286

14ircraft Wheel Brakes*

By D. A. L. Robson, BSc. (Eng.), A.M.1.Mech.E.t
I n designing brakes for the landing run, account should be taken of aerodynamic forces acting on
the aircraft that reduce the ground reaction in addition to helping to retard the aircraft. There are
good grounds fur designing brakes with a limiting torque, because most British tail-wheeI type air-
craft will nose over if the brake drag exceeds about 0.2-0.3 times the aircraft weight, and with tricycle
landing gear the loads imposed on the nose-wheel structure during severe braking may be critical;
furthermore, the danger from bursting a tyre, owing to locking the wheel, cannot be ignored. Cal-
culations made for a hypothetical aircraft indicate that little is gained by designing for a brake drag
in excess of about 0.3 times the aircraft weight.
Brakes are used both for steering and limiting the speed of the aircraft when taxi-ing, and in conse-
quence, a very large amount of energy may have to be dissipated by them.
Shoe brakes are standard equipment on German aircraft, and are also widely used in America,
but use on British aircraft is confined to the smallest types. British designers have used expander-tube
brakes almost exclusively, but disk brakes-popular in America-are now receiving close attention
in this country.
The British system of brake control is to use finger operation, with a differential mechanism
coupled to the rudder control, but in most other countries foot pedals are employed. The British
system necessitates power operation aimost always, but direct operation is possible when foot pedals
are used. Pneumatic power transmission for brake operation has been widely used on British aircraft,
but most other countries have adopted hydraulic operation.

BASIC D E S I G N R E Q U I R E M E N T S aircraft an expression can be obtained €or the aerodynamic drag,

Aircraft wheel brakes are used for other purposes than that of in terms of the aircraft's velocity, in the form :-
retarding the aircraft's forward motion. Their main duties, all PA = kDv*
d which must be considered during design, are :- where PA is the drag due to aerodynamic forces, 02 the forward
(1) To stop the aircraft after landing. velocity, and k, a constant.
(2) T o steer the aircraft when on the ground. The brake drag depends, of course, upon the degree of
(3) T o restrict the forward speed when taxi-ing. braking used. For the purposes of brake design, it is useful to
(4) T o hold the aircraft stationary against the thrust developed assume that this will be the maximum possible throughout the
when engines are run up for checking prior to take off. whole landing run. When the aircraft first touches down it is
(5) T o hold the aircraft stationary when parked. still fully airborne; there is no ground reaction and no brake
retarding force is therefore possible. As the forward speed
The Stop. When an aircraft lands it possesses a kinetic decreases the ground reaction increases-since the lift decreases
energy defined by its weight and horizontal velocity, all of -and thus the possible retarding force increases. If the co-
which must be destroyed to bring it to rest. The brake designer efficient of friction between tyre and ground is p , and the
generally has to prepare his design before the aircraft is in actual ground reaction R, the brake retarding force, assuming the
existence, and he must therefore rely upon estimates of the maximum possible degree of braking, is given by :-
aircraft landing weight and speed, which are specified by the PB = p R
aircraft designer. It is often difficult to specify the landing speed This can be expressed in the form :-
with accuracy, because this will vary somewhat with the landing
technique of different pilots. However, as a first approximation, PB = y( w- kL7J2)
it may be taken as equal to the stalling speed with the flaps where W is the aircraft weight and Iz, a coilstant such that k , d
down. Generally the air speed at landing will be in excess of the gives the lift due to aerodynamic forces.
stalling speed, but, to compensate for this, there will usually For various reasons, which are discussed later, the maximum
be some wind, and the brakes are not normally applied until brake drag may be limited by other than the ground reaction
the aircraft is well on the ground, when the speed will have and ground-tyre coefficient of friction. If this is assumed to
fallen. be the case, the brake drag will increase-as the velocity falls-
The most elementary consideration of the landing run is to from the point of brake application, until it reaches a figure at
regard the aircraft as being subject to the two retarding forces, which it will remain constant until the aircraft comes to rest.
aerodynamic drag and brake drag. When considering the landing run, aircraft can be divided
The aerodynamic drag is a function of the square of the into the two broad classes of those fitted with tail wheels, and
horizontal velocity relative to the surrounding air. For ease of those fitted with nose wheels or tricycle landing gear.
consideration no account has been taken, in the following, of Considering first the case of conventional aircraft fitted with
wind; it being assumed that the aircraft is landing in still air. tail wheels, it will be realized that the arrangement is such that
From a knowledge of the aerodynamic characteristics of the the aircraft centre of gravity is aft of the point of ground-tyre
contact. I t is clear, therefore, that the maximum brake drag is
The MS. of this paper was received at the Institution on 18th July limited to a figure such that the resulting pitching moment does
1946. not cause nosing-over of the aircraft (Fig. 24), which figure is
* This paper is published with the permission of the Ministry of dependent upon the position of the centre of gravity relative to
Supply, but the author accepts full responsibility for all statements
and opinions expressed. the point of contact of the tyre on the ground. The farther
t Ministry of Supply, Resident Technical Officer at Sir W. G. forward the main wheels are placed, the greater the brake drag
Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, Ltd., Baginton, Coventry. which can be sustained ; but there are, however, disadvantages

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 AIRCRAFT W H E E L BRAKES 287
in placing the wheels too far forward, quite apart from the brakes results, however, in a pitching moment which must be
installation problem of stowage when retracted. For example, resisted by the nose wheel, and, if high brake torques are used,
during braking the aircraft tends to be in a condition of unstable the resulting forces on the nose wheel structure may well
equilibrium directionally, and, should a swing develop, loss of become critical from a load point of view, and necessitate
additional strength, and consequently weight, over and above
that required for normal landing loads.
There is, therefore, little to be gained, from the point of view
of stopping the aircraft after landing, in designing the brakes
and operating mechanism for tail-wheel type aircraft with un-
limited torques available, and it may also be very desirable to
limit the maximum torque with tricycle landing gear arrange-
ments. A further point in favour of limiting the value of the
brake torque is to prevent damage to tyres. i t can be argued that,
as he has full control over brake application, the pilot will use
only that degree of braking which can be transmitted by the
ground without skidding the tyre. If very high brake torques
are made available to the pilot, it becomes essential that his
control should be both sensitive and possessed of a high degree
of “feel”; otherwise skidding of the tyres is very likely, and, as
they have relatively thin treads, the results of a locked wheel
n Tail-wheel aircraft. may well be a burst tyre-if not more serious damage.
As an illustration of the duty of wheel brakes during a stop,
some figures have been worked out for a hypothetical aircraft
landing with the maximum possible degree of braking. Two sets
of calculations were made for the same basic aircraft :-
(1) Assuming landing tail down and remaining in the tail
down attitude throughout.
(2) Assuming landing tail up and remaining in the tail up
attitude throughout.
These represent the limiting conditions for the same aircraft,
first considered as a tail-wheel type, and secondly assuming it
fitted with a tricycle landing gear. In actual practice tail-wheel
type aircraft are seldom landed completely tail down, whereas
tricycle types are landed somewhat tail down and “eased” on to
h Nose-wheel aircraft.
are as follows :-
-
the nose wheel. The fieures on which these calculations are based

Fig. 24. Nosing Over Tendency of Aircraft W = aircraft weight . 20,000 lb.
p = ground-tyre coefficieAt of
control is more likely if the centre of gravity is too far aft (Fig. 25) friction . 0.8
With conventional British aircraft designs the wheels are PA= aerodynamic drag, Ib. . 0 . 1 6 tail
~ ~ down (v ft.
generally so placed, relative to the aircraft centre of gravity, that per sec.)
the maximum brake retarding force which can be sustained, 0 . 1 2 5tail~ ~ up
without fear of nosing over, is of the order of 0*2W-O.SW,
where W = aircraft weight.
aerodynamic lift, lb. . 1 . 1 ~ 2tail down (w ft.
per sec.)
0.77~2tail up
The landing speed has been assumed as that speed at which
the lift is e<ud to the weight in each case, i.e. 135 ft. per sec.
(92 m.p.h.) tail down and 161 ft. per sec. (110 m.p.k) tail up.
Figures have been calculated on the basis of the aircraft
being subjected to retarding forces due to brakes and aero-

a Tail-wheel aircraft.

DIRECTION OF W T I O N

c3--
4-0-.-. - ~

(--+--+ /
.o’
0 0 I 0.2 0.3 0.4 05 0.6 0.7 08
h Nose-wheel aircraft. DEStGN FRICTiON COEFFICIENT FOR 8RAKES.P

Fig. 25. Directional Instability of Aircraft Fig. 26. Landing Run Details-Tail Up
Aircraft with tricycle landing gear do not have this limitation dynamic drag only, and a series of values obtained assuming the
placed on the brake torque since the nose wheel prevents nosing maximum brake drag being limited by the design of the brake
over, and the centre of gravity being forward of the point of to values up to 0.8W. The results are shown graphically in
tyre contact ensures directional stability. The application of Figs. 26 and 27 for the tail up and down attitudes respectively.

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288 AIRCRAFT AUXILIARY SYSTEMS AND EQUIPMENT
However, aircraft tyres are generally operated at a compara-
tively large static deflexion, the usual figure being in the order
of 35 per cent. The resistance is approximately proportional to
the deflexion, and is affected by speed because of the effect of
the latter on the ground reaction. Figs. 28 and 29 show the effect
of allowing for rolling resistance. The amount assumed for this
correction is given by :-
PR= 0.02R
= 0.02( w- k,v2)
The effect will be seen to be small in this case.
Steering. T h e wheel brakes are used for directional control
during landing and take-off, as well as for steering during slow
speed taxi-ing, and the brake control must, therefore, be arranged
so that differential braking is possible. When landing with a
cross wind considerable differential braking may be required to
DESIGN FRICTION COEFFICIENT FOR BRAKES, /.I
keep the aircraft on the runway, nnd it is therefore standard
Fig. 27. Landing Run Details-Tail Down practice to arrange the mechanism so that full brakes can be
applied to one wheel, while zero torque is transmitted by the
5 other. It is clearly of very great importance, since normally the
brakes are the only method of maintaining directional control,
that they remain consistent in performance during application.
If one brake starts to fade during a stop, the application of the
other must be reduced if the aircraft is to be kept on a straight
course, which is unlike the case of a road vehicle where the
failure of one brake through fade does not affect the others,
except that they must do more work.
Taxi-ing. During taxi-ing and general ground manoeuvring,
the wheel brakes are used not only to steer the aircraft, but often
to prevent the forward speed from becoming excessive, since
the minimum speed of certain high-performance engines is so
high that the resultant thrust is sufficient to produce a consider-
able velocity. When proceeding round the perimeter track of the
aerodrome, especially at night, it may be constantly necessary
to apply the brakes to keep the speed of the aircraft within
reasonable limits. It is difficult to assess in general terms the
Fig. 28. Landing Run Details with Rolling Drag-Tail Up work done by the brakes during taxi-ing, but the thrust may well
exceed the rolling resistance by as much as 0.03W. I n the case
of the hypothetical aircraft for which the landing run details
have been calculated, it will be seen that the total work done
during the most severe braked stop possible is about 4.2 million
ft.-lb. (tail down case). If during a taxi-ing run of 3,000 feet-
a not unreasonable distance-the brakes must hold the aircraft
back against a thrust of O.O3W, the work done will be about
1.8 million ft.-lb. I n itself this figure is far from inconsiderable,
and when it is realized that the taxi-ing may follow immediately
after a landing, the importance of the taxi-ing case is obvious.

