With the adoption in 1969 of the Federal Aviation Regulations, Part 36 (FAR), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) embarked upon a program to quantify and to limit the noise impact of the nation's civil air fleets. Since that original adoption, several amendments have been issued to (a) improve or better standardize the measurement of airplane noise, (b) redefine the descriptor-effective perceived noise level, (c) lower the permissible noise levels, and (d) require application of the standard to other airplanes. This paper reviews the technological basis for these standards, the public process by which they are promulgated or amended, and how thev relate to the prediction and alleviation of community noise.