NASA/Army supported noise source/noise reduction programs at Langley

The helicopter noise research related to noise source mechanism identification and reduction includes many of the critical noise problems experienced by the helicopter. These include blade vortex interaction (BVI) noise, broadband turbulence ingestion noise, rotor blade self noise including trailing edge effects, model scale effects evaluations, and to some degree main rotor/tail rotor interaction noise. Issues that arise from this evaluation are; (1) Broadband noise can be a significant contribution to the overall noise problem. (2) Scale model investigations are an effective means of conducting helicopter noise research; however, more model/flight correlation studies are required to develop a high degree of confidence of the use of scale model results in the design process of helicopters. (3) More detailed investigations identifying critical factors affecting the main rotor/tail rotor noise mechanism are required.