A new scientific paper from the RefMap partner, the University of Salford was published recently in an open-access source. It is titled “Noise from Unconventional Aircraft: A Review of Current Measurement Techniques, Psychoacoustics, Metrics, and Regulation”. This is a work in collaboration with the researchers Michael Lotinga, Nathan Green, and Carlos Andrés Ramos-Romero and is directly related to the RefMap scope.
In this paper, the authors evaluate and discuss the current advances in the measurement and assessment of the noise generated by unconventional aircraft, such as unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and urban air mobility (UAM) vehicles.
Looking at the human response to UAS and UAM noise, loudness has been consistently reported as the main contributor to noise annoyance, with second-order contributions from other psychoacoustic features, such as sharpness, tonality, and “amplitude modulation” (fluctuations in loudness over time), varying among studies.
Noise targets for UAS certification have been derived from existing regulations for conventional aircraft and rotorcraft, but might not account for the usually reported annoyance offset between UAS/UAM and conventional vehicles.
Building upon the findings of this review, research gaps are identified, and further work is proposed to enhance existing and emerging methods for the appropriate noise management of these advanced air mobility (AAM) technologies.
You can read the paper here.