Airbus 220 cabin noise
 

After a flight a few years ago on Swiss, I flew LHR-CDG last week on AF on the A220. Love the idea of the latest generation economics and fuel burn and so on, but the noises the thing makes when taxying make the A320 barking dog PTU sound like a Bentley in comparison. Kept thinking 'that can't be oiled properly'! Seemed like the worst creaking door when it moved. Obv all disappeared once rolling and airborne.

I know its a Pratt thing, not the airframe. Why does it sound like it's about to break?

OTEA

A lot of people who watch live streams from airports have a nickname for the A220....Chewbacca. The Wookie howl can be quite deafening from outside the aircraft, so fairly understandable that it can be a bit noisy inside too I spose.

While it is a very striking sound, the howl of PW's GTF is by no means deafening. I stood many times within 100m from a running/"howling" GTF without ear protection and the one thing it was not, is deafening.

Often hear what I think is flap deployment by A220s over here - sounds like an enraged mastodon...

From Wikipedia:

'The engines can emit a loud howl for a few seconds during throttle movements at low power settings. This distinctive howl was likened to the mating call of an orca whale'

Even Wikipedia has a sense of humour sometimes. I am sure that many readers are familiar with the mating call of orcas. Nothing like as many, however, as have flown in the A220, or been near it on takeoff.

Do you get many enraged mastodons in Croydon? :E

Yup, every time an A220 comes over inbound Heathrow...

At AMS on runway 18R/36L Polderbaan the Chewbacca is exceptionally noisy...especially in a gusting crosswind. Polderbaan has no natural or manmade sound baffles so when a streamer is stood beside the runway there is nothing but a dyke filled with water tween them and the aircraft. When a Chewbacca is either landing or taking off on Polderbaan and the wind is gusty and a crosswind, the sound goes from Wookie howl to Wookie scream to an all out Wookie banshee and the streamer cannot speak over it at all....whereas they usually can continue to commentate over the other aircraft such as the 350's, 777's and even the 747's. For a comparatively small aircraft it makes a big noise...the only other one to come close to it are the E2 Embraers but the A220 on a gusty croswindy day at Polderbaan beats them all hands down...as much as they might not seen very loud to someone like yourself who has probably grown immune to them, when they get loud, they really push that loud button hard.

Having flown on the A220 perhaps 20 times in the last few years with various airlines(and perhaps engines ?) I have to say that I didn't notice anything markedly more loud than other A320 family aircraft, but on listening to a few 'shorts' on YT just now, yes it does make those sounds at certain moments. Tbh, I always found the buzzsaw clunking of some of the other types more disconcerting. Otherwise the A220 seems to be a pleasant aircraft to fly in, internally very 'Airbus', so I'm sure many passengers would just think that it was an A320 family aircraft.

Is that the 'cutting wood with a blunt saw and a hammer' sort noise when taxiing? I tried to google that once and the most plausible cause I could find was something hydraulic when taxiing on one engine. I guessed perhaps feeding two circuits from a single pump. I'd be interested to know what it really is.

There are quite a few short videos with the A320 "dog bark"....this is one of the best...and it really sounds painful....


and the A220 wookie howl on YT.....at night, in flight, from inside the aircraft sounds quite eerie....