AEROPLANE BRAKES

Evening Star, Issue 19775, 27 January 1928, Page 1

AEROPLANE BRAKES

TRIAL OF HEW SYSTEM Many attempts have been made to contrive a brake to reduce the landing run of aeroplanes. They have failed, some because they were clumsy or tended to upset the machine, while a sprag near the tail to dig into the ground has usually failed, either by ineffectiveness, or, when effective, by damaging the machine; A new hubbrake now being tried in England promises to he a success, in which event a not uncommon cause of accident would be almost completely overcome (states the aviation correspondent of the ‘Daily Telegraph’). Fast machines, or heavy ones oi lowresistance, landing in a small space or in unfamiliar country, or, through piloting error, nearing sheds or other obstacles in an aerodrome, are apt to cause or sustain damage through their failure either to stop or to turn aside quickly. Serious accidents have been caused by machines overturning at a ditch or a hedge. The new brake acts on the hubs of the landing wheels, and is put in by a simple movement of the pilot’s foot. Care, of course, has to be taken nut to put it on hard when “ taxi-ing” at high speed. But one great merit of the brake is that it can be put on either wheel or on both wheels. By putting it on either the left or the right wheel a quick turn is effected, and in an emergency this might profitable be done, even at the risk of minor damage to the aeroplane; of two evils choosing the lesser. The contrivance is light and inexpensive, and, although it would slightly reduce the “ useful load,” there can be no doubt that for many classes of aeroplanes its inclusion j in tiie equipment would on balance bo J advantageous. '