744 in upper deck or A340-600

I would think you can make any aircraft (or section of an aircraft) less noisy by adding more sound insulation. Of course that would make the aircraft heavier.

Does anyone know if this is done, e.g. for the first class section of some aircrafts?

HTB.

Sitting in C-class on a MD80..shhhhh...

I guess that the conclusion is "each to his own" ;)

Given a choice, I tend to go A330 or A340 over anything Boeing simply because I find that the A's tend to be less noisy than their similar sized B's. Maybe it has to do with where I'm seated or what carriers I fly (although they all have A's and B's), but to me the Airbus aircrafts are a better product than the similar Boeing's. Subjectively, of course, I've not brought a sonometre (is that a word) on board an aircraft lately ;)

As has already been said, C-seating in an MD80 is hard to beat, though ;)

Would that be out of JNB?

I've flown a VS 346 out of JNB a number of times and on one occaison the captain told us not to be alarmed at the length of time we would be on the runway for - think he mentioned temperature and altitude of JNB as the reasons

I assume "VS 346" = Airbus A340-600 operated by Virgin Atlantic? I was trying to figure out what aircraft maker VS was.

The front cabin on an MD-80 is the quietest cabin I've ever experienced. I sometimes wonder if there are even engines back there, especially during takeoff.

Correct; the flight was JFK-LHR back in 2003 IIRC. I only remember the airplane type because I had never flown on an A340 before and actually read the safety card :) We were back in row 40-something. It was a night flight and I could sleep without earplugs, which is rare for me.

Pat

The quietest planes I've ever been on were A340-600s, both on LH and CX. More important, both were business class seats. The 340-600 is a LONG airplane, and the premium cabins are a long way in front of the engines. YMMV in coach.

The MD-80's have always been more quiet than any of the Airbus/Boeing planes.

The A340 and the Short 146. Once I flew in the Goodyear blimp and it was really quiet.

MisterNice

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry7130e/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/104)

Foam earplugs, which reduce noise by 29 db, work great for me on the NYC subway and on airplanes. I buy them by the case, which brings the cost down to about 17 cents/pair.

Anything but the back of an MD-88. Never again. Ever.

Thats kind of amazing, considering that this is probably the loudest airplane for those of us stuck in the back by the engines :)

No kidding. That's why I always try to sit as far forward as possible when stuck on one of those little tubes.