Friday, September 19, 2008

Hush Kit


This is the business end of a Pratt&Whitney JT8D-15 jet engine that belongs to an Aloha Airlines Cargo Boeing 737-200. The flutes converging toward the center is part of a hush kit, which is designed to reduce the amount of jet noise. These were installed in order to adhere to FAA regulations concerning noise emissions from jet-powered aircraft. What a hush kit does, is stream cooler air into the exhaust to produce the noise reduction.

This particular 737-200 had been previously owned by Alaska Airlines, before Aloha acquired it in 2007, and was one of a few "-200s" in Aloha's fleet to have hush kits installed.

I got this photo during the 2007 "Blues On The Bay" airshow, when Aloha Airlines had one of their cargo birds on static display.

2 comments:

Lori said...

Interesting! Before I scrolled down I thought it was the drainer from a sink. We learn a lot on your blog!

JAM said...

Amazing shot. No one would ever guess what this is if you hadn't told. I didn't and I worked around those planes for years.

In my time with Delta Air Lines, the 737-200 was THE loudest plane. Something about those slimmer engines was at just the right pitch and decibel level to bring you to your knees if you tried to be near one without hearing protection. On days when I worked gates where we had a lot of them, I would wear the yellow foam ear plugs and my big ear-muff protectors too.