Calculations have been carried out to estimate the absorbed-dose and dose-equivalent rates at various depths in the atmosphere produced by an energetic solar flare—the flare of February 23, 1956. The dose rates are determined both by computing flux spectra using air only and applying flux-to-dose conversion factors and by computing the dose rates in tissue using an air-tissue-air arrangement. The two methods of calculation are in reasonable agreement when the flux-to-dose factors are applied to the forward-flux spectra, but the calculations indicate that previous results obtained using omnidirectional-flux spectra overestimate the dose rates. Also, the effect of the fuel carried by a supersonic aircraft on the dose received by the passengers in the event of a solar flare has been considered and found not to be substantial.