How the U.S. Plans to Make Air Travel 5 Times Faster Than the Speed of Sound

Air travel quickly moves people and cargo around the nation and the world, and connects people with each other at unprecedented speeds. It plays a critical, unique role in the nation’s transportation system. The U.S. Government will continue exploring new technologies that will enhance global connectivity at greater speed.

As the U.S. Government prioritizes the integration of new aerospace technologies into the NAS, these technologies have the potential to provide improved connectivity and speed to communities across the country. AAM vehicles operating as would-be air taxis have the potential to provide people with a new and exciting way to move around their communities. Drones flying at BVLOS can be used to transport high-value goods such as medical supplies point-to-point with unprecedented speed and efficiency. The U.S. Government will create pathways to ensure these technologies can be safely, equitably, and sustainably incorporated into the NAS, thereby promoting connectivity and speed.

To remain a global leader in aeronautics, the U.S. Government will advance connectivity and speed, while maintaining the unprecedented safety of air travel, and ensuring the environmental sustainability of the aviation sector. Beyond improvements to operations for traditional subsonic aircraft, increasing airspeed provides another approach to enhancing connectivity. Supersonic flight is defined as speeds faster than the speed of sound (Mach 1). Supersonic flight has seen emerging commercial interest for cargo and passenger transportation. Hypersonic flight is defined by flight in the earth’s atmosphere at speeds greater than Mach 5 for extended periods of time. It also draws upon and drives development of technologies in both air and space domains. Hypersonic flight systems will shorten national security crisis response times, while providing unique capabilities to the aeronautics enterprise. The U.S. Government will develop these technologies and systems via national collaborations across the Federal government, industry, academia, National Laboratories and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers, and University Affiliated Research Centers, as well as collaboration with allies and international partners.

For supersonic flight, the U.S. Government will enable the generation of key data to support the development of enroute certification standards based on acceptable noise levels. It will take a systematic approach involving aircraft development, acoustic validation, and community response testing. R&D will be required to solve the other challenges of sustainable supersonic transportation, including reducing landing and take-off noise and high-altitude emissions, and significantly increased airframe and engine efficiency.

Hypersonic flight systems could, in the future, support national needs for time-critical transportation of cargo, people, and payloads. R&D related to hypersonic applications, ranging from aerodynamics to high-speed propulsion, advanced materials, and resilient guidance, navigation, and control, is critical for U.S. national security. The U.S. Government will continue to empower private-sector innovation to realize a vision for aircraft-enabled, reusable space vehicles through hypersonic flight.