09Planes, helicopters and the flight path overhead

The short version: In the US, airport noise is officially judged by a yearly average called DNL, with 65 DNL as the line for "significant" impact - a threshold the FAA's own 2021 survey suggests understates annoyance, and which the FAA is reviewing but has not changed as of October 2026. Individual planes have to meet certification limits that have tightened in steps, and newer engines are quieter by design. The complaints that grew fastest in the 2010s came less from louder planes than from satellite-guided routes that put the same planes over the same streets every time. Abroad, many big airports run night curfews or quotas; at home, most large airports offer a public flight map where you can see what flew over and file a complaint.

How is airport noise measured in the US?

What you hear: individual planes. What the rules measure: a year of them averaged together.

The main US metric is DNL (Day-Night Average Sound Level), an annual average of A-weighted aircraft noise (weightings and averages are explained in Sound and decibels) at a location that adds a penalty for flights at night. ¹⁵⁹ Airports model DNL rather than measure it: for a federal noise study, contours must be produced with the FAA's Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT), and data from noise monitors cannot be used to assess impacts. ¹⁵⁹

The night penalty is 10 dB: an FAA noise primer explains that DNL counts A-weighted sound between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. as 10 dB louder than it really is. ⁶

Under the federal land-use guidance, everything below 65 DNL "is compatible with all uses." At or above 65 DNL, homes, schools, places of worship, hospitals, nursing homes and licensed daycares are listed as incompatible. ¹⁵⁹

Part 150 (14 CFR Part 150) is a voluntary program. An airport that does a Part 150 study must produce updated 65 DNL noise contours, a map of where the yearly average reaches that level. ¹⁵⁹ It can then propose a noise compatibility program - home and school sound insulation, limits on engine run-ups, "Fly Quiet" programs, voluntary purchase of homes - and the FAA reviews and approves the contours and measures. ¹⁵⁹ Approved measures become eligible for Airport Improvement Program grants covering 80% of the cost. ¹⁵⁹

So the answer to "can I get soundproofing from the airport?" usually runs through a Part 150 program and whether your home sits inside the approved contour.

There is an indoor test too. In FAA Compliance Guidance Letter 2022-03 (September 15, 2022), homes and schools inside the DNL 65 dBA contour are considered eligible for AIP-funded sound insulation, and eligible properties must have an interior noise level of DNL 45 dBA or above. ¹⁶⁰ Insulation is designed to bring habitable rooms down to that 45 dB DNL level, according to an earlier FAA program guidance letter (PGL 12-09, 2012, since canceled). ¹⁶¹

The criticism is about averaging: a yearly figure can stay the same while the number of loud single events, or the hours they happen, changes. That argument is part of the background to the FAA's current review, below.

What did the FAA's 2021 noise survey find, and is 65 DNL changing?

The Neighborhood Environmental Survey was the FAA's national study of how people near airports react to aircraft noise. Surveys went out by mail in six waves over 12 months starting October 2015, around 20 airports chosen from 95 candidates; 10,328 people responded by mail and about 2,000 also did a phone survey. ¹⁶²

Results were published in the Federal Register on January 13, 2021. ¹⁶² The new "National Curve" shows "a substantial increase in the percentage of people who are highly annoyed by aircraft noise" compared with the older Schultz Curve, including at lower noise levels. ¹⁶² Per a summary of the FAA study by Kaplan Kirsch, a law firm that represents both airports and airport communities, between 60.1% and 70.9% of people were highly annoyed at DNL 65 in 2016, versus 12.3% in the 1992 Schultz Curve data behind the current policy. ¹⁶³

On May 1, 2023, the FAA opened a formal Noise Policy Review covering whether DNL should stay the primary metric, whether 65 DNL should remain the significance threshold under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and what alternative or supplemental metrics might be used. ¹⁶⁴ The comment period ran to September 29, 2023 and drew 4,857 comments: 81% from individuals, 14% anonymous, 5% from organizations. ¹⁶⁴

Status as of October 2026: the FAA established an Aircraft Noise Advisory Committee (ANAC) on January 14, 2025, and on July 10, 2026 published a notice seeking members, with applications due August 10, 2026. ¹⁶⁴ The FAA says it "will complete the Noise Policy Review once the ANAC has submitted a report." ¹⁶⁴ No date for that report has been published. The 65 DNL threshold is under review, not changed.