Hold against Static Thrust. Although it is always possible,

and often not inconvenient, to hold the aircraft by means of
chocks when running up the engines, this is an undesirable
limitation. It is usual to run up engines immediately prior to
take off, and, when the starting end of the runway is far removed
from the ground crew base, the use of chocks is most incon-
venient. Wherever possible, therefore, the wheel brakes should
be capable of giving sufficient static torque to resist the thrust
Fig. 29. Landing Run Details with Rolling Drag-Tail Down developed during this operation. A twin-engined aircraft is
worse in this respect, since each wheel must have sufficient
Examination of these curves reveals two interesting points. brake power to resist the thrust from one engine, whereas, in
(1) The total energy to be dissipated in the tail up case is the case of four-engined aircraft, the engines would be run up
greater than in the tail down case, due to the higher one at a time, and, if engines of the same power are assumed,
landing speed. The absolute value of work done by the the size of wheel and brake would generally be larger because
brakes tail up is, therefore, greater than tail down, but of the greater size of the aircraft. I n most cases of high per-
the proportion of kinetic energy of the aircraft which is formance aircraft the thrust developed during the engine run
absorbed by the brakes at the point of landing is, in up necessitates a brake force greater than 0.3u7, and this con-
each case, about 75 per cent. sideration becomes, therefore, the criterion when deciding the
maximum brake torque. It should be borne in mind, however,
(2) The value of increasing the maximum brake drag beyond that this is a static torque and does not affect the energy absorp-
about 0.3W is very small in both cases. tion requirements.
No account has been taken in these calculations of the rolling
resistance of the tyres j this being an additional retarding force, Parking. The use of brakes during parking requires little
the value of which will depend upon the particular type of tyre comment, except that considerable damage may be don: :i the
used, as a large-section low-pressure tyre will have a rolling aircraft is parked with the brakes on immediatelv aftei ianding,
resistance greater than a smaller-section high-pressure type. when all the brake parts are at a high temperature.

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 AIRCRAFT W H E E L BRAKES 289
BRAKE DESIGN Shoe Brakes. Shoe brakes were standard equipment on all
The different types of brake used on aircraft can be roughly German aircraft, and are used in considerable numbers on air-
divided into two groups-drum and disk brakes. Drum brakes craft of American design, but, except on small low performance
have been more widely used and are standard on most current types, they have not been used extensively on British aircraft,
British aircraft. Disk brakes which have been used extensively principally because of the type of pilot’s control used almost
in America, and were being introduced on German aircraft exclusively on British aircraft. The type of shoe brake used on
towards the end of the war, are being introduced on a few new aircraft differs little from corresponding road vehicle brakes :
British aircraft, but it is impossible to predict whether they will two types are used, those employing the duo-servo principle,
replace drum brakes to any great extent. and those incorporating two leading shoes. Typical German
A few years ago it was standard practice with drum type examples of these two types are shown in Figs. 30 and 31
brakes to press the drum into the wheel casting, this being done respectively.
largely to enable the wheel casting to act as a heat reservoir, and The general trend seems to indicate that, except For small
to help keep the brake temperature as low as possible. This aircraft, the shoe brake is being superseded by other designs.
design suffered from several disadvantages and has now almost The duo-servo brake, which has been the type of shoe brake

CYLINDER

-
SCREW A ~ U S T E R

10 IS 20 25 cn.
P - n n t 9

Fig. 30. German Duo-servo Brake

entirely been discarded. Although still mounted inside the most widely used, suffers from the general disability of all
casting the drum is now separated at its periphery from the brakes incorporating self energization. They are more critical
casting by an air space. When the drum was pressed into to adjustment, require more careful maintenance, and are upset
the casting a fairly light steel drum was generally employed but more easily by changes in characteristics of the friction material
it was found that as the power required of the brake became and drum distortion. Their main value has been that they permit
large the heat generated caused drum distortion of such a the use of an operating mechanism not dependent upon a power
severity that it was impossible to maintain good contact between source, but, even in this respect, they have little advantage
the drum and the casting, and the heat path was therefore poor. over disk type brakes.
This resulted in excessive temperatures being generated and
consequent poor brake performance. Another equally great Expander Tube Brakes. The most commonly used form of
disadvantage of this design was that the temperature of the brake on British aircraft is of the expander tube type. A typical
casting at the tyre bead seat became excessive, and caused tyre example of one of these brakes is shown in Fig. 32, which iUus-
failures. By separating the drum from the casting it has been trates an aircraft wheel and brake of current design. The brake
necessary to use heavier drums, but improved friction materials unit itself consists of a U-section ring attached rigidly to, or
and better methods of making drums have permitted higher formed integrally with, the back plate. Resting in this U-ring
temperatures being employed, and so the weight penalty has not is an expandable tube made of fabric-reinforced rubber which
been excessive. The three main types of brake in current use can be inflated by either air or oil. The brake shoes, in the form
are: (1) shoe brakes; (2) expander tube brakes; and (3) disk of segments of non-metallic friction material riveted to steel
brakes. clips, are placed outside the expander tube and encompassed

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290 AIRCRAFT AUXILIARY SYSTEMS A N D E Q U I P M E N T
b y the U-ring. Return springs reacting on the underside of the other designs, the three which have received, orarenow receiving,
U-ring are used to collapse the assembly when pressure is most attention amongst British aircraft designers are described.
removed from the expander tube. Current British designs use a
maximum pressure in the expander tube of 150 lb. per sq. in. Multi-disk Brakes. Multi-disk brakes have been used on a
and it is seldom that a figure of 250 lb. per sq. in. is exceeded number of different American aircraft types and, by the end of
with this class of brake. the war, had been developed in Germany to the point that they
Expander tube brakes have been used for some years on were then just being introduced into service. A typical example
almost all British aircraft and on a number of the larger American is shown in Fig. 33, illustrating one of Germdn design, from
designs, but not on German aircraft. Although aircraft brakes which, it will be seen that the brake consists of a series of
operate at very much higher temperatures than brakes on road alternate fixed and rotating disks, forced into contact with one
vehicles, little trouble has been experienced with the rubber another by hydraulic pressure applied at a glmded annular
expander tube. The brake, being flexible, can adjust itself to space behind the inner disk. The clearance allowed between the

DOWELS

Fig. 31. German Two Leading Shoe Brake

cater for quite a large degree of axle deflexion, and can continue disks when the brake is off is of the order of 0.010 inch nominal,
to operate efficiently with considerable drum distortion. Also, but this is reduced slightly by the tolerance which has to be
it is virtually ncn-self-energizing and is not, therefore, unduly allowed on the flatness of the disks. These are made of chromiurn-
critical to changes in friftion characteristics, the design in- plated steel, and steel having a facing of a sintered powder
corporating no adjustment and requiring the minimum of main- metal; this combination has been arrived at over several years’
tenance. The replacement of shoes when the linings become development, but better ones may, of course, be found.
worn, the fitting of new expander tubes, and the replacement T h e use of metzl-to-metal friction results in friction properties
of drums when these become distorted through excessive use, largely independent of temperature, and the type of brake is
is all that is necessary to maintain serviceable brakes. found to be smooth and consistent in operatioc. For its size it
incorporates a considerable mass ol’ metal, and its heat capacity
Disk or H a t e Brakes. Although several designs of disk brake is thsrrfore high, but because of its compact riature tile heat has
have been produced in this country, few British aircraft of dificuky in escaping, and the brake can, therefore, be damaged
rcceiit design have incorporated this type of brake unit. Several unless handled intelligently. The use of metal-to-metal friction
American aircraft in current use are equipped with disk brakes permits the use of high unit pressures, but, as this results in a
and thc Germans were on the point of adopting similar designs correspondingly rapid generation of heat that cannot be removed
at the end of the recent war. This type of brake is now receiving at anything like thc rate it is generated, it rnusr be used with
imre attention in this country and it may take its place along care. If overheated, the disks tend to warp and remain in contact
with other designs on future British aircraft. Although there are when the brake is nominally off, which leads to the continuous

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 AIRCRAFT WHEEL BRAKES 291
generation of heat due to dragging of the brakes, and may result
in damage of such severity as to necessitate the replacement of
the disks. If the disks are spaced with a greater clearance to per-
mit some distortion to take place, the fluid displacement is corre-
spondingly increased, and the design loses one of its advantages
over the expander tube brake. As the design very largely depends
upon heat absorption, as distinct from heat dissipation, it is not
very suitable for applications where repeated stops are to be
made at frequent intervals, nor where a large amount of taxi-ing
with considerable brake drag is necessary, but where it is used
infrequently with a fairly well-defined energy requirement the
design has proved satisfactory.

Single-disk Brakes. The latest types of brake to be intro-

duced for aircraft is the single-disk brake and the plate brake.
These are similar in general principle although they differ con-
siderably in detail design. T h e former is shown in Fig. 34 and
the latter in Fig. 35.
A heavy-gauge steel disk, chromium-plated on both sides,
rotates with the wheel-the drive between this disk and the
wheel is arranged so that the former can float for alignment
purposes-and one or more pairs of pads of non-metallic friction
material are mounted facing one another on opposite sides of the
single plate. Operation of the brake consists of forcing these two
pads into contact with the rotating plate. Application is usually
by means of hydraulic pressure, but mechanical operation is
sometimes employed for the smaller sizes.
Owing to the large area of the plate always exposed to the
atmosphere, these brakes possess good heat dissipation character-
istics. Because of the relatively small area of friction material,
high unit pressures are required to generate the requisite torque,
but, while necessitating the use of special friction materials,
this does not appear to be a disadvantage.

