Silent skies

摘要

Anyone who lives on a flight path knows how noisy aircraft can be as they come in to land. At Heathrow airport in west London an aircraft lands every 45 seconds, starting at four o'clock in the morning and continuing until almost midnight. The direction of the prevailing wind means that for most of the time the planes must fly over central London. Because the airport is often congested, aircraft are frequently directed to circle over the capital, increasing the misery. More than 1m people live under the flight path into Heathrow and the Department of Transport in Britain estimates that 375,000 people are affected by the noise to the extent that conversation is regularly and frequently interrupted. So the unveiling of a design for a new "silent" aircraft this week was met with uncritical approval.