Scaling aircraft noise perception.

Following a brief review of the background to the study, an extensive experiment is described which was undertaken to assess the practical differences between numerous alternative methods for calculating the perceived levels of individual aircraft flyover wounds. One hundred and twenty recorded sounds, including jets, turboprops, piston aircraft and helicopters were rated by a panel of subjects in a pair comparison test. The results were analyzed to evaluate a number of noise rating procedures, in terms of their ability to accurately estimate both relative and absolute perceived noise levels over a wider dynamic range (84-115 dB SPL) than had generally been used in previous experiments. Performances of the different scales were examined in detail for different aircraft categories, and the merits of different band level summation procedures, frequency weighting functions, duration and tone corrections were investigated.