Acoustical Analysis of a Light Aircraft Propeller Noise

Having the major influence on high cabin noise levels in light aircraft, propeller noise significantly deteriorates the quality of pilot speech communications thus potentially endangers the safety of flight. In this paper propeller working principle, noise characteristics and noise-generating mechanisms will be described. Several acoustical measurements of the exterior and interior propeller noise of Cessna 172R aircraft have been undertaken and some of the results will be presented and analysed.