BRAKE OPERATING SYSTEMS

Control. For the brake to be used for its various duties, the
control must enable the pilot to apply progressive braking with
adequate “feel” of the power being used, the response being Fig. 32. Expander Tube Brake
rapid and the application smooth and positive. In addition, it
must be possible to apply brakes to the two wheels differentially feet are much higher than by the fingers, the “feel” with foot
for steering purposes, and to hold them on at less than full
pressure without undue difficulty. operation is probably more representative of the actual brake
Standard British practice has been to use hand operation for torque than with finger control.
the brake application with the differential coupled to the rudder The force which can be exerted by the fingers or thumb is so
control. With this arrangement the pilot moves a small hand low, that, with hand control, power operation is essential, whereas
lever to apply brakes, and then steers the aircraft normally by when foot control is employed direct operation by foot power
means of the rudder control, the rudder, of course, moving at alone is possible.
the same time. By this arrangement the technique of steering
an aircidt on the ground is as near as possible the same as that Source of Power. Direct foot-powered brakes are used widely
used in the air, and the change over in control method during in America and on German aircraft. Reliance on foot power is
the transition from airborne to non-airborne conditions is only practicable when the displacement required is small, and
reduced to a minimum. During both the landing and take-off it for this reason direct operation of expander tube brakes has not
is necessary for the pilot to keep one hand on the throttle and been successful. Duo-servo shoe brakes and the various types of
the other on the control column. For this reason it has become disk brake can, however, be operated satisfactorily by foot power,
standard British practice, when u s i n g hand control, to mount except in the large sizes where even with these designs the dis-
the brake control lever on the main control handle for operation placement required is too large.
either by the fingers or the thumb. When an outside source of power must be used, full advantage
In marked contrast to the British hand control plus rudder can be taken of it and brakes with a high degree of self-energiza-
bar differential, American and Continental aircraft nearly all tion become unnecessary; thus duo-servo shoe brakes can, with
use pedal operation. Two pedals, one for each foot-generally advantage, be replaced by double leading shoe brakes. The
toe-operated-are mounted on the rudder control and operate, almost universal use on British aircraft of finger control and
by independent circuits, the port and starboard brakes. Brakes expander tube brakes has prevented the use of other than power
are applied by depressing the feet and differential operation by operated brakes in this country, except on one or two small low-
applying one brake more strongly than the other. Pedal operation performance aircraft. I n America, where expander tube, shoe,
permits taxi-ing with the flying controls locked, thereby relieving and disk brakes have been fitted in large numbers, both power
the pilot of holding rudder loads during cross-wind taxi-ing, but and direct operation have been used for some years. The intro-
differential braking with simultaneous large rudder movement duction of power operation on German aircraft took place
is sometimes difficult. When the force required to overcome during the war but most aircraft types in production up to the
friction in the control mechanism becomes a large proportion end of the war were fitted with direct operation. This was no
of the total force required to operate the brake, the “feel” doubt influenced by the small number of large aircraft in service
becomes less representative of the brake force being used. The with the German Air Force.
force which can be exerted by the pilot’s fingers is so small that
the friction tends to reduce the representative “feel” to the pilot Type of Power Transmission. Fluid operation of aircraft
with finger control. As the forces which can be exerted by the brakes is almost universal, but pneumatic power has been used

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 292 AIRCRAFT AUXILIARY SYSTEMS A N D EQUIPMENT
6 FIXED PLATES

ANNULAR 'U'

OIL INLET

5 R O T ~ T I N GDISKS
MILD STEEL FACED WITH 0 5 10 15 20 25 CM.
SINTERED IRON I I I I

Fig. 33. German Multi-disk Brake

C Y I INnFR UFAD PISTON STEEL BRAKE

/ DISK

Fig. 34. Single-disk Brake

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 AIRCRAFT W H E E L BRAKES 293
on most British aircraft, although some have employed hydraulic displacement is low, hydraulic operation is generally employed.
brakes. Hydraulic operation is used on nearly all American air- Disk and shoe brakes fall in this category, and it is normal to
craft and was standard in Germany. use hydraulic operation of these, although by suitable design
When direct hydraulic operation is employed, a pair of foot they could be adapted for operation pneumatically.
pumps mounted on the rudder control operate, through in-
dependent circuits, the port and starboard brakes. This is the
simplest possible system having the highest degree of reliability,
and these features alone probably outweigh any disadvantages
associated with foot operation. Direct hyraulic brakes are not
necessarily limited to small aircraft, as the latest designs of
brake unit have such small fluid displacements required for full
operation, that even quite large brakes can be operated success-
fully by this method without unduly heavy foot loads.
When power is necessary it is usually obtained from one
or more engine driven hydraulic pumps or air compressors,
although in some cases electrically driven pumps have been
employed as being more convenient for the particular installation.
A special system need not be installed for the operation of brakes
alone, it being quite normal practice to obtain the power from
the same system as is used for such operations as undercarriage
retraction. The control for a power operated brake consists
essentially of a variable pressure reducing valve; with foot
control a separate valve is operated by each foot, each con-
trolling one brake; with hand control and rudder coupled
differential the arrangement is such that the hand lever operates
two reducing valves simultaneously through a rocker lever
connected to the rudder control, so that with rudder fore and
aft the valves are opened equally, but when rudder is applied
the valves are opened unequally so as to apply greater pressure
to one side than the other, and so give the desired steering effect.
The fluid required to operate a large expander tube brake
system may be quite large, and, with hydraulic operation, it is
very difficult to reduce to a negligible amount the time lag in
response, especiallywhen releasing the brake. This difficulty does
not apply to pneumatic operation, because not only can the air
be released more easily but it can also be exhausted to atmosphere
instead of having to be pushed back to a header tank, as must
always be done with a hydraulic system. Pneumatic power shows
to best advantage in conjunction with expander tube brakes: not
only because of the large displacements, but also because of the
low pressures required. Although higher pressures are now being Fig. 35. Elate Brake
introduced, 450 Ib. per sq. in. has been the standard bottle
pressure in British pneumatic systems for aircraft, as compared
with hydraulic accumulator pressures up to 2,500 lb. per sq. in. Acknowledgements. The author wishes to thank the Goodyear
Clearly, the reduction in pressure required for the pneumatic Tyre and Rubber Company (Great Britain), Ltd., for the use
system constitutes an easier design problem than in the case of of Fig. 34, and the Dunlop Rubber Company, Ltd., for Figs. 32
the high pressure hydraulic system. When the design of brake and 35 and for their assistance in the preparation of Figs. 2431
is such that high operating pressures can be used, and the fluid and Fig. 33.

Discussion in London
Air Commodore J. OLIVER (Wolverhampton) said that his own of higher performance, certainly presented a problem, and, like
work consisted mainly of piloting and thus he was concerned Mr. Robson, he would welcome any contributions towards its
with the more practical side of the problem of wheels and solution which might be made in the discussion.
brakes, but he had been very interested in Mr. Conway’s sug-
gestion of the possibility at some future date of aircraft alighting Mr. T. E. BEACHAM, B.Sc. (Eng.), M.I.Mech.E., dealing
gear disappearing altogether except for one skid which might with the paper by Mr. Parker, said that the fundamental weight
be used on some type of special surface, perhaps combined with advantages to be gained by increasing the oil pressure were due
an arrester gear. He could not help wondering what, in that case, firstly to the actual reduction in the volume of liquid in the
was to happen in the event of forced or involuntary landings, system and secondly to the fact that it was possible to use smaller
because naturally it would not be possible to put down expensive suction pipes. The possible savings with these diminished pro-
equipment of the type suggested in all those parts of the world gressively with increase of pressure, and at the pressure used
in which aircraft were operating, and if some kind of emergency at present on aircraft the margin of saving was somewhat small.
equipment was provided one would still be faced with the Thick cylinder stresses were an argument often put forward
problem of weight. against higher pressures, and the author did not mention that
Mr. Robson had referred to the very vexed problem of fric- subject. He did not know whether the author had ways of getting
tional material, which was obviously one in which brake manu- over the thick cylinder stress difficulty. i t seemed to him that
facturers were greatly interested. The high-temperature rises the case for increasing the present pressure largely depended on
which took place, especially on the heavier aircraft and aircraft detail design, and particularly on the practical point as to

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294 D I S C U S S I O N O N A I R C R A F T A U X I L I A R Y SYSTEMS A N D E Q U I P M E N T
whether-the components on the pressure side being smaller choosing a fluid, and one was that it should not be toxic. Un-
and thicker-the designer could make better use of existing fortunately, the effects of inhaling fairly large quantities of the
materials, in spite of the thick cylinder effects. castor based fluids were far more unpleasant than might be
The author’s views on pressure were certainly in line with expected from the nature of the base.
industrial hydraulic practice, where pressures rather higher than The author’s choice of steel pipes was, he thought, a good
the author advocated were in common use; but those pressures one, but the remarks on the flared type of joint might be too
had been developed over a long period of rime, and had probably definite. Personally, he would not rule out the possibility of
gone up to their present value by trial and error. If they were adapting the simple flared type of joint to higher pressures and
found useful in industriai work, it seemed to be an argument in larger sizes than the present standards. Investigations into this,
favour of using higher pressures for aircraft hydraulics. which appeared quite promising, were now actually proceeding
The question of turbulence in the pipes might be important. at the Royal Aircraft Establishment.
If it was possible by shorter pipes or thinner fluids to increase The subject of seals was very controversial. The author sug-
flow velocities into the turbulent region the higher pressure gested that passage of the fluid might be allowed, but it must
would have an additional advantage, because of the changed not be such that it might be termed a leak. Later in the paper,
flow characteristics. For streamline flow the pipe velocity for however, it was suggested that provision should be made for
constant power and the same percentage pressure loss was in- returning that leak to the low-pressure side of the system. He
dependent of the pressure, whereas for turbulent flow under the thought that liquid seals should avoid any special means for
same conditions the velocity increased at higher pressures. returning the fluid to the header tank. The permanent leak might
Another point about increased pressure was that it would not be inconvenient in some cases, but it might be in others.
affect the types of pump available. Rotary pumps and piston
pumps with rotary valves were rather at the end of their tether Mr. R. BOORMAN, A.M.I.Mech.E., said that he could not
so far as pressure was concerned, whereas the piston pumps with attend any discussion on undercarriages and associated equip-
seated valves had a good margin in hand and could probably be ment without feeling strongly that whether it was electrical,
used up to l0,OOO lb. per sq. in., and at all events up to higher aeronautical, or mechanical engineering, the aim of the engineer
pressures than were ever likely to be practicable in the rest of should be simplicity, and therefore he would like to ask why all
the system. the difficulties of undercarriage retraction, servicing, and main-
Reference was made in the paper to the lodging of dirt tenance should not be overcome by dispensing with the under-
particles in the clearances of piston valves. He had had occasion carriage entirely.
to examine that effect recently on a s m a l l hydraulic system work- Mr. Conway, in his opening remarks, had visualized in the
ing up to 6,000 lb. per sq. in. The installation was fitted with a future a skid type of undercarriage landing on a prepared run-
filter and the oil was kept very clean, and yet there was enough way. Personally, he would submit that that type of undercarriage
dirt left in the system to block up these clearances, although it already existed in the flying boat, the skid being the keel and the
took an hour to do it. As soon as the valve was moved in the world’s waterways the specially prepared landing grounds. For
slightest degree the dirt dispersed, and then took an hour to large aircraft, he thought that that was the ultimate under-
build up again. He thought that serious friction from that cause carriage. It would overcome the difficulty raised by Air Commo-
could be avoided by polishing the surfaces and keeping the oil dore Oliver, who pointed out the absence of specially prepared
as clean as possible. runways in the case of a forced landing.

