Wheel brakes - 1st use of discs
 

I've spent a lot of time web trawling to little avail, and the best I can come up with is the Bell P39 which used multi-disc brakes. (Goodyear?)
So please help... what was the first aircraft built in reasonable numbers to have used disc brakes? I'm assuming the first such brakes would have been single disc rather than multi...

Couldn't You link us to the multi-disc's of the P-39 as I would have thought that construction connects to kevlar/carbon compound as late as the 70's!?
My only observation regarding WW2 discbrakes is on the B25 Mitchell :-(

The Howard DGA series - dating from about 1937 - had multi-disc brakes. My guess is that other private types such as Waco, Fairchild, Beech possibly used them.

Some clues may be found at Goodyear Multiple Disc Brakes 1948 Parts Catalog

The disc brake seems to have been developed in England in the 1890s and first used on cars. The earliest aircraft use I could find was a 1929 article.

1929 | 1 - 1884 | Flight Archive

The Sikorski page is interesting thanks - here's the Goodyear link for their single disc brake.
disc brake | flight november | goodyear | 1946 | 2270 - 0002 | Flight Archive
I wonder if there was anything which preceded the DGA, and if so whether it was single or multi: maybe the single disc came after the use of a multi???

Goodhyear 1932 - US Patent:

http://patentimages.storage.googleap.../US1917933.pdf

That last post I think deals with control of braking rather than disc brakes ? By all means correct me if this is not the case.
Meantime, and FYI here's an interesting site dealing with the various brakes fitted to Beech 18's. Enjoy.
Beech 18 differences and modifications

Disc brakes
 

Douglas Motorcycles of Bristol made a model called the RA in 1923 which had disc brakes.

Thanks for the contribution, but is the RA an aircraft or motorcycle, please...

http://cybermotorcycle.com/archives/...es/dougra1.jpg

As the photo suggests, it wasn't a disk brake in the generally accepted sense:

The RA brakes

Very interesting, but as my first post in this thread suggests, I'm trying to find the first use in any quantity on aircraft. Thanks anyway.


A very early Lanchester car had a disc brake, by the way.