★
Executive Orders Historical Archive
Cite
Executive Order 14304 🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority Constitutional Fidelity (+0.60) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Leading the World in Supersonic Flight

•
Friday, June 6, 2025
•
4 min read (862 words)
•
90 Fed. Reg. 24717

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 4 min read (862 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

The Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) shall take the necessary steps, including through rulemaking, to repeal the prohibition on overland supersonic flight in 14 CFR 91.817 within 180 days of the date of this order and establish an interim noise-based certification standard, making any modifications to 14 CFR 91.818 as necessary, as consistent with applicable law.

⚖️ Constitutional Footing
🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority
Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Armed Forces & Military Establishments Sovereign State Governments & Localities Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants Foreign Nations & International Entities

Plain-English Translation & Framers' Constitutional Analysis

Early Statesman synthesis distilling legal jargon into practical meaning, statutory anchors, and structural constitutional impacts.

Signed by President Donald Trump on June 6, 2025, this order concerns Leading the World in Supersonic Flight. The United States stands at the threshold of a bold new chapter in aerospace innovation. For more than 50 years, outdated and overly restrictive regulations have grounded the promise of supersonic flight over land, stifling American ingenuity, weakening our global competitiveness, and ceding leadership to foreign adversaries.

Constitutional Assessment: Scrutinized through Article II, Section 2, this action exercises the President's constitutional role as Commander in Chief. Early Framers recognized broad executive discretion in commanding military forces during conflict, provided it remains bounded by congressional declarations and respects civilian domestic courts.

Key Directives & Operative Actions

▪
Regulatory Reform for Supersonic Flight

The Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) shall take the necessary steps, including through rulemaking, to repeal the prohibition on overland supersonic flight in 14 CFR 91.817 within 180 days of the date of this order and establish an interim noise-based certification standard, making any modifications to 14 CFR 91.818 as necessary, as consistent with applicable law.

▪
Advancing Supersonic Research and Development

The Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) shall, in consultation with the heads of relevant executive departments and agencies (agencies), including the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Transportation, and the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, coordinate supersonic research and development through the National Science and Technology Council, with the goal of: (i) identifying RDT&E needs for regulatory development, commercial viability, and operational integration of supersonic aircraft into the National Airspace System; (ii) coordinating federally funded RDT&E and industry-led testing of supersonic technologies at Federal test sites; and (iii)…

▪
Promoting International Engagement on Civil Supersonic Flight Regulations

The Secretary of Transportation, acting through the Administrator of the FAA, and in consultation with the Director of OSTP and the heads of other agencies as considered appropriate by the Director of OSTP, shall engage the International Civil Aviation Organization and key foreign partners to seek global alignment regarding supersonic regulatory approaches.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments 🏛️ Sovereign State Governments & Localities 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 🏛️ Foreign Nations & International Entities
🏛️

The Framers' Constitutional Council

1787 Prism

Evaluating this order against the constitutional debates of 1787 and the limits of Article II executive power.

🏛️✅ Zone 1 (Maximum Authority)
§

"When the President acts pursuant to an express or implied authorization of Congress, his authority is at its maximum, for it includes all that he possesses in his own right plus all that Congress can delegate."

— Justice Robert H. Jackson, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952) Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
JM

James Madison

Separation of Powers & Legislative Primacy

"The constitutional magistracy was designed not to invent policy, but to be the faithful instrument of the laws passed by the people's representatives." — Speech in the First Congress (1789)

Madison would approve the structural posture of this order. The President acts strictly in subordination to statutory authority granted under Article II, Section 3 ("take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed"). The checks and balances hold firm because the policy origin remains with the legislature.

Madisonian Stance: Concurring (Statutory)
AH

Alexander Hamilton

The Energetic Executive & Unified Command

"The direction of war implies the direction of the common strength; and the power of directing and employing the common strength must be under the direction of the single hand of the Executive." — Federalist No. 74 (1788)

Hamilton would forcefully champion executive discretion here. For foreign entanglements, commerce defense, and national security, deliberative assemblies are too slow and faction-ridden. A unified, energetic Executive exercising swift command is precisely what the Philadelphia Convention intended for national preservation.

Hamiltonian Stance: Strong Prerogative Support
GM

George Mason

Bill of Rights, Due Process & 10th Amendment

"The president will be surrounded by flatterers and sycophants... and the great powers of the executive will gradually absorb the liberties of the people." — Cato IV (Anti-Federalist, 1787)

The Anti-Federalist prism advises continuous democratic vigilance. Even routine administrative directives aggregate centralized federal power away from town halls and state assemblies toward a distant executive apparatus.

Anti-Federalist Stance: Eternal Vigilance Required
📐

Five Measurable "Constitutional Friction" Dimensions

An objective audit measuring potential separation-of-powers tension against the United States Constitution and established Supreme Court doctrine.

⚖️ Discretionary Twilight Zone
36 / 100 friction index
Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8

Legislative Encroachment & Purse

Moderate Friction

Administers commerce or fiscal programs requiring ongoing statutory delegation and legislative oversight.

Benchmark: Power of the purse, taxes/tariffs, and rule of law reserved to Congress.
Dimension 2 • Art. II, §1 & §3

Executive Scope & Faithfulness

Moderate Friction

Directs internal executive branch machinery, agency workflows, and federal personnel.