Mr. E. R. STABLES, B.Sc. (Eng.), A.M.I.Mech.E., who con- Mr. R. A. ROBBINS, A.M.I.Mech.E., said that he did not pro-
fined his remarks to the paper by Mr. Parker, said it was of pose to comment on the subject matter of the papers except in
particular interest to him, because it provoked thought on the the particular field in which he had perhaps had some special
subject of hydraulic developments, which was certainly required experience, namely, the prevention of leakage of fluids between
at the present time, especially in view of the competition which fixed and moving parts. In that connexion, he would join issue
hydraulics were having from one or two firms specializing in with the statement in Mr. Conway’s paper That the theory of
pneumatics. And, of course, the electrical engineers were seals was now fully understood. Personally, he thought that that
developing electro-mechanical counterparts of hydraulic and was a very rash statement indeed. Undoubtedly great advances
pneumatic equipment, so that a healthy state of competition had been made and much work had been done, particularly in
existed, and he thought that it would be very unwise at the the field of design application, together with much ad hoc testing
present time to concentrate on any one method at the expense of on a multitudinous variety of shapes and materials for seals, but
the others. Each one had its advantages and disadvantages, and in his opinion much was still lacking in the store of knowledge
aircraft design was not yet so stabilized that any one best method on the fundamental and academic side of the mechanics of
could be chosen to do a given job on a given class of aircraft. sealing.
Much time had been spent in arguing electrics versus hydraulics, Long-term research ab initio into this subject was begun under
but he thought that that argument was fundamentally unsound. the auspices of the Ministry of Aircraft Production (now the
The present hydfaulic systems on aircraft had been stabilized Ministry of Supply) and the Hydraulics Committee of the
for a few years, because at the beginning of the war representa- Society of British Aircraft Constructors, Ltd., at the Engineering
tives of the industry and of the Ministry of Aircraft Production Department of the Imperial College under Dr. White and Mr.
conferred together and agreed on a common basis for design. Denman. 4 , preliminary report had been published about
Working pressuresJ fluids, pipe lines, and pipe cornexions were eighteen months ago, showing that an excellent beginning had
standardized, and there was no doubt, he thought, that the Royal been made, and he understood that an interim report was now
Air Force benefited as a result ;but the time was now ripe for a about to be published. He was also glad to say that it seemed
step forward and to find ways and means of improving the that there was a possibility, due to recent meetings between
equipment which had been in use since 1940. Reduction in the representative bodies and the Department of Scientific and
quantity of 5uid carried, reduction in the size and length of pipe, Industrial Research, of the work being continued over a longer
the development of a non-in5ammable or a low-inflammability term. He felt sure that not only the designers of seals them-
5uid, were all obvious lines for research and development, and selves but also those engineers who had the task of their appli-
high pressure seemed to be a way of achieving the first two of cation to actual equipment would derive great benefit from a
those objectives. When Mr. Parker said that they were at the clearer understanding of the mechanical and physical behaviour
cross-roads, personally he thought that the hydraulic specialists of the types of material now generally accepted for the manu-
should explore the high-pressure path. The advantages seemed facture of seals. This work might also lead to the adoption of
obvious and the disadvantages not so obvious, and in those new and untried materials, so many of which had recently
circumstances it seemed clearly desirable to go ahead and explore become available due to technical progress.
high-pressure development. Mr. Parker had given a very able summing up of the present
There were one or two details in the paper to which he would position regarding sealing higher pressures in aircraft appli-
like to refer. With regard to fluids, there were, of course, factors cations, and his solution of accepting a small and definite leak
other than viscosity and volatility which were important in at high pressures and sealing this off at lower pressures warranted

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the closest investigation and offered a very useful contribution available during the landing run was much smaller. The result
to what was a very difficult subject, although it might be con- was that weight had to be added to the undercarriage to deal
sidered rather a heresy in some quarters. with loads which served no useful purpose. I t was therefore
very desirable that the difference between the torque figures
Mr. E. NICOLL (Cheltenham) said he would like to discuss one should be minimized.
or two of the points raised by Mr. Conway. On the question of
the weights of liquid springs, while he agreed that at present Mr. F. H. TOWER,M.I.Mech.E., said he wished to deal
they were somewhat heavier than oleo-pneumatic units it was more particularly with the paper by Mr. Parker, and there he
nevertheless true that only a small percentage of the under- was inclined to object to the word “ultra” in the title. When he
camage weight was represented by the shock absorber, and saw this title he thought he was going to find something wonder-
therefore the total penalty on the undercarriage was very small. ful, and when he discovered that “ultra high pressure’’ referred
In addition, liquid springs were comparatively new, and they merely to pressures of 3,000-5,000 lb. per sq. in. he was a little
had been concentrating up to now on reliability, without ex- disappointed, because on the ground, in press hydraulics, it was
ploring the various possibilities of weight reduction such as the quite normal to use a maximum pressure of 7,000 lb. per sq. in.,
pre-stressing of cylinders and the development of a fluid having and they frequently used high-speed pumps for testing vessels to
a higher compressibility. between 10,000 and 15,000 lb. per sq. in. In ground hydraulics
In connexion with the calculation of undercarriage perform- they would to-day use the word “ultra” only for pressures ex-
ance, he would like to pay tribute to the pioneer work of Jones ceeding 20,000 lb. per sq. in.
and Cook at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, carried out some He hoped that it might be useful to mention ground
time before the war. Under present conditions the design of hydraulics, because he knew very little of the aircraft counter-
undercarriages for military aircraft was influenced to a very part ; but there were one or two differences which might be of
large extent by stowage problems and by the very thin wings interest. For instance, on the ground they used horse-powers of
now in use, and these in many instances determined the geo- 5-150, but almost always above 5 h.p., although going up to
metry of the undercarriage to a surprising extent. It was easy many hundreds on certain big hydraulic presses. The system
to understand, therefore, that the urge to eliminate the under- had to have a fairly high efficiency in order to avoid heating up,
carriage completely, or at least to simplify it by reducing it to a because with, say, 150 h.p., even if only 10 per cent were con-
skid, should be very strong, and he believed that experiments verted to heat it meant that 15 h.p. was turning into heat all the
on those lines were going ahead on specialized runways. time, and if there was an ambient temperature of 70-80 deg. F.
With regard to the stressing of undercarriages, Mr. Conway one could soon get up to high temperatures. The temperature
had omitted a very serious case which had been recently added range on the ground was usually between 70 and 120 deg. F.
to the civil requirements, namely, that represented by a swing in They never tried to go above 150 deg. F., and on almost any
the aircraft’s course at high speed. On certain types of under- normal job there would not be a temperature rise above 50
carriages that was definitely the ruling case. deg. F., or, say, 28 deg. C., as against the figure mentioned by
On the subject of hydraulics, he was rather surprised to find Mr. Parker of 120 deg. C. (248 deg. F.). Of course, aircraft had
Mr. Parker suggesting that reservoir capacity might be deter- the advantage in the sense that they often operated below
mined by the cooling requirements for the pump. He would freezing point, and at high altitudes aircraft could quite safely,
have thought that with a high efficiency pump running un- he presumed, convert all the horse-power of their small pump
loaded, except when operating a service reservoir, capacity into heat; because he assumed that there were few aircraft
should not be influenced at all by cooling requirements; in fact, pumps which.exceeded about 5 h.p. On the ground, however, on
the reservoir should be made just large enough to accommodate a comparatively small system they could not continuously con-
the change in volume represented by the piston rods with a vert more than about 1 h.p. into heat without getting into
small reserve to allow for errors in filling, etc. trouble.
With regard to the suggestion for a high-pressure jack, Mr. The viscosity of the oil which they used was somewhere
Parker had referred to the question of bursting pressures on between 40 and 70 seconds Redwood, which meant between 6
cylinders, but, since the author was visualizing the use of com- and 16 centistokes, whereas he gathered that in aircraft it was
paratively thin tubes for piston rods, it would be of interest to something like 5W1,OOO centistokes, or 1,800-3,600 seconds
know whether any difficulty had arisen with the problem of Redwood. He could only presume that the oil became as thick
crushing under external pressure. He, himself, had met that as that in the pipes which were exposed, because he could not
problem on low-pressure systems of the order of 800 lb. per sq. imagine that the aircraft pump would operate very satisfactorily
in., and he had come across it recently on jacks having rather at such figures and he would expect cavitation to occur.
large piston rods. He was very interested in the apparent demand for higher
The reliability of the A.G.S. type of joint had also been men- pressures in aircraft. There might be several difficulties-
tioned which, if well made, was very dependable, but experience possible one being what was termed hydraulic lock; i.e. the
during the war indicated that a great deal of trouble arose spindles of the valves might lock. The author had suggested that
through incorrect finishing of the joint, and personally he that might be due to the wedging of impurities in the clearance
thought that something which was more foolproof was desirable. between the valve spindle and the bore, and that view had been
On the question of gland leakage, they had done a lot of work confirmed by Mr. Beacham, but personally he did not think
on glands for liquid springs at very high pressures, and there that that was so. His firm had made a few experiments-in a very
they had got down to a negligible rate of leakage, measured not rough and ready way, as one did in a works-and their impres-
by collecting the leak but by the fact that the cylinder remained sion was that hydraulic lock was a function of time and pressure.
full after a large number of operations. That was a technique A valve, for instance, might never lock at 2,000 lb. per sq. in.,
which was perhaps not applicable to the ordinary testing of but if pushed up to 5,000 lb. per sq. in. it would lock. Similarly,
hydraulic jacks. While they had not tried to use this gland on the same valve would lock after 5 seconds in one position subject
ordinary jacks, there was no reason why it should not be done, to 5,000 lb. per sq. in. pressure, but it would not lock and would
if the use of more normal glands was unsatisfactory at the be quite easy to move if moved after a shorter period, say, in
higher pressures, and, while the specialized type of jack which 3 seconds.
hh. Parker suggested, with the control valve, did make it Another interesting point was that if a valve was locked and
possible to overcome the leak problem very simply, there might one took the pressure off and left it for, say, a minute or 2
be arguments against that combination, in which case one would minutes, it would unlock. HIS theory of the hydraulic lock-it
be forced back to eliminating the leak. was pure theory, and he could not prove it-was that the spindle
The only point which he had to raise on h4r.Robson’s paper was not concentrically stable within the bore. The body was
was that of the variation of brake torque from the point of view undoubtedly distorted when pressure was applied, and in any
of the undercarriage designer. At present the brake designer case the clearance was only about one-twentieth of the thick-
had to deel with a very high torque which was developed only ness of a human hair. He thought, therefore, that the spindle-
for a short perid, this torque being much greater than was and this explained the time element-by distortion or for any
required for operating purposes, because the steady torque other reason, was moved against one side, and the pressure got

