F-35 Cancelled, then what ?

[Engines]

Courtney,

As I alluded to in my last post, using straight 'dB' tells you how much sound pressure is being generated. But EpNdB is a better measure of the potential for damage to hearing. But Courtney's absolutely right that it doesn't equate directly to hearing damage. The duration of the noise exposure is, as I remember it, an equally critical factor.

As i said, it's complicated. Sorry, but there it is. As an example, during cat launches, the sound source interacts with the deck and the JBDs (and other aircraft if it's a two ship launch) (and other aircraft around on the flight deck) (and the wind) to create complex and variable EpNdB contours. STOVL launches present far less problems, but have still been worked in detail.

Not looking at the chart Spaz posted, but from my own knowledge of the predictions and tests that the programme carried out, the F-35 was not the noisiest aircraft the USN and LM found. It was certainly not the quietest. But, given the new regulations on hearing protection that were coming in, the programme took noise protection extremely seriously.

I know it's a lot more complicated than swapping dB (or EpNdB) numbers, but it's what the engineers had to do to find out exactly where the issues were and how they might mitigate them.

Best Regards as ever to all those doing the detail science type stuff (because it matters)

Engines