Shoehorning in the jet age

Abstract

The introduction into commercial service of jet air transports preceded the codification of U.S. federal aviation noise regulatory policy by nearly two decades. The immediate problem that had to be solved to permit jet operations in 1958 at New York airports was to determine that the noisiness of jet airplane would be no greater than that of the largest propeller-driven aircraft then in operation. This paper describes the efforts made for the Port of New York Authority to meet and enforce that mandate. BBN made noise measurements of many propeller aircraft takeoffs in the community off the main runway at Idlewild at distances of 2.5 miles and greater from the start of take-off roll. Each measurement was associated with airplane type, gross weight, and altitude. The Boeing 707 was similarly measured at Boeing’s airport. Relative annoyance judgments were made in the laboratory to establish equivalent noisiness of jet and propeller spectra, and ‘‘Perceived Noise Levels’’ were determined by a process similar to loudness calculations. Boeing was forced to equip the 707 with multi-tube mufflers and, and jet take-off procedures had to be modified to maintain equivalent perceived noise levels. The substantive findings and politics of these efforts are discussed.