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296 DISCUSSION ON AIRCRAFT AUXILIARY SYSTEMS AND E Q U I P M E N T
down one side and forced the spindle over (Fig. 36). Lock could seemed to him, speaking purely as a layman, that the proper
occur when there was almost no flow, so that it did not seem solution was to use air brakes, a reversible-blade propeller, wing
likely that impurities could get in, and, even if they did, if they flaps and brake flaps, and, if it were practicable, to alter the
were the size of one-twentieth of a human hair it did not seem incidence of the main plane or of both planes. It might be
that they would have a serious effect. He thought that the possible to do this hydraulically.
pressure pushed the spindle into metallic contact, and then, if
the pressure was taken off, the oil film would be gradually Mr. GEORGE ORLOFF, A.lM.I.Mech.E., said that with reference
restored and the spindle would become free again. It certainly to Mr. Conway’s statement regarding the optimum position of
seemed, as far as they had gone, that there was a time and torque links, in his own experience it had sometimes been found
pressure element, but he thought that the subject was one on that the use of two pairs of links not only stiffened the under-
which more research should be done. He had not seen any carriage but also allowed the use of a smaller overlap between
research on the subject, but he imagined :hat there must have the sliding tube bearings. This was due to the fact that two
been some, and he hoped that it would be brought forward so landing cases were usually considered, one of them being a
that it could be studied; because he believed that hydraulic lock landing tail up with drag and the other a three-point landing
might be a serious difficulty in going to higher pressures. without drag. It happened, therefore, that the optimum position
of toggles for the first case rnigh: cause unacceptable friction in
the second case, while the use of two pairs of toggles often
allowed an acceptable compromise. The polar nomogram shown
in Fig. 3 seemed to have been designed for the latter solution,
since no account was taken of the torque reaction in the toggles.
While still on the subject of undercarriages, it might be of
CLEARANCE interest to mention the findings of some recent experiments
0.0001 IN
they had made which had shown that even shock absorbers
of the type shown in Fig. 12, VI, were apt to cavitate during
recoil, and 011subsequent landings showed evidence of cavitation
when the recoil orifice area was small compared with the
effective area of clearance at the counter-piston. In other words,
some of the fluid trapped between the diaphragm and the
counter-piston seemed to surge out into the air space.
It was very interesting to hear Mr. Parker’s views on moving
hydraulic packings, which seemed to be in agreement with their
own experience. I n that connexion, corroborative evidence was
Fig. 36. Diagram Illustrating Lack of Concentric Stability found in all types of components, but particularly in systems
between Spindle and Bore with pressures ranging from 5,000 to 65,000 lb. per sq. in.
Some experiments had been carried out within that range of
The success or failure of most hydraulic equipment was often pressure which showed that whilst static packings were capable
determined by the pipes, joints, rind seals. So far as the pipes of withstanding such high pressures over several days without
were concerned, he thought that in all probability stecl pipes any leakage whatever, when moving they would operate satis-
were the most likely to prove effective, and it was possible to go factorily only by allowing a very slight amount of fluid to be
up to very much higher pressures on the pipes as pipes. Where deposited over the swept surface at each reversal. When the
they failed was where they were tied to the joint ; and further length of packing was increased sufficiently to prevent this lubri-
progress must be made in developing an improved joint. He cation, deterioration mainly at -he heel of the packing was
thought that there might be a chance of improving the flared evident after a few cycles of operation, and the resulting short
joint. With regard to seals, he fully agreed with Mr. Parker that life of the packing was evidently unacceptable.
it was necessary to have a leaking seal for it to be effective and O n the whole, very little information was available on glands
successful. One of the biggest troubles which they had with seals and packings of all types, but he would like to suggest that even
was the shaft seal, where there was a rotating surface. The reason more formidable problems would arise in the dynamic cases.
for this trouble was that it ran dry and wore a groove in the shaft They had found, for instance, that on drop testing of landmg
or wore away the seal. gear the sliding tubes, or the tubes that passed the packings,
It was necessary, therefore, to have a seal which leaked to always seemed to be wetter than in slowly moving jacks.
provide a little lubrication and yet seal. He thought that the With regard to the point that Mr. Towler made about rings
most likely development in that direction was to have a combina- in rotation, they had also made experiments on rotating rubber
tion in sequence of metal piston rings and synthetic rubber rings, but these seemed to behave better than reciprocating
rings-the rubber rings to take up the slack oil and not being rings, and, though it was quite correct to state that wear was
subjected to such a high pressure. The difficulty was that a evident where the shaft was in contact with the gland, at the
seal which was good for a high pressure was not so good, being same time the life of the gland seemed to be a little longer than
too stiff, for a low pressure, while a soft seal was good for the in the reciprocating seal under similar conditions. A good deal
low pressure but extruded at a high pressure. It was therefore of heat was generated during operation, and this tended to
desirable to have a combination of the two, particularly when shorten the life of the gland.
going up to very high pressures such as 7,000 lb. per sq. in. It
was asking too much of one seal to cover a pressure drop from Mr. C. B. V. NEILSON (Warrington) said he would like to
7,000 lb. per sq. in. to atmosphere. A combination of the two, make one or two comments on Mr. Conway’s paper-one being
however, cost almost nothing in the way of weight or material in connexion with the shock absorber illustrated in Fig. 13. This
and was quite practicable. For small spindles, of course, it was shock absorber could only be used in a horizontal or inclined
best to have no seal whatever; the best packing was no packing. position, if great care was taken both in the design and i n the
Mr. Conway had suggested that a liquid might be used in maintenance filling routine, to avoid the possibility of air pockets
some way like liquid rubber which would have hydrostatic forming on the fluid side of the counter-piston when the shock
properties for use on undercarriage shock absorbers, and which absorber was serviced in the aircraft. Failing this, it would be
might prove easier to seal than oil; but even soft rubber would found that on filling the stack-pipe level and inflating in the
extrude at very low pressures, and he doubted whether it would usual way, the compression ratio was reduced, as the shock
be possible to obtain a liquid which would satisfy all the require- absorber was unable to retain its full design capacity of fluid.
ments. It was much safer to use a seal, and a liquid better suited Another comment was that all the shock absorbers discussed
for the hydrostatic function. were of high efficiency only at a certain rate of closure, normally
Having read Mr. Robson’s paper, he could see a large number that corresponding to the maximum required for vertical
of snags about the wheel brake, which might swing one all velocity of descent. I n the case of the sudden application of
round the aerodrome just as one was landing or taking off. It brakes on a tricycle undercarriage, the energy to be absorbed by

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the nose-wheel shock absorber when arresting the pitch of the materials had given rather more stable frictions than the inter-
aircraft was comparable with the maximum landing energy, mediate type, and they had also been produced with about two
while the rate of closure was very much less than that in the and a half times the wear resistance, which was felt to be a
landing case. Under such conditions the efficiency of the types reasonable achievement.
of oleo-pneumatic shock absorbers described was taken in As far the future, he thought that the latest type of material
Ministry of Supply and Aeronautics Research Board design had great scope for development. It had a competitor in the
formulae as 33 per cent, and this led to a maximum reaction form of the sintered metal linings which had been evolved in
which had to be allowed for which might exceed that in the the U.S.A. He thought that those had certain disadvantages;
landing case, and be a critical factor affecting the design of the they did not take kindly to being made in curved form, and their
nose undercarriage and the nose of the aircraft. One solution of frictions were generally lower and they were very tricky in
that problem was based on a spring-loaded closure damping manufacture.
orifice, so arranged that the shock absorber had a high efficiency
at all rates of closure. Mr. A. L. ADAMS(Wolverhampton) referred to a type of
shock absorber unit in which the spring extended from the wheel
Mr. E. W. SISMAN(Cleckheaton) said that Mr. Robson had up to and across the aircraft and down to the other wheel, and
rightly pointed out that the aircraft brake had faced the friction also made the suggestion that on the fighter type of aircraft,
lining industry with one of its biggest problems. Temperatures where the consumption of fuel went up to 30-10 per cent of the
were very high, and it was necessary to contend to-day with all-up weight of the aircraft at take-off, it might be possible to
brake-operating temperatures on the surface of the drum during have two landing gears, one for taking off, to be jettisoned after
a stop of up to 1,500 deg. F., while at very small points the the aircraft had cleared the field, and the other fully retracted
temperatures instantaneously must be even higher. They had until the aircraft came in for landing at perhaps 60 per cent of
also to deal with very considerable mechanical stresses in the its take-off weight.
materials. Pressures on the expander tube brake ran up to Mr. Robson had given a very good summary of the different
150 lb. per sq. in. or more, and on some of the new plate brakes types of brake, and personally he would like to give a summary
pressures were commonly thought of in terms of 500-600 lb. of the evolution of those brakes. He thought that in the first
per sq. in., and pressures of, 1,000 and 1,200 lb. per sq. in. were world war they had the best type of brake of any of them,
being considered. namely, the full tail skid on the back end of the aeroplane, which
Additionally, there was the problem, which did not arise might be said to be the first brake. Then people began to put tail
with most other forms of brake gear, of very considerable wheels on aircraft and found that they had to have brakes on the
mechanical strength being required in the materials, since they wheels, and naturally, therefore, the drum type of brake was
were virtually unsupported by any form of rigid metal brake evolved. At first the drum was put into the wheel and the wheel
shoe. Again, particularly in the expander tube brAe, and in a used as a heat reservoir, but that was found to have very bad
lesser degree in the plate brake, the materials must act as an effects on the tyres and the tubes, especially due to the heat,
insulator to prevent heat from the hot braking surface rcaching and so the drum was separated from the wheel.
the rubber air bag, or, in the case of the plate brake, the metal Then there came induced cooling, trying to force air flow over
parts which sheathed the oil columns. the drum to cool it off, and from that, one came to the brakes of
If he might go back to the start of the use of undercarriage the disk or plate type, where the drum was exposed to the air
brakes on aircraft in the early 1930’s, the types of brake lining stream. In other words, the engineers were now finding out that
used then were very largely conditioned by having to meet the they could not put in a reservoir to absorb heat because of the
requirements of mechanical strength, and usually consisted of weight, and so they were trying to find a way to get the heat out
asbestos yams which were coiled much in the way a fishing line as best they could.
was wound on a reel; the whole was soaked with a phenol-
formaldehyde synthetic resin and heat treated to the rigid state. Mr. T. A. KIRKUP(Weybridge) said that there was no refer-
Those materials were capable of standing considerable stress and ence in A h . Conway’s paper to gland friction, but they had
were. quite good insulators, and for the conditions of the day found that under certain conditions the gland friction could be
they had a reasonably high coefficient of friction, which began appreciable, and in the condition of least friction the gland
to fade at the higher temperatures, due to exudation of some of friction could be as much as the bearing friction. In the more
the chemical constituents of the material. That usually took normal condition of 0.4 drag the gland friction could be at least
place at a temperature of 400-450 deg. F., which was seldom 50 per cent of the bearing friction. They had also found by
reached on the brakes of those days. plotting stroke as a percentage of the maximum available against
Materials of that type did very good service right through angle of resultant load to leg for various cases, that if a was
most of the 1939-45 war, until aircraft brake operating con- greater than 25-30 deg. trouble could be expected.
ditions became such that better types were required. The Mr. Conway also referred to the question of lead alloy and
approach to that problem was to evolve a lining which was lead bronze bearing materials, and it would be interesting if he
basically similar, but in which the amount of resin which con- could give some figures. They had carried out a number of tests
tained the constituent likely to exude was reduced. The earlier using light alloy cylinders and cast iron piston heads, and they
types of lining were a half-and-half mixture of resin and asbestos ; had found that with a 14 deg. drag condition, using D.T.D.364
on the newer ones the resin content came down to 25-30 per and cast iron piston head, after 30,000 cycles the cylinder wear
cent, and, in addition to reducing the actual quantity of the was about 0.007 inch maximum, and on the cast iron head the
resin, heat treatments were applied to the linings which brought wear was about 0.0026 inch. On another test, using D.T.D.363
out much of the volatile constituents before the brake linings and cast iron, also after 30,000 cycles the cylinder wear was only
went into service. 0.004 inch and the head wear in the cast iron head only 0.0005
That produced a material which was in general use to-day, inch. If Mr. Conway could give some comparable figures it
and which was functioning fairly well. The friction was lower would be appreciated.
than with the original types, but much more stable, even up to A point which Mr. Conway did not mention was the absorp-
the high temperature conditions of 1,400-1,500 deg. F. Due to tion of air by the oil. An article had been published in the Aero
the heat treatment there had been some sacrifice of the wearing Digest for February 1945, which gave some almost incredible
ability of that material, and this problem had been tackled by figures. Briefly, the formula was that 100 C.C. of oil could absorb
using a moulded type of material which again contained an instantaneously 0 . 7 4 3 ~C.C. of air. That would mean that for a
asbestos basis, this time in fibre form, with only the very pressure of 2,000 Ib. per sq. in. the amount of air absorbed by
minimum amount of synthetic resin to give the necessary bond- the oil would be 1,486 C.C. per 100 C.C. of oil. That, to his mind,
ing strength. The friction was further conditioned by the in- might have some bearing on whether one used an isothermal or
clusion of a number of inorganic filling materials in the form of adiabatic air curve where there was a certain amount of oil
inert dusts and metal chippings, the last being in some measure being discharged into the air chamber. Air chambers did dis-
intended to break down the formation of any surface films due charge a certain amount, and they had always found that n = 1
to the exudation of volatiles at high temperatures. Those newer or 1.1 gave the best results.

