PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Braking forces on front wheels
View Single Post
Old 15th Oct 2004, 22:58
  #2 (permalink)  
Mad (Flt) Scientist
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: La Belle Province
Posts: 2,179
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Big difference for most a/c is that the front wheels typically only carry about 10% of the total weight (or less) statically; your car is more like 50-50 usually.

Then the long "arm" to the wheel means that any pitching down caused by braking on the mains can be resisted with proportionally less load on the nose.

A very few aircraft have used brakes on the front wheels (SAAB Gripen is one IIRC) but most don't bother.

Think of it as a similar case to a drag racer - small spindly front wheels because all the weight is near the back wheels.
Mad (Flt) Scientist is offline