Air brake (aeronautics)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f4/CONVAIR_F-106A_DELTA_DART_Air_Brake.jpg/220px-CONVAIR_F-106A_DELTA_DART_Air_Brake.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Airbrakes_on_Capstan.jpg/220px-Airbrakes_on_Capstan.jpg)
In
Air brakes differ from
History
In the early decades of powered flight, air brakes were flaps mounted on the wings. They were manually controlled by a lever in the cockpit, and mechanical linkages to the air brake.
An early type of air brake, developed in 1931, was fitted to the aircraft wing support struts.[4]
In 1936,
A British report[6] written in 1942 discusses the need for dive brakes to enable dive bombers, torpedo bombers and fighter aircraft to meet their respective combat performance requirements and, more generally, glide-path control. It discusses different types of air brakes and their requirements, in particular that they should have no appreciable effect on lift or trim and how this may be achieved with split trailing edge flaps on the wings, for example. There was also a requirement to vent the brake surfaces using numerous perforations or slots to reduce airframe buffeting.
A US report[7] written in 1949 describes numerous air brake configurations, and their performance, on wings and fuselage for propeller and jet aircraft.
Air brake configurations
Often, characteristics of both spoilers and air brakes are desirable and are combined - most modern
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3d/Klm.fokker70.airbrakes.arp.750pix.jpg/220px-Klm.fokker70.airbrakes.arp.750pix.jpg)
Virtually all jet-powered aircraft have an air brake or, in the case of most airliners, lift spoilers that also act as air brakes. Propeller-driven aircraft benefit from the natural braking effect of the propeller when engine power is reduced to idle, but jet engines have no similar braking effect, so jet-powered aircraft must use air brakes to control speed and descent angle during landing approach. Many early jets used parachutes as air brakes on approach (
Split-tailcone air brakes have been used on the Blackburn Buccaneer naval strike aircraft designed in the 1950s and Fokker F28 Fellowship and British Aerospace 146 airliners. The Buccaneer air brake, when opened, reduced the length of the aircraft in the confined space on an aircraft carrier.
The
Split control surfaces
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d5/STS-116_landing_port_behind.jpg/220px-STS-116_landing_port_behind.jpg)
The
The Space Shuttle used a similar system. The vertically-split rudder opened in "clamshell" fashion on landing to act as a speed brake.[9]
See also
References
- ISBN 9780850451634.
- ISBN 978 0 521 88516 4, p.283
- ^ "Speed brake". Britannica. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
- ^ "Air Brakes for Planes Greatly Reduce the Landing Speed". Popular Science. Vol. 122, no. 1. January 1933. p. 18.
- ISBN 9781853672620.
- ^ Davies, H.; Kirk, F. N. (June 1942). "A Résumé of Aerodynamic Data on Air Brakes" (PDF) (Technical Report). Ministry of Supply.
- ^ Stephenson, Jack D. (September 1949). "The Effects of Aerodynamic Brakes Upon the Speed Characteristics of Airplanes" (PDF) (Technical Note). NACA.
- ^ "Spoilers And Speedbrakes - SKYbrary Aviation Safety". www.skybrary.aero. Retrieved 2019-12-28.
- ^ "Extract from NSTS Shuttle Reference Manual (1988): Space Shuttle Coordinate System – Vertical Tail". NASA. Archived from the original on 7 December 2021. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
External links
Media related to Air brakes (aircraft) at Wikimedia Commons