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298 DISCUSSION O N AIRCRAFT AUXILIARY SYSTEMS AND E Q U I P M E N T
With regard to Mr. Robson’s paper, he would like to point of types of equipment for industrial purposes, and made it
out that with the introduction of jet type aircraft there was likely desirable to use high pressures. He would like to join issue with
to be an increase of 30 per cent in the ener-g to be absorbed by Mr. Parker on that point. That was true not only for the very
the brake units ;and with the reduction in size of engine nacelles large presses such as Mr. Towler mentioned, where it was not
in jet aircraft, and possibly with a thinner wing the braking possible to have rams of the incredible size which would be
problem would become even more difficult. required with lower pressures, but even for certain kinds of
vehicle equipment and machine tools, for which pressures such
Mr. R. HADEKEL (London) dealing with Mr. Conway’s paper, as 3,000 Ib. per sq. in. would seem to be very useful.
remarked chat very little had been said about undercarriage costs.
An undercarriage at the moment cost appreciably more per Mr. S. J. CLIFTON(De Havilland Aircraft Company) pointed
pound than the average airframe, and one could not help feeling out that there had been no mention of side forces in the paper
that that was not right as it was a component which was more by Mr. Conway when dealing with friction forces on a tele-
favourable inherently to quantity production and cheap methods scopic undercarriage although the effect of drag and the vertical
of manufacturc. The question was very largely bound up with reaction were discussed.
that of materials, and he felt that it was the duty of material
manufacturers to take more interest in such things as high tensile A~~C~~~~~~~~F.R.BANKS,C.B.,M.I.M~~~.E.,
weldable steels-a subject on which the Americans had done asked whether the authors could say why it bad taken so long
useful work-and also in some better light alloy casting materials. to popularize the tricycle undercarriage with the aircraft
If it were possible to have light alloys which really did give designers and manufacturers of this countq, because it was
something a little over 20 tons per sq. in. when cast it would better from every point of view than the tail-wheel type. It was
help a great deal towards producing cheaper undercarriages. safe in that there was less tendency to swing on take-off and it
On Mr. Parker’s paper, he said he remembered going into the avoided “ground-looping’’ upon landing. In the latter case, and
question of the theoretical effect of increase of pressure on with some of the mediocre civil aerodromes which still had to
weight in aircraft systems some time ago, and it seemed to him be used both in this country and elsewhere, it was possible to
that there were two factors involved. One was the question of land a machine with a tricycle undercarriage more safely when
manufacturing limitations and the second the question of com- the wind was in an unfavourable direction to the runway.
ponents as designed by theoretical considerations. With the He was, of course, well aware that future British aircraft
present 2,500 Ib. per sq. in. arrangements the system was just would have tricycle undercarriages, but he still felt that the
about over the manufacturing limitations which hampered the aircraft manufacturers of this country were at least three years
older 1,200 lb. per sq. in. systems considerably. The stage was late in adopting them.
being reached where components were really designed by load Could the authors give an indication of the saving in under-
considerations, and it could be shown that in those conditions carriage weight which could be expected due to the use of high-
the effect of increasing pressure on pipe weight was if anything duty materials and high-pressure systems? For instance, was it
slightly unfavourable. It certainly would be unlavourable as the going to be in the order of half of one per cent, one per cent,
pressure increased, taking pipes on the basis of the constant or even higher?
percentage power loss, because the pipes would be smaller and In regard to brakes; aircraft fitted with jet turbines would
thicker. The weight of jacks would definitely be greater with give these a harder time because there would be no reversing
higher pressures, again subject to manufacturing limitations not pitch propeller to help in the reduction of the braking load. But
coming into the picture, or any other secondary considerations. it was of course quite feasible to fit controllable deflectors at the
There were also certain other minor effects, as for instance jet nozzles so as to direct the jet stream in a forward direction
the elastic energy of oil, which was responsible for the rather and secure some braking effect in this manner.
unpleasant jerks which one got when opening a valve. The I n regard to the distortion of brake drums due to excessive
elastic energy per unit volume went up as the square of the heat ;he would ask whether any of the ceramics such as sintered
pressure. If it was assumed that the volume of oil was inversely aluminium oxide had been considered as refractories to prevent
proportional to the pressure, the elastic energy was still directly the heat from loading up the brake drum and wheel excessively,
proportional to the operating pressure, and the jerks which were or had such a material been thought of both as a refractory and
obtained tended to become more unpleasant. He did not know also as a braking surface in the brake drum or disk?
whether they did much harm, but they certainly could not do
any good. Mr. C. D. HOLLAND (Cricklewood) dealing with Mr. Con-
With reference to hydraulic systems generally, some remarks way’s paper, said he thought that more work ought to be done
had been made about the viscosity of oils, and he felt that that on the energy absorption of the tyres and the dynamic con-
was quite an imporrant subject. For instance, Mr. Towler ditions. Prediction and experience were not in good agreement.
mentioned oils which were used in high-power press equipment He thought that the real trouble was the fact that the shock
which were actually thinner than the aircraft oils. Personally, absorber was in series with the tyre, and that t h i s had not been
he often wondered whether those oils were not the result of the taken into account in detail before.
time when the low temperature conditions were a serious limita- With regard to the oleo-pneumatic shock absorber, from a
tion, and for shop use one must reckon with minimum tempera- psychological aspect he found it preferable to use a lower co-
tures of about 10 deg. C. or less, when oil thickened a good deal. efficient of efficiency (say, 70 or 74 per cent) instead of the 80 per
However, with the oils which were now available-not only for cent mentioned in the paper, and then one avoided adding the
aircraft but for industrial uses-which had a much flatter odd inch on for luck at the end.
characteristic, it was possible to use those with about twice the He was always suggesting that the nose wheel unit travel
viscosity of aircraft fluids over the normal room temperature should be greater than the main wheel travel. That recom-
range, which produced very good results. I n particular, they mendation appeared in many places, including official publi-
allowed the use of rotary pumps. Mr. Beacham said he thought cations. The main case for stressing the nose wheel from the
that rotary pumps were at The end of their tether, but there were energy point of view was the three-point landing, and in that
gear pumps working now at 3,000 Ib. per sq. in., and not on case the main wheel took 75 per cent of the energy. If there was
treacle either, and in his opinion it shodd be possible to design to be no charge i:i pitch of the aeroplane in t.he three-point
piston pumps with rotary valves to work up to 5,000 Ib. per sq. landing, then the two travels must be the same, whereas the case
in.,and even higher, by a suitable choice of material, particularly to determine the average for the main wheel was the two-poinr
because thermal expansion problems were one of the limiting landing, when oEe had 100 per cent in those shock absorbers.
considerations. Therefore the main wheel travel should be greater than the nose
With regard to loads on valves, he did not know whether it wheel travei ; but with the three-point ianding t h e total travels
was generally appreciated that the load on valves tended to should be the same.
decrease with increasipg pressure, again designing the valve for He agreed with Mr. Conway on the question of friction. He
constant percentage power loss conditions. The load on, and thought it was a factor which was very seldom appreciated that
size of, valves was quite an important matter in a large number friction in an oleo-pneumatic shock absorber was to a great

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 D I S C U S S I O N ON AIRCRAFT A U X I L I A R Y S Y S T E M S AND E Q U I P M E N T 299
extent uncontrolled and was always acting against one, usually was a simple skid, saving perhaps 2-3 per cent of the aircraft
at the most inconvenient time. weight. The inconvenience of such arrangements from the
He had been interested in the note that Breguet was the first point of view of handling the aircraft on the ground, and in
to use the oleo-pneumatic shock absorber. Personally, he had emergency landings-which would inevitably involve some, but
always understood that Sir Hiram Maxim used the simple oleo probably not serious, damage to the machine-had to be offset
absorber in 1888 or thereabouts. He did not think that the against the considerable increase in performance resulting from
machine flew, but Sir Hiram had it fitted with steel springs. He the weight saved. Probably a transatlantic air mail service would
found it very interesting to compare liquid springs with oleo- represent the easiest application of such an arrangement.
pneumatic shock absorbers, and, looking at the two designs, the Mr. Boorman quite properly suggested that the flying boat
liquid spring appeared to be simpler, had a lesser number of was already an undercarriage-less aircraft. This was not strictly
parts, and should be cheaper. Whether in fact it was he did not true since the hull had to be designed with a step, and to be of
know. a suitable section to allow fast taxi-ing with proper stability. So
Another point was that for nose wheel units the liquid spring far it had not been possible to envisage a flying boat with
had springing characteristics which were very much more suit- performance in the supersonic region. Furthermore, for irans-
able. The oleo-pneumatic could be made to work, but was not continental flying the cost of providing adequate water or sea
so simple. He agreed that the liquid springs were heavier than bases, particularly inland, was enormous.
the normal oleo-pneumatic units, but, the increase in weight Mr. Robbins joined issue with him on the existing knowledge
was often less than was generally supposed; according to a recent on sealing technique. Perhaps he should have said that it was
comparison, it was only of the order of 10-15 per cent, and that the theory of leaks rather than the theory of seals which was
was where the oleo-pneumatic unit was a light one. understood. It was true that relatively few engineers appeared
He agreed that finish was important, and he thought that the to appreciate the fine points of sealing technique, but on the
figure given of 3-8 micro-inches was a little on the coarse side. other hand the evolution of the rectangular or circular section
Weight was the permanent enemy of the aircraft designer, and, seal dated from two or three patent specifications in the period
although Mr. Conway had used illustrations of the single-wheel 1935-8; the important point in these inventions was that the
units, the twin-wheel unit was often 10-20 per cent lighter. seal was subjected to initial radial stress, and was put in hydro-
He would like to make a general note which covered shock static stress by the fluid pressure. Earlier inventions were con-
absorbers and hydraulic mechanisms in general. He thought that cerned with special shapes and sections most of which did not
many of the reported defects were due not so much to poor appear to be in any way effective. It was contended that the
design and manufacture as to faulty assembly, indifferent instal- technique of sealing two parts, whether statically or dynami-
lation, and excessive maintenance. cally, was developed to the stage where a guaranteed design
Turning to Mr. Parker’s paper, he felt sure that the 40 per could be evolved without any difficulty, with the one important
cent efficiency of the jack given in the curve in that paper could qualification that the life of such seals was relatively limited,
be doubled with a change in mechanism. At these higher pres- although usually adequate on an aircraft.
sures the question of viscosity had already been mentioned, but He was M y aware of the excellent work done by Mr. White
the point which he wished to make was the change in viscosity and Mr. Denman at the Imperial College. The preliminary re-
with pressure. Some very useful work had been done at the port published some eighteen months ago merely confirmed
National Physical Laboratory on that subject, and the report what the specialist designers of rectangular seals already knew,
on it showed that at 5,000 lb. per sq. in. the viscosity had been but the methods used were interesting and ingenious.
doubled. That was a point which should be taken into account It was quite true, as Mr. Nicholl pointed out, that the extra
when looking into pipe sizes. When the working pressure went weight of a spring was negligible in terms of the total under-
up it was necessary to know a little more about the bulk modulus, carriage weight. It was also true that the new swing stressing
especially with some of the new fluids which were coming into case might be critical for the stressing of some undercarriages.
use. The cases given in the paper were correct at the time of writing,
Sealing had been discussed by a number of speakers, and a but additional side load strength might now be required. While
point there was that the surface finish was going to be a very the cases in the paper were given for the purposes of initial
great factor. design, it was obvious that all the appropriate or official cases
In the past they had not been very keen on the method of would have to be considered in a complete design study.
emergency operation with a cartridge, but it looked as though In reply to Mr. Orloff, he thought that the stiffness of twin-
they would be forced to use something like it to-day, with the torque links or toggles was unlikely to be sufficient to make any
higher pressures which were coming in. appreciable difference to the telescopic friction, but such dupli-
He had given a good deal of thought to the differential cation was good practice for purely mechanical reasons to reduce
operated jack, and the one conclusion to which he had come was wear, etc.
that if there was a leak or a pipe failure there was a very grave Insufficient attention was paid to cavitation of the type men-
danger of an unwanted movement of the jack, and in some cases, tioned when designing shock absorbers, but on the other hand
in some important mechanisms, that might be very disastrous. there was no information at all on the practical results, or even
That was particularly the case where there was stored energy. the existence of it, on the actual aircraft.
Mr. Robson had done good work in giving the curves shown Replying to Mr. Neilson, the unit shown in Fig. 13 would
in Figs. 26-29. Personally, he had been telling people that they normally be partially removed from the aircraft so that it could
could not have more than 0.3 braking, but he had arrived at be filled vertically- poor feature.
that from a slightly different point of view. In the case of the He did not agree with the remarks that a shock absorber
nose wheel the position was that if the brakes were applied the efficiency was high only at a specified velocity. I n his experience
reaction was transferred to the nose wheel, and in doing so one it was maintained sensibly at reduced velocities, although the
relieved the reaction on the main wheel and therefore the tyre effect became greater. He did agree, however, that the nose-
braking went down. If one could not get a figure of more than wheel shock absorber had a much more difficult task to perform
0 . 4 ~with the tyre to the ground, there would then be a reduc- than the main units; in the case of certain aircrdt the ratio of
tion to about 75 per cent of that, which was only 0-3,so that dynamic to static load was as high as 10, and the regulation and
was the figure arrived at both in theory and in practice. inflation of the shock absorber was excessively critical. Sufficient
experience was lacking in this country to date to be able to be
Mr. H. G. CONWAY said in reply to Air Commodore Oliver dogmatic about such units.
that there was no doubt that some appreciable advantage would It was understood that an American aircraft with two sets of
be gained on a modem aircraft by dispensing with the under- undercarriages, on the lines suggested by Mr. Adams, had
carriage altogether, which was 5-59 per cent of the aircraft actually been built. It seemed at first consideration to be an
weight. It was quite possible to evolve an aircraft, completely absurd proposal, and more logical to allow overloading of the
devoid of an undercarriage, which would land on some sort of smaller unit.
flexible and elastic surface, although the capital cost of these Mr. IGrkup reminded him of several points he had not men-
special aerodromes would be great. An alternative compromise tioned in the paper. As to gland friction, with proper design this

