10/17/1977: US Supreme Court Clears Concorde for JFK Trials

Today, in 1977, the US Supreme Court denied a request to keep Concorde out of John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), clearing the way for the supersonic aircraft to begin trial flights to New York. The decision left an appeals court ruling against the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s ban in place.

Air France (AF) and British Airways (BA) had challenged the airport operator’s restrictions. The dispute centered on noise around JFK and whether Concorde would receive a fair opportunity to meet the airport’s standards.

The Ban on Concorde

The Port Authority barred Concorde from JFK on March 11, 1976, initially for no more than six months while it studied operations elsewhere. It cited concerns about low-frequency vibrations that it believed the existing noise limit did not adequately capture.

The airport’s established standard was 112 perceived noise decibels (PNdB) at selected monitoring points. According to the September 29, 1977, appeals court opinion, revised operating procedures submitted by the airlines showed that Concorde could meet that standard; the FAA had confirmed the submission’s technical validity.

The Second Circuit upheld the order ending the ban, finding the Port Authority’s prolonged delay unlawful. It also preserved the airport operator’s power to adopt a new, reasonable and nondiscriminatory noise standard. The decision did not exempt Concorde from airport noise rules.

Justice Thurgood Marshall temporarily stayed the appeals court decision on October 7. The Supreme Court’s October 17 refusal to continue the stay removed the remaining legal obstacle to flights.

From Trials to Passenger Service

Concorde made its first test landing at JFK on October 19, 1977, two days after the Supreme Court decision, according to contemporaneous UPI reporting published in The Daily Iowan.

Scheduled passenger service followed on November 22, 1977, with Air France flying from Paris and British Airways from London. The State Department’s historical record confirms the November 22 passenger-service launch, distinguishing it from the earlier trial flights.

Contemporaneous TF1 coverage preserved by France’s INA documents the two airlines’ inaugural commercial flights to New York.

The New York routes became part of Concorde’s passenger career, which ended in 2003. Airways has also chronicled the aircraft’s final flight to Filton that November.

Featured image: Air France's 'White Bird' Concorde. Article sources: The New York Times, aerotime.aero, thepointsguy.com.