Regulations for Noise Abatement Around Small Airfields in Germany -A Challenge for the General Aviation Aircraft Industry

摘要

Increasing noise complaints were recorded in the 90's from residential areas surrounding small airfields (traffic with small propeller driven aeroplanes; Chapter 6 and 10) in Germany. As a consequence the German Ministry of Transport, Building and Housing set in force a new noise related operational traffic Regulation on small airfields in 1999, which was meant as an incentive for the aircraft operators to translate available noise reduction technologies into action. The philosophy of this regulation is to reduce noise originating from the most annoying circuite flights of training aircraft but not hamper General Aviation (GA) aeroplanes business operations. Seeking for a non restricted operation, each individual aircraft type needs a noise certificate to confirm its compliance with more stringent noise limits. This turns out as a hardship for older aeroplanes. The technology for a low noise design of GA-aeroplane propulsion systems is available, however, successful retrofitting of an "old" noisy aircraft with low noise propellers or engine mufflers implies the knowledge of the aeroplane's individual noise problem, which is not obvious in many cases. Still, promising noise reduction solutions can be selected along some basic guidelines, which are discussed in this paper.