Noise issue delays Eglin JSF basing decision

[unhappycamper]

Schoolhouse on hold
F-35 is twice as loud as F-15s.


Noise issue delays Eglin JSF basing decision
By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Nov 21, 2008 20:08:11 EST

A decision on locating the F-35 Lightning II schoolhouse at Eglin Air Force Base is delayed until 2009, the Air Force announced Friday morning.

What might have seemed a routine choice ran into community opposition after the Air Force’s own studies found that the F-35 is twice as loud as F-15 Eagles now based there.

In Eglin military housing areas and base schools, noise from F-35 operations would be twice as loud as F-15 flights, reaching 83 decibels. Off base, F-35 noise would be even louder, reaching up to 90 decibels in civilian neighborhoods under an Eglin flight path.

In the city of Valparaiso, along the north side of Eglin, civic leaders bristled at an Air Force suggestion that residents and businesses under the F-35’s flight path move to quieter areas.

The service was expected to announce Friday how Eglin would have set up the training wing. The options included where to locate the wing on Eglin’s main base complex and how many training landings and takeoffs should be done at auxiliary airfields several miles from the main base.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/11/airforce_f35_noise_112108w/%2e