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300 D I S C U S S I O N O N A I R C R A F T A U X I L I A R Y S Y S T E M S AND E Q U I P M E N T
should not exceed 2-3 per cent; the lower value had been but that it was necessary to strike a balance between this
confirmed by actual test on shock absorbers. I n his experience, particular objection and other features.
gland friction had always been ignored, in comparison with the He thought that Mr. Stables may have mistaken his own
greater bush friction. remarks on the A.G.S. joint. What he had said was that this
He regretted he could give Mr. Kirkup no quantitative results joint in its present form was not suitable for higher pressures.
of wear on bearings ;he had always found it to be negligible on He did not exclude the possibility of making it suitable by
the aircraft. He would call Mr. Kirkup’s figures small for the modifications, but the result would involve considerable change
average unit. of drawings.
T h e question of the solubility of air in oil, at high pressure, His remarks on seals were not inconsistent. He had pointed
was an important one about which little appeared to be known. out that a seal to be successful must permit enough seepage to
On the other hand the p.v. index of 1.1 was thought to be too lubricate itself and insufficient to cause a leak. Further, he
low, as his experience had confirmed the value of 1.3 recom- suggested that this became progressively more difficult to
mended by the Royal Aircraft Establishment. arrange with increase of pressure, and, as a prmciple, an in-
He did not agree with Mr. Hadekel that undercarriages cost acceptably large leak might be necessary to achieve lubrication,
appreciably more than the selling price of aircraft as a whole in which case the leak would have to be dealt with by some
(some 30-40s. per pound at present). They obviously cost method of which he had given one example.
more than the simple unequipped airframe proper. During the He welcomed Mr. Robbins’s reference to the need for research
war, undercarriages were being made in quantity for something investigation into the mechanical and physical behaviour of seals,
nearer 10s. per pound; the difficulty to-day was that the quanti- and agreed that much benefit would be derived from a clearer
ties were small. It was quite true that high tensile steel and light scientific understanding of what were far too often no more than
alloy castings were very expensive. ad hoc experiments.
Replying to Mr. Clifton, the friction calculation shown in the He would agree with Mr. Nicoll that in many hydraulic
paper used a drag lo3d only without side load, because it was systems in the past a reservoir capacity had been determined by
felt that adequate comparative data could be obtained with this the considerations mentioned. On the other hand, it was reason-
simple method. As explained in the paper, comparative data as ably certain that the hydraulic system when applied to flying
a guide to engineering judgement was all that could be expected. controls would be generating pressure for a much greater pro-
There were far too many variables for absolute truth to be portion of normal flight, and he felt therefore that the question
sought. The method given enabled an experienced designer to of heat capacity would arise. H e understood that there was at
compare a new design with an earlier one already in operation. least one installation in which a cooler had been seriously
A similar comparison could be made with a combined side and considered or actually installed.
drag load with some increase in complication of process, but With regard to the problem of crushing of piston rods, he had
probably little practical advantage. expericnced it on one occasion, when the possibility of its
While not wishing to enter into a controversy with Air Com- occurrence had been overlooked. Once experienced, however,
modore Banks on the relative rnerits of tail-wheel or nose-wheel it was not likely to be overlooked again, nor did he think that
undercarriage layouts, it was fair to point out that had many in the great majority of instances that it would be a critical
British aircraft been fitted with tricycle undercarriages during stressing case. He would agree, however, that the problem was
the recent war less bombs would have been dropped on the most likely to be encountered with large piston rods rather than
enemy. smaller equipment designed to work at higher pressures.
Whether it w3s more correct to use an appropriate shock In reply to Mr. Towler, he must again point out that his paper
absorber efficiency and then add an inch of travel “for luck”, or referred to pressures in relation to light hydraulic systems,
to use a lower efficiency, was a matter of opinion. Mr. Holland’s having to provide a high stroke/bore ratio in the operating
proposal was probably the more correct. cylinders. The dictionary definition of the word “ultra” could
In his opinion extra travel was needed on a nose-wheel to be “excessive” and to this extent Mr. Towler’s remarks were
allow for some degree of ignorance of the applied forces, and to accurate since the figures he had quoted were excessive for the
cater for mal-adjustment, leakage of air, oil, etc. purpose covered by the paper.
As regards surface finish, in spite of modern production Regarding heating, he would point out that the temperature
technique a finish better than 5-8 micro-inches was hardly ranges quoted covered not only the working range in flight, but
practicable, and even if obtainable, hardly likely to stay so fine also temperatures that might be experienced before operating
for long. the system. In most high altitude aircraft systems some parts
worked in a quite small temperature range during flight, but the
Mr. S. M. PARKER said in reply to Mr. Beacham that he temperature of other parts was often approximately that of
agreed that n;uch of the weigh‘; saving in using higher pressures the surrounding atmosphere, which varied between wide limits
came from reduction in volume of fluid and size of pipes, but on a single flight.
there were other factors which had been mentioned in the paper. The temperatures that had been quoted in the paper were,
I n any case the total was comparatively small, but for aircraft he felt, reasonably accurate. The output of most hydraulic
purposes was valuable. pumps in modern systems was between 5 and 10 h.p. and the
The question of thick cylinder stresses should certainly not conversion efficiency at peak pressure was over 90 per cent.
be overlooked. The increase of stress was, he believed, of the As regards the viscosity of oil, Mr. Towler had confused
order of 10 per cent, when the diameter thickness ratio was 5. normal working viscosity with the figure quoted for the extreme
I n practice, so small a ratio w2s seldom approached and the viscosity beyond which the system would not work even tem-
increase in weight from this cause would be very small indeed. porarily, permitting cavitation and other undesirable effects.
He would like to refer to the question of working pressure in Between 70 and 120 deg. F. the viscosities of the aircraft fluids
industrial hydraulic practice, and would point out that the limit- quoted were 5-10 centistokes in one case and about 10-30
ing factor in aircraft systems was undoubtedly the stroke/ in the other, which figures are not greatly dissimilar from those
diameter ratiq required from the operating cylinders. Without quoted for industrial fluids.
this limitation, pressures higher than 5,000 lb. per sq. in. could He would agree that hydraulic lock already referred to by
probably be used. Mr. Beacham was probably a function of time and pressure, but
I n mentioning the clogging of piston valves, Mr. Beacham he would again emphasize that he did not see any fundamental
had emphasized a most important problem. He himself sug- dissimilarity between the theory based on lack of concentric
gested that the use of a filter should be noted with some reserve, stability and the theory based on the entry of dirt particles
since few filters removed a large proportion of particles of size which might well give much the same effect. At higher pres-
comparable to the dimensions of the valve clearance. sures the forces involved were possibly great enough to break
He welcomed Mr. Stables’s views on the need for progress down the lubricating film without the presence of dirt particles ,
and would not quarrel with those views on the subject of the but if these particles were present the effect might be greater
toxicity of fluids, except to mention that by careful planning at a lower pressure. I n any case, much careful research work
they could be kept in regions where they could do little harm, would be necessary before the problem was correctly under-

