External sound aircraft In-cockpit

I am kind of curious as to what is obtainable in the real world when it comes to how much of external sound is audible to the pilot in the air.

I have this case in dcs where you are flying close to a tanker or refueling and you do not hear the sound coming from the Tanker engines. Also, AI plane can whip pass you at a great speed and I would hear nothing but just my own engine sound.

When on the ground though, I can hear sounds of engine of aircraft and truck close by.

This is not so when in the air.

Is this real?

That is interesting.

Yeah, the rushing air around the cockpit is quite loud. You'd still hear the sonic boom of a supersonic aircraft merging with you or something along these lines, but that's it, AFAIK.

My question is, with the helmet on, how loud is that rushing air to the pilot? Can you hear comms and cockpit audio clearly during flight, for example, without them having to be very loud? In essence, how good is the sound isolation? I'm guessing pretty good, but I don't have any experience with it myself.

All of the fighter pilots I observed when I was working on the flightline (albeit, a long time ago, 1978-1983) wore earplugs, those orange foam things, under their helmets. They had to have hearing protection when they walked out to the jets, and they didn't take them out when they put their helmets on.

Apparently they have still been wearing those things all these years, but that is changing:

https://www.acc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/202233/acc-pilot-hearing-protection-combines-with-headset/

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All of the fighter pilots I observed when I was working on the flightline (albeit, a long time ago, 1978-1983) wore earplugs, those orange foam things, under their helmets. They had to have hearing protection when they walked out to the jets, and they didn't take them out when they put their helmets on.

 

Apparently they have still been wearing those things all these years, but that is changing:

 

https://www.acc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/202233/acc-pilot-hearing-protection-combines-with-headset/

 

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Interesting, thanks. So it'd be fair to say that before ACCES, pilots heard everything bad, including headset audio.

In thirty years flying civilian aircraft, the only time I ever heard something external while airborne was a pair of F-16's going to afterburner on the runway 100 feet away. We were slow, maybe 180 knots so the wind noise was minimal.

In thirty years flying civilian aircraft, the only time I ever heard something external while airborne was a pair of F-16's going to afterburner on the runway 100 feet away. We were slow, maybe 180 knots so the wind noise was minimal.

Interesting, thanks. So it'd be fair to say that before ACCES, pilots heard everything bad, including headset audio.

They just had to set the radio volume higher. Foam earplug just reduce noise level.