The Anti-Skid System for Large Aircraft

An anti-skid system is a system that identifies when an aircraft's wheel is skidding. The course is designed to minimize the wheel's damage, which occurs from time to time when the wheels are locked or making spins that do not correspond with the aircraft's speed. The system is essential because it ensures safety when the aircraft is taking off and landing, thus preventing frequent tire bursts. Besides, it prevents rubber skids from reverting as a result of locked wheels. It also ensures the aircraft's safety because it improves the stopping distance on surfaces, not standard such as gravel and grass. The system also ensures maximum and effective braking systems on surfaces contaminated with substances such as ice or slush.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The most recent anti-skid systems have wheel protection that prevents tires from locking up while rolling on the landing surface, and touchdown protection, which functions by preventing the plane from landing when the pressure has been applied to the brakes. The safety reasons mentioned above illustrate why aeronautical engineers developed an anti-skid system and how it has been vital since its inception. This paper focuses on the importance of the anti-skid system, precisely on large planes' safety, as detailed below.

Why There was Need for an Anti-Skid System

In ancient times, many aircrafts accidents occurred as a result of brake system failure. The failure was because the brake control input to the braking device was mechanical, mostly through cables. Only small aircraft could use this braking system since it was not efficient in large aircraft, and besides, it used to cause many accidents. These shortcomings forced aeronautical engineers to develop innovations that would perfect large aircrafts' braking systems (Moses, 1965). They solved this problem by developing hydraulically activated brakes, which remained the best option for the vast majority of aircraft models today. Large aircraft, especially commercial ones, use the anti-skid system to help curb the challenges associated with the outdated braking system. Anti-skid has played a significant role in boosting the aircraft's' safety in many ways.

Safety Reasons Why the Anti-Skid System Was Developed for Large Aircrafts

The anti-skid system is a vital part of the "landing gear wheel brake control system" of many big airplanes, especially those with full power brake actuation. Aviation operators have had many experiences that depict how the anti-skid system is essential. The system is reliable, especially when the highest available frictional forces involving the wheels and runaway surfaces are not sufficient to curb brake torque, vital in ensuring the aircraft's safety. The anti-skid system is efficient in cases where extreme brake torque is applied. In this scenario, the system function controls the tire's motion so that the skids are prevented. Doing this prevents hazardous circumstances that are unfavorable to conventional, safe, and economical aircrafts operations.

The anti-skid function is affected by a collection of ancillary components that offer automatic ways that detect and alleviate an early wheel skid state by scheming the brakes torque. At first, the skid's alleviation happens by reducing the brake torque temporally to a value that is less than the produced torque as a result of the friction force at the tire-runaway interface. The tires will then regain their speed after the break has been reduced and contained for a given period. Besides, the tires will regain speed, and the brake torque is applied again. These occurrences threaten the aircraft's safety because the lessening and consequent application of break torques result in an oscillatory breaking force affecting the aircraft, making the aircraft unstable and insecure.

Furthermore, the oscillatory is very dangerous because it can cause difficult dynamic loading of the aircraft structure, causing faulty directional controls. It can also degrade the airplane's stopping performance. However, the anti-skid system is vital because it helps in overcoming these challenges. For instance, it functions by controlling the wheel's motion so that objectionable or conditions that are not safe cannot occur, thus ensuring the aircraft's safety.

Apart from detecting the skid, the anti-skid system also detects when the wheel skid is imminent, which is very helpful because when the skid takes place, it can damage the aircraft and cause life loss. The Anti-skid system detects if the wheel skid is imminent by automatically relieving pressure to the wheel's brake piston affected by fleetingly linking the hydraulic fluid under pressure to the system return line. This prevents the wheel from skidding by allowing it to rotate. It is efficient because the brake will maintain lower pressure at a level that reduces the wheel's speed without skidding. Besides, this is important because a skid can result in an accident, damaging the plane, destroying cargo, or loss of lives. Aircrafts accidents are hazardous, and whenever they occur, they result in destruction, thus require advanced innovation like the anti-skid system.

The anti-skid system plays a significant role in matters concerning the plane safety, specifically, when landing on surfaces contaminated with ice or slush. However, the efficiency of the anti-skid depends on its design characteristics. Different anti-skid designs function differently depending on the maximum friction and the surface-tire combination. Aircrafts spin-up accelerations are low on slippery runways due to low friction coefficients compared to those on dry surfaces. This is dangerous, and it may cause the aircraft to engage in an accident. More so, the lessened spin-up accelerations elongate the period required for the wheel to recover from an intense skid. This can result in degradation in the efficiency of the anti-skid system. However, an anti-skid system with good design characteristics will have a good efficiency on slippery surfaces, suitable for the aircraft's safety.

