Federal Aviation Administration

Metrics to evaluate the acceptability of supersonic overland flight

A combination of technological advances in U.S. supersonic aircraft research efforts and industry’s interest in the potential market for supersonic overland flight has led the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to initiate a work program to evaluate whether a change in the regulation on supersonic overland flight is warranted.  The FAA and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) initiated a project under the Partnership for Air Transportation Noise and Emissions Reduction (PARTNER) Center of Excellence to understand the impact of sonic boom.  The objectives of this project are to assess applicability of existing noise metrics to sonic boom, determine annoyance associated with supersonic jets and provide guidance for designating and operating supersonic jets that are acceptable to the public.  The project will involve both laboratory experiments and social surveys to gauge public acceptability towards airplane designs intended to mitigate sonic booms.  This research is expected to result in a set of recommended acceptance metrics and threshold criteria that must be subjected to peer-review as the findings are expected to be controversial, and, potentially, lead to regulatory action and technology development that could exceed the $500 million per year threshold definition for highly influential scientific disseminations.  A work product should be available to initiate the peer review process in the first quarter of FY 2007.   Additional products may be available for peer review in FY 2008-2009.

Highly influential scientific information

Influential scientific information

The Peer Review Plan is still being developed.  The preliminary plan includes the following elements:

(1)   The peer review would occur in the second half of Fiscal Year 2008.

(2)   This review would most likely be conducted by a panel.  The PARTNER Center of Excellence, which operates independently of the FAA, will be charged with facilitating the Peer Review.

(3)   Public comment is extremely important for this work product.  The details of the plans for public comments are being refined.  There will be opportunities for public comment on the work product through symposia and public meetings.  Opportunities for public comment could also be made available through web based surveys.

(4)   All public comments will be made available to the peer reviewers.

(5)   We expect to have 4-10 peer reviewers.

(6)   The peer reviewers should have expertise including, but not limited to, psychoacoustics, supersonic aircraft design, noise measurements, noise regulations, noise metrics and annoyance models, the mechanics of supersonic flight, and atmospheric turbulence effects on noise propagation.

(7)   The plan for selecting the peer reviewers is still under development.  Reviewers will be designated by an outside organization (most likely PARTNER in collaboration with its Advisory Board, but could also be delegated to the National Academies of Science).

(8)   The plan to nominate peer reviewers is still being developed. Scientific and professional societies and the public could be asked to nominate peer reviewers.

Dr. Lourdes Maurice

E-mail:

Lourdes.Maurice@faa.gov

Phone:

(202) 493-4293