What are aircraft noise "Stages" and ICAO "Chapters"?

Every new aircraft type has to meet a maximum noise level to be certified. In the US those limits live in 14 CFR Part 36 and are grouped into Stages; the FAA publishes certificated levels for each type in an advisory circular. ¹⁶⁵ The international equivalent is ICAO Annex 16, Volume I, grouped into Chapters. ¹⁶⁵

The US has also banned older, noisier stages from operating, in steps.

A short history explains the steps. The FAA's first noise standards, in 1969, covered new civil subsonic jet designs; in 1973 they were extended to newly produced aircraft; in 1976 the FAA set the 1985 phaseout of Stage 1 big jets; and in 1977 it introduced the "Stage" names and the stricter Stage 3. ¹⁶⁶ Certification limits apply to the type, so an older plane still flying is held to the stage it was built to.

Why are newer jets quieter?

What you hear: the older crackling roar at takeoff, versus a lower, smoother whoosh with a fan whine on approach.

Early jetliners used turbojets, which produce "high velocity hot exhaust jets during takeoff generating a great deal of noise." ¹⁶⁷ Most of that noise comes from turbulence where the fast exhaust mixes with the slower air around it. ¹⁶⁸

Turbofans put a large fan in front of the engine core and push much of the air around the core rather than through it. That "helped mitigate engine noise by reducing the jet exhaust velocity"; the more air bypassed, the slower and cooler the core jet. ¹⁶⁷ The share of air going around versus through is the bypass ratio; NASA researchers noted ratios approaching 9 in engines like the GE90. ¹⁶⁷

There is a trade-off in what you hear. In high-bypass engines "jet noise is becoming less and less of a contributor to total engine noise," and the big fan becomes a significant source, producing tones at the blade-passage frequency. ¹⁶⁸ That is part of why a modern jet on approach can sound more like a whine than a roar.

Manufacturers state the gains as smaller "noise footprints," and those claims are disputed. In 2012 Boeing's website said the 787's noise footprint was "60% smaller than those today of similarly sized planes," according to the UK's Aviation Environment Federation (AEF), a campaign group. ¹⁶⁹ AEF calculated that, if the footprint is drawn at 85 dB, a 60% smaller area works out to about a 3 dB drop in noise level, and called the improvement modest, adding that traffic growth was likely to erase it. ¹⁶⁹

Why are planes suddenly flying over my house?

What you hear: planes that used to be spread across the sky now pass over the same few blocks, one after another.

Starting in the 2010s, the FAA moved many airports onto satellite-guided RNAV (area navigation) procedures, part of its air traffic modernization program, NextGen. Older procedures left planes spread over a wide band; RNAV routes are flown very precisely, so the same track gets used flight after flight. The noise per plane may not change, but the people under the track hear far more of it. That shift drove lawsuits and local studies, with mixed results.

Phoenix. New departure routes at Sky Harbor took effect September 18, 2014, and the airport received more noise complaints in the next two weeks than in all of the prior year. ¹⁷⁰ On August 29, 2017, the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held the FAA's approval "arbitrary and capricious," citing NEPA, the National Historic Preservation Act, Section 4(f) and FAA Order 1050.1E, vacated the order and sent it back to the FAA. ¹⁷⁰

Maryland. The state challenged new flight paths into Washington National (DCA) for lacking NEPA review. On March 10, 2020, the same court dismissed the case as untimely, finding "the state's delay of over 900 days was extreme." ¹⁷¹ The ruling turned on timing, not on whether the routes were properly reviewed.

Boston. The FAA released the environmental assessment for an RNAV departure from Logan's Runway 33L in May 2013, and new RNAV procedures began in 2014, concentrating 33L departures over parts of north and west Cambridge. ¹⁷² An FAA-funded study run by Massport and conducted by MIT looked at alternatives; in 2021 MIT proposed a modified route over central Somerville and Porter Square, which Cambridge and most of the communities on Massport's Community Advisory Committee voted against recommending. ¹⁷² Boston's flight paths are covered in more detail in The sound of Boston.

