 to 200 sonic booms per day. Exposure to aircraft noise has been linked to sleep disturbance, learning delay in children, mental health problems, and heart disease, so it's not all smooth sailing in a world more concerned with noise - and traditional - pollution.
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Jamie Whitney, Associate Editor
Intelligent Aerospace