ASA PRESSROOM

Acoustical Society of America
132nd Meeting Lay Language Papers


Aircraft Noise Problems and Solutions at Logan International Airport

Nancy S. Timmerman, P.E.
Noise Abatement Office, Massport
600 Control Tower
East Boston, MA 02128-2042

Popular Version of paper 2pNS3
Presented Tuesday Afternoon, December 3, 1996
3rd Joint ASA/ASJ Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii
Embargoed until December 3, 1996

People who live in virtually any metropolitan area hear noise from aircraft. Those who live very close to the airport hear more than those farther away. What can an airport do to reduce the noise on its neighbors? This paper presents the experience of Logan International Airport, in Boston, MA.

Noise abatement efforts include reduction of noise at the source, along the path, and at the receiver. There are also extra restrictions at night, when most people want to sleep. To keep an eye on how well we are doing, the airport also measures the noise, watches the planes, and responds to community complaints.

Logan is located in the city and has neighbors as close as 300 to 600 m from an active runway. It is surrounded by water on three sides, but has residential communities off every runway end but one. The airport handles about 500,000 operations per year, of which nearly half are commuter aircraft. The airport is open 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, by Federal mandate.

To control the noise at the source:

1. Logan prohibits operation of supersonic aircraft, except in emergency.
2. Logan (and the US) prohibits operation of Class 1 (untreated) jets.
3. Logan prohibits operation of Class 2 jets between 11 pm and 7 am local time.
4. Logan prohibits aircraft maintenance run-ups except in designated areas and with permission.
5. Logan mandates a minimum percentage of Class 3 (the quietest in current production) jet operations for carriers with more than 12 operations per day.
6. Logan restricts taxiing under power except to and from the runway.

To control the noise along the path:

1. Logan works with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to use departure paths which minimize flying over residential areas.
2. Logan has installed barrier walls and industrial areas between the airfield and the community.
3. Logan uses a "head-to-head" operation at night whenever conditions permit to use the one runway end that comes and goes completely over the water.

To control noise at the receiver:

1. Logan participates in programs to sound insulate residential areas most severely affected by aircraft noise.
2. Logan has "soundproofed" all the schools most severely affected by aircraft noise.

To tell how we're doing:

1. Logan measures the noise at 27 locations in communities as far as 17 km away. The data are compared with noise predictions (used in determining which areas are most severely affected), and with previous years.
2. Logan uses information from the FAA to determine which planes are flying where at what time of day. This information helps us in answering the noise complaints received from the communities. It helps us identify patterns of operations which cause complaints in the communities, which we share with the FAA.
3. Logan watches the planes which operate between 11 pm and 7 am to be sure that they comply with our rules. Other aspects of the rules are tracked as well.
4. Logan is just starting to compare where the planes actually fly with where we would ideally like them to fly. This is our new flight track monitoring program, which uses the noise monitoring system computers to tag which operations were outside the expected range.

Logan has been working on the aircraft noise issue for over twenty years. We are sharing some of our approaches in an effort to help other communities find solutions to aircraft noise problems.