Acoustic Impact of Hybrid-Electric DEP Aircraft Configuration at Airport Level

The Italian research project PROSIB (PROpulsione e Sistemi IBridi per velivoli ad ala fissa e rotante), is a 30-month initiative funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Scientific Research (MIUR) and coordinated by the Leonardo company. The project is aimed to investigate configurations for regional aircraft and rotary wing platforms and architectures for propulsion systems, and is dedicated to the identification of the best strategy for their use, given different on-board energy sources. The reduced environmental impact is the key for the success of the new hybrid/electric aircraft configurations. This not only considers the chemical pollution introduced in the atmosphere, but also the noise produced on the surrounding area of airports. The present paper describes the acoustic impact assessment resulting from the inclusion of new propulsion technologies and new configurations of regional aircraft (ATR42 pax) in a reference airport area.