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Argonne helping quieter jet engines take off
Argonne helping quieter jet engines take off

Downstream from the noisiest places in Chicago — the runways at O'Hare International Airport and the surrounding sky — scientists at a government laboratory are quietly working to understand at the most detailed level why jet engines are so loud and what might be done to reduce the annoying sound. It's a riddle that has been only partially solved since the beginning of the jet age more than 50 years ago. In that time, commercial air traffic has increased to roughly 30,000 flights a day in the United States, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. And along with it a record number of noise complaints are being filed by people on the ground, including in the...