The Economics of Aircraft Noise Suppression

DISCUSSIONS on aircraft noise problems unfortunately result too often in inconclusive statements of good intentions on the one hand from those who are connected with making the noise, or emotional recrimination on the other from those who have to suffer it. Administrators and even eminent aircraft designers protest ignorance of acoustic technology, while sufferers from noise show a marked reluctance to face the most elementary economic facts. Perhaps one of the reasons why many people are still suspicious of technology in this country is that we have not yet mastered the art of presenting all the factors, and particularly the economic factors, in a technological problem in such a way as to make it possible to see clearly the issues involved. This paper is an attempt to give a better understanding of the interactions between the technical, economic and political sides of the aircraft noise problem. It is meant to show how these interactions might be studied, rather than to give definite answers to specific problems.