I wanted to ask you all about this and get you opinions.
I admit my bias. I grew up on USAF bases, I have worked as an Army contractor and for both the Air Guard and Army Guard. There are F-35’s flying directly over my house as I type this landing at Hill AFB, and they do it all day. I’ve had them landing as late as 23:00 right before they deployed to the Straights of Hormuz (UNCLASS and open source).
I also admit that F-35’s are SIGNIFICANTLY louder than F-16’s.
But the base has been there since 1939 and there are reasons for that. There are reasons that F-35’s came here. The base is not going away and neither are the F-35’s, or the several other types that come here for maintenance purposes.
To me, this is just bellyaching and looking for a paycheck. These people knowingly moved to within 5 miles of an active USAF base and have the gall to complain about…flying?
It depends on how the complaint is made. I’ve heard that the F-35 is loud but have yet to see one fly. By complaining smartly they might be able to change departure procedures to minimize the impact. But yeah, it’s just a fact of life they’ll likely have learn to live with.
And the ‘classic’ RAAF Hornets they replaced. I can’t sympathise with anyone who knowingly moves into the area and then complains, but for existing residents our Air Force has acknowledged and addressed their concerns:
Whats interesting to me is they sound like very similar complaints. I don’t think they’re coordinated, but the same complaints (Kids & health concerns in particular) is interesting to me. Makes me wonder if the RAF or other operators get those complaints.
…science is not advanced enough to be able to tell without evidence coming from a licensed doctor that jet noise is impacting health.
There are multiple science based studies of a negative impact of noise to human health.
Now, while I have little sympathy for residents complaining about the noise who came when the F-35 was already there, I can understand the disappointment of “old” residents for who the noise situation changed with the arrival of the F-35.
According to the article linked, there does not seem to be much of a response to the citizens, right?
One could argue that they never should’ve allowed residential houses that close to an airbase, but they did.
It is a fact that the F-35 is so loud that you risk permanent hearing loss at the QRA airport over here. We have signs at the gates telling us if they are about to scramble while we are de/boarding.
One F-35 makes about the same noise as 5 F-16.
So, I think the issue is more complex than just having to deal with noise as the F-35 takes this to a whole new level.
We have a similar problem … people move next door to the stations for good public transport then immediately start complaining about the noise of the trains…
I don’t know the specific reason, but the same thing applies for the Gripen. It is much louder than the Viggen, even though the latter has a bigger engine and is a heavier aircraft.
The article states that the F-35 is 7dB louder and equates that to 5 planes taking off at once, which to me looks like somebody used the rule of thumb (3dB more means double the power, so 6dB quadruples the power) for correlated sounds (i.e. loudspeakers playing the same signal) and applied it to uncorrelated sources, where instead you would have to calculate each sources sound pressure, add these, then calculate the summed sound pressure level.
It all just raises a lot of questions. I find it impossible to make sense of it all without seeing a proper report of the measurements and calculations. We don’t even know what kind of weighting is used for the SPL curves (dB(A), dB(C), dB(D)). I’d be interested in the spectral properties of the noise coming off of the F-35 and F-16 in comparison.
That all being said, I kinda find it hard to believe that the F-35 is actually 7dB louder at the same distance.
It will of course vary with distance and sound propagation. It was measured at different locations and the largest difference measured was 99,8 for the F-16 and 109,2 for the F-35. And now I can’t find the damned link…!
My own personal experience, which follows a highly technical and scientific standard, is that whenever F-16’s scrambled I always ran out and marveled at the sight and sound. Putting a finger in each ear did the trick. I just can’t do that with the F-35.
Living some 12 km away from the Ramstein air base I guess I can call myself lucky that the majority of traffic are C-17s and C-130s. Sometimes I spot an F-15, which is considerably more noisy than the transport planes. No idea on the F-35, they don’t frequently fly here it seems.
And yes, if you live in Kaiserslautern and you decide to live on the western part of town or the surrounding villages, air traffic noise is a guarantee. So no need to be surprised…
C-17s are quiet. When I worked at the local AFB we had little in the way of fighter traffic, but occasional transports and the C-17 was much quieter than the DC-9!
Loudest planes we had were the Harriers, which rarely showed, but were LOUD and had no burner! Next loudest was a visiting B-1B, and yes that was literally 4 F-16 engines but wasn’t what I would call painful.
Hornets, Eagles, and Vipers themselves were louder than transports but nowhere near the Harrier.
Granted I left there 10 years ago and so no F-35s ever visited.
As for why, I believe it has to do with the high thrust and high bypass ratio. As it’s not a turbojet, it doesn’t have the high squeal like a Phantom or F-104 had, but large turbofans rumble instead.
The F-35 engine I believe has the highest thrust without burner of any fighter. Many twin engined ones have more total thrust, but each engine is individually weaker. This was done largely for the F-35B, and I think given it’s not optimized for Mach 2 flight anyway they could have derated the F-35A (and probably C) engines to make them quieter, cooler, and increase reliability.
I live on the downwind of the largest RAF base in the Uk.
C17 is quiet until it opens its landing gear doors. Then it ROARS for about a second. One of my favourite noises in the world.
A400 Is amazingly quiet compared to C130.
Chinook is ridiculously loud at night at a weird low frequency that you can hear for miles and miles
Typhoon is silent until its nearly on top of you. Then it barks but not as loud as harrier was.
F35 is absolutely flipping mentally loud compared to all of them. Its so so so loud. No matter what power, speed, angle you hear it at, its unmistakably a Lightning 2 coming. A pair of them was doing circuits last week and it was rattling the windows on the house.
Like @Stormy801, I also grew up on USAF bases, with Cold War jets raging continuously, as well as sonic booms about every hour. Dogs would bark, babies would cry, and mom’s china would walk its way off of the cabinet shelves. It was/is the sound of our armed forces training to what I hope is a very high level of preparedness, and at least for some, having a damn good time while they do it.
Y’all ever heard an old school pre turbo fan KC-135 or B-52 take off? Them some beaches were deafening.
Weirdest sounding airplane that I’ve ever heard = B-787. They assemble them about 7 or 8 miles from where I live and fly over frequently. They sound like playing cards and clothespins on a bicycle wheel. A buzzing rather than a jet.
