Development of Optimizer for Noise Reduction for Military Airfields and Surrounding Areas

Emerging new military high-performance aircraft and most current fighter aircraft generate community noise footprints that are in many cases 10 times or larger in size than current transport commercial aircraft. These higher levels lead to community annoyance, expensive and restrictive noise mitigation, and restriction of operations. Noise reduction technologies have been developed and employed on commercial aircraft engines giving significant reductions in community noise. However, few, if any, of these technologies have direct application to military high-performance jet engines. DoD is funding research to develop advanced modeling tools for community noise exposure and for noise reduction techniques. These tools are being developed to improve the military’s capabilities to assess and to potentially reduce its operational noise. However, for these tools to achieve their full potential, a system needs to be developed to optimize operational flight procedures that reduce community noise exposure while minimizing nonstandard flight procedures. This optimization system will provide the most cost effective near-term solution for jet noise reduction for the military that can be applied to any military aircraft at any airfield for relatively small incremental costs. The initial localized noise reduction expected from operational modifications is expected to be approximately 3 to 6 dB DNL.