Does the airport have a curfew? (Elsewhere in the world)

Many large airports outside the US limit or ban night flights. The systems differ: some close outright, some cap the number of flights, some weight each flight by how loud the plane is.

Even with a cap, nights at Heathrow are not silent: about 80% of night flights land between 04:30 and 06:00, averaging 16 arrivals. ¹⁷³ The Frankfurt details here come from a Wikipedia summary rather than from the airport operator.

In the US, the Airport Noise and Capacity Act of 1990 (ANCA) moved this power to the FAA. An airport that wants a new restriction on Stage 2 or Stage 3 aircraft, such as a curfew, has to go through a Part 161 study, and one that skips the process can lose federal Airport Improvement Program grants and Passenger Facility Charges, according to a 2020 Aviation Pros analysis by Curt Castagna. ¹⁷⁷ As of that article (April 2020), no airport had won FAA approval for a restriction such as a mandatory curfew through Part 161. ¹⁷⁷

Boston Logan has no blanket curfew: Massport's Logan noise rules (740 CMR 24.04) instead bar air carriers' jets that lack Stage 3 certification from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., and bar jets with no noise certification from landing between 10:30 p.m. and 7 a.m. or taking off between 9:30 p.m. and 7 a.m. ¹⁷⁸

Is supersonic flight over land legal now?

What you hear: a sonic boom is a sharp double bang; NASA's newer design aims for a soft "thump."

Federal rules at 14 CFR 91.817 have banned civil flight faster than Mach 1 over US land without special authorization. On June 6, 2025, Executive Order 14304, "Leading the World in Supersonic Flight," directed the FAA to "repeal the prohibition on overland supersonic flight in 14 CFR 91.817 within 180 days," set an interim noise-based certification standard, and propose and finalize supersonic noise rules under Part 36 within 18 and 24 months. ¹⁷⁹

The FAA's proposed rule, "Enabling Supersonic Overland Flight," would replace the outright ban with a performance standard: supersonic flight over land would be allowed if the sonic boom overpressure at the surface "does not exceed 0.11 pound per square foot (psf)." ¹⁸⁰ The FAA expects early operations to rely on Mach cutoff - flying at a speed and altitude where the boom bends upward before reaching the ground. ¹⁸⁰ The proposal does not regulate focus booms or takeoff and landing noise. ¹⁸⁰

It was published in the Federal Register on July 2, 2026, with comments closing August 17, 2026, and per a DLA Piper summary it had not been finalized; the House passed the Supersonic Aviation Modernization Act (H.R. 3410) in March 2026, which would allow supersonic flight if no boom reaches the ground, and it awaited Senate action. ¹⁸¹ So as of October 2026: proposed, not final.

NASA's X-59 was built to test whether a quieter boom is acceptable. It first flew on October 28, 2025, a 67-minute subsonic flight from Palmdale to Edwards; its target cruise is about Mach 1.4 (925 mph, 1,490 km/h) at 55,000 ft, and NASA aims for "sonic thumps barely audible on the ground," with planned community overflights, ground measurements and resident surveys. ¹⁸² It went supersonic for the first time on June 5, 2026, at about Mach 1.1 and 43,400 ft; the goal is a boom under 75 perceived decibels (PLdB) on the ground, with acoustic validation expected by the end of 2026. ¹⁸³ No overflight schedule for specific towns had been confirmed in the sources checked.

The two numbers use different units and cannot be compared directly: the FAA proposal limits overpressure in psf, while NASA's target is a perceived loudness in PLdB.

Why are helicopters so loud in New York?

What you hear: a low, rhythmic thwop that carries between buildings, often from aircraft flying low along the rivers.

