Systems Analysis of Noise Abatement Procedures Enabled by Advanced Flight Guidance Technology

Advanced flight guidance technologies such as area navigation utilizing the global positioning system offer the potential to reduce the impact of aircraft noise on communities surrounding airports by enabling more flexible approach and departure procedures that reduce noise exposure to the most sensitive areas. A systems analysis is presented of noise abatement procedures enabled by these technologies. NOISIM, the primary systems analysis tool, combines a flight simulator, a noise model, and a geographic information system to create a unique rapid prototyping environment in which the user can simulate an aircraft's operation in existing and potential guidance and navigation environments, while simultaneously evaluating the aircraft's noise impact. The analysis included generic and site specific studies of approach and departure procedures using 737-200 noise estimates. The results of the generic study of approach procedures indicate that a 3-deg decelerating approach provides significant noise reductions in comparison to the baseline instrument landing system (ILS) approach and is preferred by pilots to the more complex vertically segmented approach. In a study of approaches to runway 13L at Kennedy Airport, a 3-deg decelerating approach reduced the population impacted by noise greater than 60 dBA from over 250,000 in the ILS approach to less than 70,000. The results of the generic study of departure procedures indicate that the benefits of noise abatement departures are site specific. In a study of departures from runway 4R at Logan Airport, a noise abatement departure that combined a targeted thrust cutback with a dual turn lateral trajectory reduced the population impacted by peak noise greater than 60 dBA by over 15%.