Air brake (aeronautics)

Planes use special parts to slow down.

These parts are called air brakes. When they pop out, they catch the air. This makes the plane slow down.

When they are not needed, they stay flat. This helps the plane move easily. Some planes even use parachutes to slow down.

Other planes use parts on their wings. These parts help them land safely.

Planes need ways to slow down in the sky. They use parts called air brakes. These parts help by adding drag. Drag is a force that pulls back on the plane.

When a pilot needs to slow down, the brakes move into the air. This makes the plane catch more air. This slows the plane down. When they are not in use, they stay flat. This helps the plane move easily through the air.

There are many kinds of air brakes. Some are on the wings. Others are on the body of the plane. Some jets use spoilers. Spoilers are parts that reduce lift. Lift is the force that keeps a plane up. On big jets, spoilers help the plane land. They push the weight onto the wheels. This helps the wheels grip the ground better.

Some planes use even more tools. The Space Shuttle used a rudder that opened like a clamshell. This helped it slow down during landing. Other early jets even used parachutes to slow down!

Air brakes help planes control their speed in the sky. They are parts used to increase drag on an aircraft. Drag is a force that pulls back against the plane. When a pilot extends these parts into the airstream, the drag goes up. This causes the plane to slow down quickly. When they are not in use, the parts stay flat against the plane. This helps the plane move through the air with very little drag.

There are different ways these brakes work. True air brakes increase drag but do not change lift much. This is different from spoilers. Spoilers are parts that reduce the lift-to-drag ratio. On many large transport planes, pilots call these spoilers speed brakes even though they do reduce lift. When a large jet lands, it uses spoilers to dump lift. This moves the plane's weight from the wings to the wheels. The extra weight helps the wheels grip the ground better for braking.

People have been working on these tools for a long time. In the early days of flight, brakes were flaps on the wings. Pilots moved them using a lever in the cockpit. In 1931, a new type was added to wing support struts. In 1936, Hans Jacobs developed blade-style brakes for gliders. He led a glider research group called the DFS in Germany. These brakes helped gliders control how they moved toward the ground.

Different planes use many unique shapes for their brakes. The Blackburn Buccaneer used split-tailcone brakes in the 1950s. These brakes helped the plane fit into small spaces on aircraft carriers. Some fighter jets like the F-15 Eagle have brakes behind the cockpit. Other planes use a deceleron. This is an aileron that can split in half to brake. The top half goes up while the bottom half goes down.

Many aircraft use different methods to slow down safely. Some early jet planes used parachutes to help them stop. This was seen on the Arado Ar 234 and the Boeing B-47. The Space Shuttle used a different system for its landing. Its rudder split open like a clamshell to act as a brake.

Most modern jets use a mix of tools to stay in control. They might use air brakes, spoilers, or even reverse thrust. All these parts work together to keep the flight smooth and safe.

Air brakes, also known as speed brakes, are flight control surfaces used to increase drag. Drag is a force that resists the motion of an aircraft through the air. When a pilot extends these surfaces into the airstream, they create more resistance, which slows the plane down. When they are not being used, air brakes conform to the streamlined profile of the aircraft. This helps the plane fly through the air with as little drag as possible.

It is important to distinguish between true air brakes and spoilers. Air brakes are specifically designed to increase drag while making very little change to the aircraft's lift. Spoilers work differently by reducing the lift-to-drag ratio. Using spoilers often requires a higher angle of attack to maintain lift, which results in a higher stall speed. However, on many transport aircraft, pilots and manufacturers routinely refer to flight spoilers as "speed brakes" even though they significantly reduce lift.

Many modern airliner jets use a combination of both spoiler and air brake controls. During the landing process, pilots deploy these spoilers, which are sometimes called "lift dumpers." This deployment causes a significant reduction in wing lift. As a result, the weight of the aircraft is transferred from the wings to the undercarriage. This increased weight improves the friction force available for the wheel brakes. The form drag created by the spoilers also assists in slowing the aircraft.

Jet-powered aircraft have different needs than propeller-driven aircraft. Propeller-driven planes benefit from a natural braking effect when the engine power is reduced to idle. Jet engines do not have this similar braking effect. Therefore, jet-powered aircraft must rely on air brakes to control their speed and descent angle during a landing approach. Some early jet models, such as the Arado Ar 234 and the Boeing B-47, used parachutes as air brakes during their approach. Other planes, like the English Electric Lightning, used parachutes to help stop after landing.

The history of these devices shows many different designs. In the early decades of powered flight, air brakes were simply flaps mounted on the wings. Pilots controlled them manually using a lever in the cockpit connected by mechanical linkages. In 1931, another type of air brake was fitted to aircraft wing support struts. In 1936, Hans Jacobs developed blade-style self-operating dive brakes for gliders. Jacobs headed the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug, or DFS, which was a glider research organization in Germany.

Aircraft designers have created many unique configurations for air brakes. The Blackburn Buccaneer, a naval strike aircraft designed in the 1950s, used split-tailcone air brakes. These brakes were useful because they reduced the length of the aircraft when opened, which helped in the confined spaces of an aircraft carrier. Other fighters, such as the F-15 Eagle, Sukhoi Su-27, and F-18 Hornet, have air brakes located just behind the cockpit. There is also a device called a deceleron. A deceleron is an aileron that can split in half, where the top half moves up and the bottom half moves down to create braking.

Specialized systems have also been used for unique spacecraft and advanced stealth planes. The Space Shuttle used a system where the vertically split rudder opened in a "clamshell" fashion to act as a speed brake during landing. This technique of splitting control surfaces has also been used by Northrop on several aircraft, including the B-2 Spirit. These various methods, from parachutes to split rudders, ensure that different types of aircraft can manage their energy and speed safely during all phases of flight.