New ideas to minimise aircraft noise
As airports get bigger and more aeroplanes fly the skies, the EU is looking at different ways to minimise aircraft noise pollution. The EU-funded project 'Community oriented solutions to minimise aircraft noise annoyance' (COSMA) made formidable progress in this respect. The project worked not only on lowering noise levels but on improving the characteristics and signatures of the noise. To achieve its aims, the project team synthesised the sounds of an aeroplane flying overhead to understand aircraft noise and develop effective tools to be used in minimising annoyance for communities near airports. It worked with aircraft sound designers, noise engineers and noise effects experts, in addition to integrating research from academia, industry and the health sector. COSMA considered how the sound of future flyovers could be lessened and investigated the potential for annoyance reduction. More specifically, the project developed techniques to model the impact of aircraft noise on communities around airports. It created a database of noise including take-off and landing events for different aircraft, and developed a tool to generate sound files from recordings or simulations. Several other related databases and tools were also developed to further research and development on the topic, including the Aviation Noise Impact Knowledge Base and Exchange Mechanism (ANIKBEM). The dedicated sound engineering tool developed enables accurate synthesis and analysis of aircraft flyover noise events in airport communities. The tool comprises one component for interactive sound quality analysis of single aircraft flyovers and another for multiple-event sound sequences in real airport scenarios. COSMA represented the first attempt to articulate a unified approach to understanding sound quality and community acceptance among the design constraints and procedural requirements. The results of this project will take the research community closer to creating a reliable design tool to help produce less noisy aircraft. This will ultimately help alleviate annoyance for millions living near airports while strengthening Europe's pioneering leadership in aeronautics, taking aircraft noise engineering into a new era.
Keywords
Aircraft noise, aeroplane, sound design, airports, noise engineer, flyover, aeronautics