New York City has one of the best-documented helicopter complaint waves in the US. Complaints to 311 about helicopter noise went from 26,218 in 2022 to 59,127 in 2023, according to testimony by NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, who added that "nearly 30,000 tourist trips originate from the Downtown Manhattan Heliport (DMH) at Pier 6." ¹⁸⁴

The legal limit on what a city can do is federal airspace. On April 24, 2025, the City Council passed Intro 26-A, 46-1 with one abstention, barring non-essential, luxury and tourism flights from the East 34th Street and Downtown Manhattan heliports unless they meet strict noise standards, starting in 2029. ¹⁸⁵ The Council said the law would affect about 10% of commercial helicopters using those heliports, and that it can regulate noise but cannot ban flights outright, which is a federal power; whether the mayor would sign it was uncertain at the time. ¹⁸⁵

The mayor did not sign it, and it became law anyway. The Council's legislative record lists Intro 26-A as enacted as Local Law 64 of 2025, with the City Charter rule adopted on May 24, 2025, and the bill marked "Returned Unsigned by Mayor" on May 27, 2025. ¹⁸⁶

New helicopter types have had to meet the FAA's helicopter Stage 3 standard since May 5, 2014. ¹⁶⁵

In Boston, Massport's complaint system notes that information is limited for flights that are not using Logan, such as helicopters and small propeller planes. ¹⁷²

Are delivery drones loud?

What you hear: a high, buzzing whine, quieter than a plane but hard to tune out.

Small drones are far quieter than airliners in absolute terms, but listening studies suggest the sound bothers people more than its level would predict. In a NASA Langley study of 38 listeners, researchers found "a lack of parity between the noise of the recorded sUAS and that of a set of road vehicles," while noting it was unknown whether other factors explained the difference. ¹⁸⁷

A 2025 UK online listening study (Woodcock et al., Frontiers in Acoustics) found annoyance was highest in rural settings, with background levels around 35 dB LAeq, compared with villages (45) and cities (53). ¹⁸⁸ Annoyance rose as the drone got louder relative to the background, up to about 15 dB above it, then leveled off; telling listeners the drone was a medical delivery lowered annoyance. ¹⁸⁸

The study's field measurements put takeoff at about 82 dB LAFmax at 10 m (33 ft) and 66 dB LAFmax at 60 m (200 ft), and an overflight at about 48 dB LAFmax with the drone at 60 m altitude and 44 dB LAFmax at 100 m (330 ft) altitude, measured about 40 m (130 ft) from the flight path. ¹⁸⁸ The authors cite prior work finding drone noise "more annoying than road traffic and conventional aviation noise" at equal exposure. ¹⁸⁸

What plane just flew over, and how do I complain?

Many large airports publish a public flight-tracking map - often a product called WebTrak - that lets you replay what flew over, check altitude and type, and file a complaint by clicking the flight.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's WebTrak, covering JFK, LaGuardia, Newark, Teterboro and Stewart, shows aircraft type, altitude, origin and destination, flight ID and readings from noise monitors in dBA. ¹⁸⁹ Live data is delayed about 21 minutes "for aviation security reasons," you can replay up to 90 days, and complaints go through "Report Aircraft" or the Investigate tab. ¹⁸⁹ Consumer flight trackers show the same flights in close to real time; a guide to those apps is at The Airwaves.

A useful order of operations: note the time, find the flight on the airport's map or a tracker, then file with the airport's noise office, which is the body that logs and answers complaints.

In Boston

Massport takes noise complaints at 617-561-3333 and through an online form, according to the City of Cambridge; Cambridge lists the line as staffed 6 am-5 pm on business days and automated otherwise, with responses typically in 3-4 weeks. ¹⁷² The Town of Wenham lists the same number with 6 am-6 pm hours, so check with Massport. ¹⁹⁰ Massport's "Flight Monitor" shows near-live flight tracks, and the FAA's New England Aviation Noise Ombudsman can be reached at 781-238-7400. ¹⁷²

The Massport Community Advisory Committee represents more than 30 Greater Boston communities and advises the FAA and Massport on noise abatement. ¹⁹⁰ In April 2012 it voted to abandon the Preferential Runway Advisory System, saying it "failed to achieve the intended noise abatement." ¹⁹⁰

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