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Fly the silent skies
10 November 2003
Both in the United States and Europe, aircraft noise has been one of the major factors holding back the growth of air transport. Airports that have tried to expand to increase capacity and ease delays have met resistance from local groups, worried about the impact of increased aircraft noise.
The Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI) is today launching a unique project to design a 'silent' aircraft.
CMI's 'Silent Aircraft' project has a bold aim: to discover ways to reduce aircraft noise dramatically, to the point where it would be virtually unnoticeable to people outside the airport perimeter.
This initiative is bringing together leading academics from Cambridge University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with representatives from all parts of the civil aerospace/aviation industry. This unique community will be working together, sharing knowledge and developing the design for an aircraft whose noise emissions would barely be heard above the background noise level in a typical built-up area.
Partners in the project include British Airways, the Civil Aviation Authority, regional aerospace company Marshall of Cambridge, and National Air Traffic Services. They also include Rolls-Royce plc, which has made available its multi-million pound suite of design and analysis tools to help the research. Additionally, the project team plans to include representatives of community groups opposed to aircraft noise.
Professor Ann Dowling, from Cambridge University's Department of Engineering, is one of the project's leaders.
�The civil aviation industry is already introducing small, incremental decreases in aircraft noise�, she says. �But we are aiming for a radical change in noise levels - so that beyond the perimeter of the airport, the noise of aircraft flying would imperceptible to the public.�
The leaders of CMI's 'Silent Aircraft' initiative claim that designing silent aircraft will help overcome this problem, as well as providing a major boost to the UK aerospace industry, and helping UK airlines operate more productively.
CMI's 'Silent Aircraft' initiative is one of four new Knowledge Integration Communities (KICs) that CMI is setting up this autumn. These KICs aim to find new ways in which academia and industry can work together and exchange knowledge to push forward research in areas where UK industry has a demonstrable competitive position - like aerospace. The Silent Aircraft KIC also aims to enhance this position by engaging with youngsters of all ages to enthuse them about aviation, and thus help ensure a continuing supply of talented individuals into the industry in years to come.
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