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.

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