CVN Flight Operations: Crossing the Aircraft/Ship Interface

Abstract

ABSTRACT Flight Operations are the lifeblood of US Navy aircraft carriers, a fact that will continue on the CVX project. Such operations expose both Flight Deck and below deck personnel—the personnel at the aircraft/ship interface—to various degrees of intermittent noise. Some of these noise levels have been documented, in at‐sea measurements, on two operational carriers. These measurements provided the first detailed, systematic quantification of sound pressure levels, noise frequency content, time duration, and shipboard occurrence of events.This paper provides the current status of engineering efforts aimed at mitigating below‐deck noise levels and examines some of the currently‐available medical information relating to hearing loss, hearing conservation, and physiological response to high intermittent noise levels. The information presented herein will be used in the design of future aircraft carriers—ships that will be in service through the close of the twenty‐first century.