Spooky 2

EAL had NWB on the earlier planes, but I don't think -200A had NWB. I got there in 84 and all the NWBs had been removed from the 125-strong fleet.

GF

I think the Convair jet airliners also had NWB. The first jet with it must have been the Me262. Mainwheel brakes activated by pedals and the nose by a squeezy grip (like a bike) on the control column.

Galaxy Flyer, reread my post as I think that is what I said, or least meant. :}

The former -225ADV aircraft had the brakes. These wound up at Delta Airlines.

Spooky 2

Sorry 'bout that--I didn't think the -225ADV ever had them installed, only the -100 and -200. Learned something.

GF

727 NLG Brakes
 

I worked for Iberia in the very late '80's and they had the 727-200 with some equipment for the Nose Gear Brake system installed (boosters and some pipework in place in the NWW) but not used (no brakes fitted). The nose wheels still had the drive lugs for the brake rotors at that time.
Paul

B727 NWL
 

Re post #4, yes the Convair 880/990 had nose wheel brakes. To the best of my recollection they only operated when the brake pedals were fully depressed (desperation mode) and were either full on (relying on the antiskid to prevent lock up) or off. Nosewheel steering inputs beyond a certain point would also release the nw brakes if applied. The nosewheels were on a common axle with a single antiskid transducer and antiskid valve. I think they might have looked after the spin down braking on retraction but it was a very long time ago. I believe there was an incident, before my time on 880's, where one had full nosewheel braking applied on touchdown due to a malfunction and came to a rapid stop with square nose wheels and damage to the bottom end of the nose leg. I cannot recall ever replacing nosewheel brakes due to wear.

I think EAL had 3 -17’s used for South America - La Paz that had oversized MLG wheels, nose brakes, and “black power” ( higher EPR with an engine failure on takeoff.) I started in ‘79 and the nose brakes were all deactivated by then.

I don't recall if anyone said it, but nosewheel brakes should be helpful at every flight to reduce wheel vibration when gear is retracted, as is done on the main gear wheels.
I wish we had that type of brakes on the A320. They would only require a very small brake system, and would not impact navigability in case of failure/absence.

The problem with making a nosewheel braking system basic is then it has to be part of the MEL. While you can dispatch with the system inop via the MEL - there must be a time limit associated with the MEL dispatch - so you'll eventually have to spend the money to fix it. So the operators would need to pay the cost of adding the feature, then spend more money keeping it working to avoid having aircraft grounded.
Operators don't like that - especially when a cheap, simple snubber in the nose gear wheel well gets the job done (if perhaps not very gracefully).