Wired – Transportation – September 26, 2019 – Teaching Pilots a New Trick: Landing Quietly
Researchers want to reduce the noise from planes approaching a runway. The key is a smooth descent.
Life in the cockpit doesn’t leave much room for individuality. Airline pilots wear the same uniforms, they follow the same procedures, they even talk the same. And now, a group of German and Swiss researchers wants them to land the same, by following specific instructions for deploying their flaps and lowering their landing gear as late as possible. Not because it’s safer or faster, but because it’s quieter. Over five days in early September, the German Aerospace Center, or DLR, asked 25 pilots to…