For many years, aeronautical engineers have made many improvements in regards to the aircraft's safety. One of the tremendous innovations in the field of aeronautical engineering is the anti-skid system. Moreover, their efficiency has significantly improved since the early 1950s. An aircraft's braking-system is essential for its safety. One of the significant causes of aircrafts accidents is slippery surfaces. An aircraft needs an anti-skid system with good efficiency for its safety when taking off or landing on slippery surfaces. Besides, it needs a fully modulated anti-skid system that exceeds 90% efficiency for it to be safe (Robert et al., 1968).

Globalization has resulted in technological advancements, one of them being aircraft. Nowadays, aircraft are manufactured in big sizes, thus carrying many people and big chunks of cargos. This means aeronautical engineers need to focus on innovations that will guarantee the safety of the aircraft. Gladly, the majority of the aircraft today contain computerized anti-skid systems for safety enhancements. In recent times, anti-skid designs have been boosted by computer simulations. For instance, the tire is combined with the brake data extorted from dynamometer testing and then linked with the landing gears' properties to assess the landing performance for different runway conditions. Anti-skids are designed differently for different aircraft though the similarities are nearly the same. The majority of commercial aircraft use efficient anti-skid systems like Crane Co. Hydro-Aire Inc, one of the most efficient designs that guarantee safety.

Recently, many anti-skid systems come with additional safety features such as locked wheel protection and touchdown protection. The locked wheel protection is a safety measure for the aircraft's safety because it prevents the tires from locking up while rolling on the landing surface. In this scenario, the anti-skid system functions by comparing the wheel signals between. For instance, if one of the wheels has a lower speed of 40% compared to another wheel, a full brake pressure release is commanded to the associated wheel, making the other wheel recover the average speed. The 40% tolerance between the alternating speeds is provided to allow differential breaking level that is helpful for direction controlling purposes (Hoyt, 1931).

On the other hand, touchdown protection is another added safety feature of the modern anti-skid system. It functions by preventing the landing of the plane while pressure has been applied to the breaks. More so, it prevents the wheels from spinning up during touchdown, making the anti-skid system a necessity. In this case, safety is guaranteed because the brake actuation will function after a few seconds after the aircraft has touched down or after the wheels have rolled up to a pre-set value. Besides, a touchdown protection mode is very efficient for large aircraft during the rainy season when landing surfaces are slippery. Generally, the touchdown mode is vital for large aircraft because of the extensive friction it exerts on runway surfaces while landing down.

One of the significant causes of aircrafts accidents is tire bursts. However, the anti-skid system uses hydraulics to prevent the bursting of tires by ensuring an aircraft takes off and lands safely. More so, it ensures that the wheel will not wear out excessively (Francois, 2019). It does this by lessening the brake's pressure when the wheel is not rolling, thereby enhancing aircraft take-off and landing safety. An aircraft brake that uses an anti-skid system needs highly adaptable to the landing surface or runway environment and high dynamic response speed. These features are necessary for the safety of an aircraft. For the past three decades, there have been many electric aircraft developments that have led to the incorporation of electrical drive brake systems. However, the technical maturity and reliability of the hydraulic brake system make it the most preferred brake system to be used in large aircraft (Hoyt, 1931). The hydraulic brake system makes the anti-skid system a good option since it guarantees the safety of aircraft.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is evident that the anti-skid system was developed for large aircraft to prevent them from skidding. Initially, the brake systems were insufficient because they used cables instead of hydraulics. Since the 1940s, the anti-skid system has been so efficient in large aircraft, and it has helped prevent accidents that result from skidding and tire bursting. It uses hydraulics to prevent the bursting of tires by ensuring an aircraft takes off and lands safely.

The modern anti-skid system has additional features such as locked wheel protection and touch down protection. Wheel protection prevents tires from locking up while rolling on the landing surface, whereas touchdown protection prevents the plane from landing when pressure has been applied on the brakes. It also prevents the wheels from spinning up during touchdown, making the anti-skid system a necessity. Further, the anti-skid system detects when the skid is imminent, which can help the pilot know what to do before the plane lands. It also ensures maximum and effective braking of the plane on surfaces contaminated with ice or slash substances. Therefore, the anti-skid system was developed for large aircraft to immensely enhance safety, as detailed above.

References

Francois, O. (2019)." Airplane Tire Treadwear" U.S. Patent Application No. 16/471,408.

Hoyt, C. N. (1931). "Aeroplane Break" U.S. Patent No. 1,789,653. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Moses, T. S. (1965). The Hytrol Mark II Automatic AntiSkid Braking System [Abstract]. Aircraft E...