Reducing Airplane Noise
Reported July 2005
WASHINGTON (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- You don't have to live <em>right</em> next door to an airport to hear the roar of jetliners cruising overhead. Now, engineers have unveiled a new landing plan that may help our friendly skies be a little quieter.
Tamara Koch, who lives near an airport, doesn't have to see the planes flying overhead to know they are there. "It's annoying, and it disturbs you with whatever it is that you're doing at the time," Koch says.
Koch may not be able to stop the noise overhead, but now, acoustical engineers may have found a way to make that noise a little more bearable. Kevin Shepherd, Ph.D., an acoustical engineer from NASA Langley in Hampton, Va., says, "The idea is to keep the airplanes higher than they conventionally are."
During traditional landings, airplanes descend and fly at low altitudes many miles from the runway. This brings the engine roar closer to more people. The new landing procedure, called continuous descent approach, keeps airplanes higher until they're much closer to the airport. This means planes will still be seen, but less of the noise will be heard.
Shepherd says, "Instead of descending and then flying level and then descending, they just descend the whole way. This is the reduction of six, eight or even 10 decibels."
The noise level of a jet engine could actually be cut in <em>half</em> and that's not all. The new landing plan uses less fuel, which could end up saving jet-setters like Koch some cash.
"It would be great to have a little less air traffic, on the other hand living so close to National Airport for us is very convenient if we want to take a trip," Koch says. So whether she is up there or down here, flying is about to get friendlier.
UPS already uses the new continuous descent procedure at some airports and is interested in implementing the procedure every place it operates.
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