An effective way to slow technological advance down is to deny it a market. President Trump’s new executive order instructing the FAA “to end the ban on overland supersonic flight, establish an interim noise-based certification standard, and repeal other regulations that hinder supersonic flight” is a good move.

As is noted in the fact sheet describing the order:

For more than fifty years, outdated and overly restrictive regulations have grounded the promise of supersonic flight, stifling American ingenuity and weakening our global competitiveness in aviation.

Regulations slowing or stopping technological advance. There’s a first!

The wording of the order also includes this:

President Trump has prioritized deregulation to spur innovation and economic growth. This includes issuing Executive Orders mandating the repeal of 10 regulations for each new one proposed, requiring the automatic rescission of outdated regulations, and eliminating anti-competitive regulations.

Excellent.

Hopefully, that spirit will ensure that RFK Jr. does not unleash his (not so very inner) nanny statist, that, should it get through Congress, the president vetoes any federal minimum wage increase, and that an activist FTC doesn’t hold back competitiveness and innovation.

The U.S. is now engaged in a wide-ranging technological contest with China. Giving innovators freer range to innovate is an obvious way to increase America’s chance of winning that contest.

Over at Marginal Revolution, Alex Tabarrok has a good take, quoting naysayers who point out that optimal fuel consumption is better at Mach 0.78–0.84 or that there won’t be much demand to spend the extra thousands of dollars a ticket might cost just to save a few hours.

Reasonable points, but ultimately, guesses.

Tabarrok:

In 2024, Americans spent $47 billion a year on H₂O that they could get for nearly free. That still boggles my mind—but bottled water has passed the market test. I argue for lifting the SST ban, and similar policies, not because we know supersonics will work but because we don’t. Hayek reminds us that competition is a discovery procedure. Like science, markets generate knowledge by experiment—hypotheses are posted as prices, and the public accepts or rejects them through revealed preference. Fred Smith’s FedEx plan got a “C” in the classroom, but the market graded the experiment and returned an A in equity. Theory is great, but just as in science, there is no substitute for running the experiment.

This is the way.

It was interesting to read this in the executive order’s fact sheet:

American companies developing supersonic aircraft have already entered into government contracts and agreements with major commercial airlines, such as United Airlines and American Airlines, who have committed to purchase supersonic jets to enhance their fleets with faster travel options.

That airlines have shown interest in this project and presumably put at least some money at risk, even if, at this stage — to guess — not very much, is worth noting.

James Pethokoukis has more:

 Despite President Kennedy’s 1963 vision to build “a commercially successful supersonic transport superior to that being built in any other country,” America abandoned the race just as the finish line came into view. The decision followed flawed Oklahoma City sonic boom tests—using military fighters, not purpose-built airliners—that environmental activists weaponized against the technology. Even though three-quarters of residents said they could tolerate the booms, Congress chose caution over competition.

Positively Brussels-like. Note that the Concorde was an Anglo-French project that predated British membership of the proto-EU and dates from a time in which the idea that Brussels would have any say in such a matter would be absurd.

Pethokoukis also links to this Wall Street Journal report, partly about an early-stage company called Boom (great name!), which has developed a small prototype, but read on to see this (my emphasis added):

Other players are working on superfast flight, for both military and commercial applications. Lockheed Martin has paired with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a supersonic jet that flies without creating a deafening sonic boom. Atlanta-based startup Hermeus, which is working on a jet that would fly at hypersonic speed, five times the speed of sound, said this month that it successfully tested an unmanned prototype. Meanwhile, China’s state-owned Comac has said it aims to build a quiet supersonic jet.

Technological competition with China will play out on many fronts.