Aircraft noise assessment of next-generation narrow-body aircraft

A new generation of aircraft types equipped with modern high-bypass-ratio turbofans (such as A320neo) is currently introduced to the global air traffic, promising significant reductions in fuel consumption and engine noise. In only three years, over 1,000 new aircraft were delivered and more than 11,000 are already ordered. Furthermore, new technologies and concepts are under development to simultaneously reduce the airframe noise. In this paper, a typical single-runway medium-sized airport, dominated by movements of narrow-body aircraft, is assessed for the noise impact of new technology aircraft. Four future scenarios are compared to the reference year 2015. The scenario 2025 assumes a share of 40% next generation aircraft, for those aircraft types where a successor is foreseeable, i.e., featuring high-bypass-ratio turbofans. For scenario 2035, a share of 70% of these next generation aircraft is assumed. It was found that such a modification of the future aircraft fleet reduces the sound exposure despite the growth in the air traffic. Finally, two new low-noise aircraft concepts with additional low-noise airframe technology and engine noise shielding were introduced to predict the noise reduction potential for the far future. These novel aircraft showed a strong effect on the noise contours with further reductions in the affected areas of up to 37%. The presented results are an application of the recently developed simulation process between DLR and Empa to include existing and new aircraft types in large scenario noise studies.