Today, airports are one of the most important pieces of infrastructure in most countries. They are crucial for economies, providing jobs, supporting trade, and facilitating tourism. However, they are notorious for being noisy. In fact, the sound can cause serious problems, including limiting operations and the ability to expand airports. We want to have a closer look at the topic here and how different types of noise control can help.
Early days
Modern aviation was born in 1903 with the iconic first flight of the Wright Brothers’ Flyer. Since then, the development of aircraft has been astonishing. Likewise, we’ve seen a big evolution of airports to facilitate flight.
Interestingly, the oldest airports date from the early 1900s. At the time though, they were for military use. College Park (KCGS) in Maryland, US dates back to 1909 and is the oldest to still operate. It’s famous in the aviation world because the US Government established it to allow Wilbur Wright to train officers to fly. Hamburg has the oldest commercial airport in the world, dating back to 1911. Finally, although short lived, Hounslow Heath Aerodrome was the first to offer daily international flights in 1919.
In terms of noise, there wasn’t too much thought about it in the early years. While it was certainly noisy, the lower number of planes at the time mitigated it to an extent. Early engines also weren’t as loud. However, the development of the jet engine and massive boom in the number of flights and planes in the air changed everything. By the 60s we had huge issues to deal with.
Laws and the evolution of airports
Complaints about noise became a regular thing from the 60s. Particularly, many people living near airports were unhappy about the sound of planes regularly flying over their homes. As a result, limits were put in place to prevent the expansion of many key airports, including Heathrow and JFK. This was a basic form of noise control, simply limiting flight numbers and preventing expansion.
One of the bigger moves was the introduction of national and international regulations to encourage the development of quieter aircraft. Several planes did not enter production or were pulled from use because they could not meet the stricter noise limits.
There were big changes in terms of management and scheduling at airports too. Key here is limits on night noise, largely limiting the bulk of flights to daytime hours. The choice of runways is significant too. Plus, operators need to carefully plan departure and arrival routes, limiting how many go over highly populated areas. There is even a careful look at operating procedures to limit engine output to reduce noise when flying over busy areas.
Interestingly, there has also been a big change inside airports too. Modern security processes are far stricter than in the 60s. Sadly change was necessary following increases in hijacking and terrorism. As a result, there is more equipment than ever before in airports today for security reasons. This includes body and baggage scanners. All of the equipment can be noisy, so it is important to think about noise levels to protect workers and visitors.
Talk to the experts about noise control
At Ventx we appreciate that many different factors can lead to noise problems. Take airports for example, the aircraft, vehicles coming and going, and equipment all contribute. Then you have additional things like HVAC systems to consider. Even the choice of building materials and structural design can have a massive impact.
While there are lots of things to think about, a variety of solutions are also available. This includes noise barriers, silencers, enclosures, and more. Plus, like aircraft, there are generally low noise options available today, including things like generators.
If you want to improve noise control, we can offer fantastic services. Crucially, we have experience in noisy industries like manufacturing and petro-chem. We utilise acoustic modelling equipment to design the most effective silencers. Then, utilising our huge pool of engineering expertise, we manufacture them using high quality materials. So, contact us today if you need help.
