Environmentalists and some European nations are set to clash with the United States over a possible comeback of supersonic travel, saying efforts to set noise guidelines by the middle of the decade could weaken efforts to fight climate change.
Nearly two decades after the last flight of Anglo-French Concorde, a panel of United Nations aviation experts is meeting from Monday and will consider updating a decades-old supersonic noise standard by 2025, according to meeting papers seen by Reuters.
Montreal-based ICAO sets standards on everything from runway markings to crash investigations, which its 193 member states typically translate into regulatory requirements. The very technical discussion is key for a niche market promising to create thousands of jobs. Boom plans a North Carolina plant and has orders from United Airlines .
"A patchwork of local, different regulations would be very difficult, if not impossible, to manage," Carnelly said.