Sound engineering for aircraft (SEFA) : First results of listening examinations

Kurzfassung

Against the background of steadily increasing air traffic and more and more people being affected by aircraft noise, additional efforts are necessary to investigate alternative means for the acceptance of aircraft noise, since the potential of reducing noise will be limited in the future in view of current progress in technical research after having been realized in practice. Therefore a novel approach for manipulating aircraft sounds has been launched by a multi-disciplinary research group, taking into account the frequency spectrum of sounds. A major objective of the project `Sound Engineering for Aircraft´ (SEFA) is to reduce annoyance of people affected by aircraft noise by revealing and ranking the most disturbing aircraft sounds and define target sounds which are perceived as more pleasant and that can be technically achieved by aircraft manufacturers in the future. This requires extensive psychometric examinations in an inter-cultural setting. Results and rankings of most common current aircraft sounds, originally recorded at European airports, and of synthetically modified aircraft sounds will be presented, acquainted in extensive laboratory examinations in seven European countries using Paired Comparison and Semantic Differential data. The SEFA project (Feb 2004 - Jan 2007) is supported by the EC, 6th framework program and involves 20 partners from 8 different countries.