Very Thin Membrane Could Make Plane Cabins a Lot Quieter

It’s true that traveling by plane is the fastest and arguably the safest way to get from A to B. However, some people find the low-frequency hum of the engines to be somewhat irritating, which is why they sometimes choose to spend extra money on noise-canceling headphones or earplugs. Courtesy of a team of researchers at the North Carolina State University and MIT, that noise could soon become a thing of the past, as they have developed a very thin membrane that can be inserted into the honeycomb structure of planes and even helicopters.

When asked about this innovative project, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, Yun Jing, stated the following:

“At low frequencies – sounds below 500 Hertz – the honeycomb panel with the membrane blocks 100 to 1,000 times more sound energy than the panel without a membrane.”

The membrane measures 0.25mm in thickness and would add an extra six percent to the overall weight of the aircraft’s structure. This may not seem like a lot to us, but some airlines could see this as a bad investment because it’s not exactly in their best interests to increase the fuel consumption of their planes, even by a little bit.

Do you travel by airplane, and if you do, do you find the cabin noise irritating?

Thank you Engadget for providing us with this information.