Can an Airplane Brake Suddenly in Mid-Air?
1 Answers
No. The braking system of an airplane is designed for use during landing when the aircraft touches down, not during flight. Upon landing, the airplane has a significant horizontal velocity component. However, during the rollout phase, the aerodynamic drag and wheel rolling resistance provide relatively little deceleration. If measures are not taken to increase the aircraft's resistance to decelerate it rapidly, the landing rollout distance and time would be excessively long, requiring much longer runways for takeoff and landing. Therefore, airplanes are equipped with deceleration devices. An airplane is an aircraft heavier than air that flies within the Earth's atmosphere, propelled forward by thrust or pull generated by one or more engines, with lift provided by fixed wings attached to the fuselage. The airplane is one of the most significant inventions of the early 20th century, widely credited to the American Wright brothers.