Rebuttal to papers on aircraft noise by S. R. Lane at the 86th Meeting of the ASA.

This paper is a reply to views on aircraft noise in the community and in the passenger cabin of modern jet aircraft presented in three papers at the 86th Meeting of the Acoustical Society in Los Angeles, Nov. 1973 (Papers MM1, MM3, and MM11). It is argued that procedures used by the author of paper MM-1 can result in EPNL values subject to errors of as much as 8 to 15 EPN dB. Recent measurements by Boeing are quoted that are substantially in agreement with those officially determined in 1971 for 727 aircraft on take-off. It is anticipated that landing noise will show similar agreement with published data. Other Boeing measurements using an aircraft in which engine noise was essentially eliminated indicate that it is technologically impossible to achieve the low community noise levels suggested in MM3 at the present time with a viable commerical airplane. Measurements together with widely accepted hearing conservation criteria indicate that travellers are not being exposed to hazardous noise levels inside passenger cabins of modern jets as claimed in paper MM11. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]