The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) has adopted a new noise stringency level for commercial airplanes. The milestone achieved at the CAEP meeting last week lowers the current standard by seven decibels. Having now been agreed by the ICAO CAEP, the new stringent noise standard will be presented for final review and approval by the ICAO Council later in 2013. This new standard will come into force on the 31st December 2017.
“Over the past 40 years, Airbus has put a lot of effort into reducing noise at source and to bringing the quietest aircraft to the market. This new standard is another major step in how the global commercial aviation industry is pro-actively addressing environmental protection,” said Fabrice Brégier, Airbus President and CEO.
All Airbus development aircraft (NEO and A350 XWB) are designed to be compliant with the new noise standard. In addition, Airbus says, it is continuing to develop new solutions to further reduce the operational noise. Several functionalities are available such as the Automatic Noise Abatement Departure Procedure (NADP) that optimises the thrust and flight path to reduce noise over populated areas.
In the UK, which has the strictest noise regulations in the world, the A380 was given an award for its quiet operations by the UK Noise Abatement Society in 2012.
The A380 carries 42% more passengers than its nearest competitor but produces half the noise energy when taking off, and three to four times less noise energy when landing. The A350 XWB, the aircraft with the leading environmental performance in the long-range market is up to 16 decibels below the current standard requirement.