In 1973, the Federal Aviation Administration banned supersonic commercial flights over land because of sonic booms — a prohibition that remains in effect today.

The era of unrestricted supersonic overland flight effectively ended in the United States on April 27, 1973, when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officially banned civil aircraft from flying at speeds exceeding Mach 1 over land. This regulation was born out of public outcry during the 1960s as the U.S. government conducted "Operation Bongo II" and other tests to see how sonic booms affected residential areas. The tests revealed that the thunderous shocks caused significant property damage, such as shattered windows and cracked plaster, and created immense psychological distress for both people and livestock. This ban was a major blow to the commercial viability of supersonic transports (SSTs) like the Concorde, which was forced to fly at subsonic speeds until it reached the ocean. While modern aerospace companies are currently developing "low-boom" technology, such as NASA's X-59, to prove that supersonic flight can be quiet, the 1973 ban remains the foundational legal barrier that has kept commercial aviation at subsonic speeds for over half a century.