People will also completely disregard the positive changes which have taken place over the same time frame though.
Aircraft engines are substantially quieter (and less polluting) than they were 50 years ago. Aircraft have better performance and so climb away much faster.
I live on the south side of Heathrow (which has east-west orientated runways). We only get a fraction of the departures anyway but of those only the heaviest aircraft are generally noticeable. The shorthaul (737, A320 etc) aircraft are so high that the noise is negligible.
I'm sure 50 years ago this would have been much worse with heavily laden Tridents and VC10s spewing black smoke and clawing for every foot of altitude.
They have the performance to climb faster if they wanted to, but they don't. They actually climb slower to save fuel. And the use of smaller aircraft means there are more of them, since they each carry less people, but there's more flying than ever. The result is lower noise level but much more frequent noise.
Aircraft engines are substantially quieter (and less polluting) than they were 50 years ago. Aircraft have better performance and so climb away much faster.
I live on the south side of Heathrow (which has east-west orientated runways). We only get a fraction of the departures anyway but of those only the heaviest aircraft are generally noticeable. The shorthaul (737, A320 etc) aircraft are so high that the noise is negligible.
I'm sure 50 years ago this would have been much worse with heavily laden Tridents and VC10s spewing black smoke and clawing for every foot of altitude.