Cumulative annoyance due to multiple aircraft flyover with differing peak noise levels

A laboratory study in which 160 subjects judged the annoyance of 30 minute sessions of aircraft noise is described. Each session contained nine flyovers consisting of various combinations of three takeoff recordings of Boeing 727. The subjects were asked to judge their annoyance in the simulated living room environment of the laboratory and also to assess how annoyed they would be if they heard the noise in their home during the day, evening, and night periods. The standard deviation of the sound level did not improve the predictive ability of L sub eq (equivalent continuous sound level) which performed as well or better than other noise measured. Differences were found between the projected home responses for the day, evening, and nighttime periods. Time of day penalties derived from these results showed reasonable agreement with those currently used in community noise indices.