NASA works on 'sonic thump' to make planes quieter

There’s air pollution, light pollution and, of course, noise pollution. A lot of noise is something that goes hand in hand with giant military aircraft. But, new NASA research could soon remove the boom in supersonic flights.

The agency wants to build an experimental aircraft that’s significantly quieter. A demonstration was held Tuesday at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center to show the public the difference in noise level between a sonic boom and a “sonic thump.”

A regular sonic boom registers at about 107 decibels, project manager Brett Pauer told KPCC. Initial tests of the design reduced it to 77 decibels — their goal is 75, he said.

That reduction in noise would result in something that sounds like somebody slamming a car door down the street compared to a dynamite explosion, he said.

“Just the numbers themselves don’t do justice to how much more quiet it is,” Pauer said.

The current design is 94 feet long with a 23-foot wingspan. Massive length is one prerequisite to achieve this type of noise reduction, he said. The body is similar to a typical F/A-18 aircraft — just twice as long.

Pauer said there’s nothing that can be done to current aircraft to get this effect; they must be fabricated from scratch.

Once the agency has reached its goal of 75 decibels, they will take the data and give it to organizations like the Federal Aviation Administration, he said. Those agencies would take the next step and create a standard for how loud a plane can be. At that point, the manufacturing can begin.

“Until there’s a standard, nobody wants to design a plane that may not meet the standard in the future,” he said.  

The plane is fully designed and should be ready for flight by 2019, according to Pauer.