Benchmark: Faithfully execute laws enacted by Congress vs. unilateral decree.
Dimension 3 • 10th Amendment

Federalism & State Sovereignty

Moderate Friction

Engages state and local partners in cooperative federalism programs.

Benchmark: Police powers and un-delegated responsibilities reserved to the States.
Dimension 4 • 5th & 14th Amendments

Due Process & Individual Rights

Low Friction

Focuses on internal governmental operations with no direct impairment of private rights or property.

Benchmark: Protection of private property, contracts, liberty, and procedural justice.
Dimension 5 • Separation of Powers

Youngstown Jacksonian Tier

Low Friction

The President operates strictly as the constitutional Chief Executive, carrying out policy established by Congress with strong statutory backing.

Benchmark: Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
⚖️ Audit Synthesis

This order operates within Justice Jackson’s Zone of Twilight, resting upon concurrent presidential authority or congressional silence.

Weighted composite: Art. I (25%), Art. II (25%), Federalism (15%), Due Process (15%), Youngstown (20%).
ℹ️
How to read these dimensions: Executive power expands whenever an administration acts without explicit statutory authorization from Congress (Article I), touches upon police powers historically reserved to the states (Tenth Amendment), or limits private rights and property without judicial process. A low friction score indicates strict concordance with enacted law; a high friction score highlights orders testing the limits of presidential discretion.
Total Words
862
5,745 characters
Estimated Read Time
4 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
18.9
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.60
Constitutional Fidelity
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document
FR Page 24717

Executive Order 14304 of June 6, 2025 Leading the World in Supersonic Flight By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:

Section 1 . #sec-1

Purpose. The United States stands at the threshold of a bold new chapter in aerospace innovation. For more than 50 years, outdated and overly restrictive regulations have grounded the promise of supersonic flight over land, stifling American ingenuity, weakening our global competitiveness, and ceding leadership to foreign adversaries. Advances in aerospace engineering, materials science, and noise reduction now make supersonic flight not just possible, but safe, sustainable, and commercially viable. This order begins a historic national effort to reestablish the United States as the undisputed leader in high-speed aviation. By updating obsolete standards and embracing the technologies of today and tomorrow, we will empower our engineers, entrepreneurs, and visionaries to deliver the next generation of air travel, which will be faster, quieter, safer, and more efficient than ever before.

Sec. 2 . #sec-2

Regulatory Reform for Supersonic Flight. (a) The Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) shall take the necessary steps, including through rulemaking, to repeal the prohibition on overland supersonic flight in 14 CFR 91.817 within 180 days of the date of this order and establish an interim noise-based certification standard, making any modifications to 14 CFR 91.818 as necessary, as consistent with applicable law. The Administrator of the FAA shall also take immediate steps to repeal 14 CFR 91.819 and 91.821 , which will remove additional regulatory barriers that hinder the advancement of supersonic aviation technology in the United States. (b) Within 18 months of the date of this order, the Administrator of the FAA shall issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to establish a standard for supersonic aircraft noise certification under 14 CFR Part 36 and amend 14 CFR 91.817 . The proposed rule shall define acceptable noise thresholds for takeoff, landing, and en-route supersonic operation based on operational testing and research, development, testing, and evaluation (RDT&E) data as identified in subsection 3(a) of this order, and considering community acceptability, economic reasonableness, and technological feasibility. The proposed rule shall further specify a process for periodic review and update of the rule to reflect future advances in aircraft noise reduction technology. Any final rule in connection with the NPRM shall be issued within 24 months of the date of this order.

Sec. 3 . #sec-3

Advancing Supersonic Research and Development. (a) The Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) shall, in consultation with the heads of relevant executive departments and agencies (agencies), including the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Transportation, and the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, coordinate supersonic research and development through the National Science and Technology Council, with the goal of: (i) identifying RDT&E needs for regulatory development, commercial viability, and operational integration of supersonic aircraft into the National Airspace System; (ii) coordinating federally funded RDT&E and industry-led testing of supersonic technologies at Federal test sites; and

FR Page 24718

(iii) collecting and sharing the results of such RDT&E in a manner suitable for informing domestic regulatory development and international science and technology engagement on civil supersonic matters. (b) The Director of OSTP shall provide the results of the coordinated efforts in subsection (a) of this section to the Administrator of the FAA to inform the development of future procedures, regulations, and policies, including those related to the certification of civil supersonic aircraft and noise and environmental standards called for in this section 3.

Sec. 4 . #sec-4

Promoting International Engagement on Civil Supersonic Flight Regulations. (a) The Secretary of Transportation, acting through the Administrator of the FAA, and in consultation with the Director of OSTP and the heads of other agencies as considered appropriate by the Director of OSTP, shall engage the International Civil Aviation Organization and key foreign partners to seek global alignment regarding supersonic regulatory approaches. (b) The Administrator of the FAA, under the supervision of the Secretary of Transportation and in coordination with the Secretary of State, shall seek to secure bilateral aviation safety agreements with foreign aviation authorities as necessary for the safe international operation of supersonic aircraft.

Sec. 5 . #sec-5

General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect: (i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or (ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals. (b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations. (c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person. (d) The costs for publication of this order shall be borne by the Federal Aviation Administration.

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

June 6, 2025.

🏛️Official NARA Filing:FR Doc. 2025-10800 Filed 6-10-25; 11:15 am
Billing Codes: 4910-13-P
📜

Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 14,304, 90 Fed. Reg. 24,717 (June 6, 2025).