Multi-disciplinary, community-oriented design of low-noise aircraft: the COSMA project

The EC-funded project COSMA (Community Oriented Solutions to Minimize aircraft noise Annoyance, 7th Framework Programme) started in June 2009 with an ambitious, twofold goal: improve the understanding of the annoyance induced by aircraft noise on the population and identify the engineering guidelines to establish appropriate design strategies and operational procedure to reduce these effects. The project was conceived within the context of the X-Noise Collaborative Network, a worldwide network of experts and institutions committed to the commercial aviation noise challenge. The COSMA objectives were addressed using a highly multi-disciplinary approach, integrating competences pertaining to psychoacoustics, sound engineering, and aeronautical engineering. The work of twenty-three research groups from nine European countries was structured in six, strongly interconnected work packages. Aim of the present paper is the review of this cross-disciplinary research from the point of view of the aircraft designer. The attention is focused on the Optimisation of Airport Noise Scenarios work package, where the aeronautical technology context was established in detail and where, eventually, the design criteria and operational recommendation were defined on the basis of the outcomes of the annoyance examination experimental campaign.