JetBlue Vows to Reduce Noise From Its Airbus Fleet
JetBlue planes are about to get a lot quieter.
Boston Logan's largest airline will install noise-reducing vortex generators on its full fleet of Airbus aircraft by 2021, the carrier announced earlier this week. JetBlue planes currently account for one out of every four flights landing or departing from Boston Logan (BOS).
Airplanes are noisy to begin with; the Federal Aviation Administration's No. 1 complaint is due to overhead aircraft noise, according to NASA. But the Airbus A318s, A319s A320s and A321s notoriously make an additional wailing whine during descent. The sound is due to air rushing over circular vent holes on the underside of the plane wings, adding between 2-11 dB of noise on top of the engine roar, beginning anywhere from 7-30 miles outside the destination airport. The vortex generators disrupt the flow of wind over the wing's air vents, which prevents the high-pitched wail.
JetBlue has 130 A320s and eight A321s that are scheduled to receive the noise-reducing devices during scheduled major maintenance over the next three years, at an estimated cost of less than $1 million. JetBlue's Airbus aircraft received in 2015 or later came with the vortex generators already installed.