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 D I S C U S S I O N O N AIRCRAFT AUXILIARY SYSTEMS AND E Q U I P M E N T 301
stood. He was aware of some work in this direction already brakes on, a torque equivalent to the static coefficient of friction
but it was in the early stages. and the maximum brake-line pressure could certainly be
He agreed entirely with Mr. Orloffs views that the problems generated, because the reaction between the tyre and the ground
on dynamic seals were both different and more difficult than was generally much higher at the instant of landing than it was
those of static seals. In fact most of the remarks in the paper had under steady rolling conditions. With certain combinations of
been directed at dynamic seals where both slow and fast motions friction materials there was a much greater difference between
had to be catered for. He felt that Mr. Orloff‘s remarks empha- the static and dynamic friction values than with others. For
sized the necessity for ensuring that there was lubrication at all example, some non-metallic friction materials were hygroscopic,
times. The only alternative to this was a seal capable of resisting and the friction value on first application tended to be much
considerable abrasion without proper lubrication, in which case higher than the steady value obtained almost immediately
the friction losses were inevitably very high. after friction commences. It was probable that the difference
He would point out to Mr. Hadekel that the fluids mentioned between the static and dynamic value of the coefficient of
by Mr. Towler were not in fact thinner than aircraft fluids, but friction was less in the case of metal-to-metal rubbing than
he would agree that the flatness of the viscosity curve was in when non-metallic friction materials were used in contact with
many ways a more important characteristic than the viscosity a metal surface.
at any particular temperature. It was the constant aim, of both the brake designer and the
In regard to the design of pumps he would suggest that manufacturer of friction materials, to obtain a combination
rotary valve pumps were entirely practicable, but that much which had the greatest consistency of friction values. The very
care had to be taken to avoid out of balance effects and high large temperature changes, at the rubbing surface, which took
surface rubbing speeds. These effects usually added appreciable place in aircraft brakes increased the difficulty considerably,
complications. and combinations of materials, in many respects eminently
He did not think that he had suggested that high pressures suitable, were found to give either a severe reduction in
were not suitable for industrial applications generally, and he coefficient of friction at the higher temperatures (commonly
presumed that it was on this point that Mr. Hadekal wished to referred to as “fade”) or a steep rise in the coefficient of
join issue with him. What he had said was that on the light forms friction after a certain temperature had been passed. There had,
of hydraulic system used for industrial purposes, in which valve however, been recent developments in brake drum design, and
loadings and bulk were not serious diaculties, there was little on the composition of non-metallic friction materials, which
point in increasing pressures until this could be done without had greatly increased the consistency of the combination, and
any sacrifice in durability. He fully agreed with the need for it was possible that an investigation into the torque variation of
using very much higher pressures where the bulk of the equip- modem designs of brake might well be justified.
ment would otherwise be excessive. Both Air Commodore Banks and Mr.Towler had mentioned
He would point out to Mr. Holland that the efficiency of the the use of reversible-pitch propellers. These were already in
jack mentioned in the paper was 60 per cent not 40 per cent use on some aircraft and it was almost certain that they would be
and that whilst he would agree that efficiencies of 80 per cent increasingly applied to new aircraft designs. It was unlikely
could be and in some cases had been achieved, they were in fact that reversible-pitch propellers could ever completely displace
all too rare, but should be encouraged wherever possible. wheel brakes. For example, they could not be used for stopping
The point regarding the increase of Viscosity with pressure a twin-engined aircraft if it had to make a landing with one
was a good one, but as had been pointed out in the paper, engine inoperative. Further, wheel brakes were used quite
increase of viscosity was not harmful if it effected a change extensively in taxi-ing, not only for steering purposes but also
from turbulent to streamlined flow. to keep the taxi-ing speed within safe limits. Brakes for steering
He agreed that the question of bulk modulus, particularly for might well be replaced by steerable nose wheels but they would
systems involving flying controls, would have to be taken into still be required for controlling the forward speed and holding
account. This was not as straightforward as might be imagined the aircraft stationary against the thrust developed in running-up
owing to the complications due to air inclusion. engines prior to taking off.
Surface b i s h would certainly be of increased importance as In regard to Mr. Towler’s suggestion that air brakes, flaps,
pressures increased and it would be of interest to discover and similar devices, could be used to greater advantage, he
eventually whether there were optimum figures for this beyond thought it would probably be found that, for the same weight
which it was of no advantage, and might in fact be harmful to go. penalty, more work could be done by the friction brake in
He agreed that the probable use of emergency operation by stopping an aircraft after landing, than by increasing the
cartridge would appear to provide the necessary pressure with- aerodynamic drag, with the added complication of operating
out maintenance complications. mechanism which this implied. It had to be remembered that
He would like to refer to Mr. Holland’s remarks on the large flaps might be a disadvantage during taxi-ing down-wind.
differentially operated jack, because the only part of the system In reply to Air Commodore Banks’ question regarding cera-
which could give rise to this effect was the connexion between mics, he wrote that, so far as he was aware, such materials had
the valve and the jack, and if the former was mounted upon the not been used for the rubbing surfaces of aircraft brakes. The
latter the length of this was very short indeed and could pre- use of any refractory material to prevent the heat generated at
sumably be arranged in such a way that its safety factor and the friction surface from entering the brake drum would, he
vulnerability made the possibilities of failure so exceedingly thought, be detrimental. Fundamentally, a friction brake con-
remote as to be accepted. He would suggest that there were verted kinetic energy into heat. In order to prevent excessive
other types of failure in more conventional systems that were temperatures developing at the friction surface, the heat had to
less easy to guard against. be removed from this surface and, in the case of drum brakes,
this was largely done by conduction into the drum itself.
During the relatively short time available when stopping an
Mr. D. A. L. ROBSONsaid in reply, in regard to Mr. aircraft after landing, it was difficult to arrange for any appre-
Nicholls’ point about the large variation in brake torque, that ciable quantity of heat to be removed by, say, radiation, and
this was mainly due to the difference between the static and therefore most of the heat had to be stored in the drum. The
dynamic coefficient of friction. The static coefficient of friction rate at which heat was generated in an aircraft brake might be
of most combinations of materials was generally higher than the very great indeed, and if the mating materials were not to be
dynamic value and, with the simple brake operating system damaged by excessive temperatures the temperature gradient
common to-day, the undercarriage had to be stressed to cover through the drum had to be as low as possible. This meant that
the case of a landing being made with the brakes already fully the brake drum had to have a good thermal conductivity which
applied. It was not intended that aircraft should be landed with gave it the added advantage that its outside was raised to a
the brakes on, but the possibility should be considered; it might relatively high temperature, so increasing the rate at which heat
affect the strength of the aircraft. If an aircraft landed with the coukl be dissipated from the complete brake assembly.

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302

Discussion in Manchester
At the meeting of the North Western Branch on 6th March 1947

Mr. HENRYDAVIES(Warrington), with respect to the friction Mr. M. L. MEYER,BSc., A.M.I.Mech.E., referred to the
diagrams in Mr. Conway’s paper, wondered why the combined statement that it was the strength of the bond, in rubber-
effect of a side load (at the ground) with a vertical load had not bonded components, which had to be raised. The literature of
been investigated. The size of the wheel would surely affect the the makers, however, insisted that the rubber failed before the
issue. bond, and he would like to have the author’s explanation of
The author referred to the use of an outer cylinder in an these contradicting statements.
undercarriage of a high-grade light alloy, and in the particular Mr. Robson had spoken about the behaviour of brake
undercarriage shown, he thought there was a sliding bearing materials under different atmospheric conditions. He had had
in contact with the light alloy. Could the author tell them a similar problem with fabric asbestos brake material, and had
anything about the preparation of the light-alloy surface? asked the makers whether they could give any information
It would presumably not have the same finish as the inside of a about the behaviour of the material. The makers could not
steel cylinder. Was wear to be anticipated in that type of supply the desired information, but recommended moulded
surface ? brake material, which was more consistent in its operation.
It was, he had been told, a matter of two or three years before
this country had appreciated the fact chat the Germans used Mr. R. G. HOARE (Warrington) said that Mr. Conway gave
axle castings on their aircraft-We had thought they used forgings. a formula for the reaction factor assuming 80 per cent efficiency
The castings were ingenious, and apparently it was possible to for the shock absorber, and 47 per cent for the tyre. The
fabricate a fairly complex shape, but he was a little doubtful efficiencies quoted there were possibly pessimistic. The tyre
about their advantages. The author suggested that one could could reach an efficiency of over 50 per cent and the oleo could
approach very closely to the finished shape and dispense with be raised to an efficiency of well over 80 per cent. He had
most of the machining; presumably one could not approach suggested that they should add one inch to the figure obtained
quite so closely to the finished shape in a centrifugal casting. from t h i s formula for the stroke on the shock absorber; that
He had also referred to the forged sliding tube in the same would probably give a stroke having quite a considerable surplus
undercarriage. It seemed very convenient to build the sliding over actual requirements. But Fig. 15 presented an adiabatic
tube integrally with the axle (the standard American practice) curve reaching a reaction factor of 3 ; there was apparently no
but this appeared to make the machining very difficult. Any surplus stroke in that case. Did the author suggest that they
weight gained by the elimination of the overlap between sliding should have any surplus or not? He had in mind particularly
tube and axle would tend to be Iost because of the difficulty of a requirement which had been added within the last six months
machining the parts afterwards. It might also have paid to or so, in which the undercarriage designer was required to cater
flash-weld an axle fitting to a sliding tube. for a higher rate of descent than the normal, but was allowed to
He had hoped that a rather fuller reference would have been achieve a higher reaction factor. If they designed the shock
made in Mr. Robson’s paper, to methods of heat dissipation in absorber so that it barely covered the normal requirement, they
brakes-a very important point indeed. Had the author any were likely to have very little control over their maximum
fuller information to give in regard to fin types of heat dis- reaction factor under this new case, and the load might be really
sipation ? Could not one draw, in part, on the experience of excessive.
engine designers ? They cooled an exhaust valve, by filling it He would also like Mr. Conway’s comments on other require-
with liquid sodium-a splendid method of dissipating heat. ments which fixed the compression ratio and inflation pressure
Heat dissipation of a novel and much more effective type was of the shock absorber. He had in mind the braked taxi-ing case
required; at present radiation from a large mass of metal was for a nose undercarriage, and the turning case for a main
used and the brakes became excessively heavy j wheels in this undercarriage. Those loads were generally fairly large and
country were in any case heavier than they should be, and the applied relatively slowly, so that they could be achieved with
brakes were an important contributing factor. little assistance from the oil damping, and could be assumed
to be loads on the isothermal air curves. They had then three
Mr. K. G. HANCOCK (Warrington) asked Mr. Parker to conditions to satisfy: they had a maximum reaction which
amplify his statement that hydraulic jacks only just met the they must not exceed on the adiabatic curve, and a static
reliability requirements and to indicate how this was affected reaction, and braked taxi-ing or turning, on their isothermal
by the pressures which the jacks used. curve.
Mr. R. J. B. WOODHAMS (Manchester) asked Mr. Conway Mr. J. R. FINNIECOME, M.Eng., M.I.Mech.E., observed that
whether he could hold out any hope’ of the allowable leg Mr. Parker had referred to the temperature range through
inclination being increased. With p = 0.3, the tipping angle which the pistons in the landing mechanism had to operate.
was 169 deg. and, with sideways retraction into a wing surface, Near the equator the temperature was above 100 deg. F., while,
considerable ingenuity was required in order to avoid com- in England, the temperature might be below freezing point.
plicating structures as a result of the centre of gravity’s being Surely allowances must be made for piston clearance, so that
fixed relative to leading edge. the landing gear could work satisfactorily. He would like to
Also he pointed out that leg length was usually fixed by know the clearance on the operating pistons.
airscrew clearance under 3g closure and tyre deflation. Con-
siderable weight could be saved by decreasing the distance from Mr. H. G . CONWAY said in reply to Mr. Davies that the point
static to 3g closure. Was this more possible with liquid springing? about the side load was correct enough.Those questions were only
The aircraft manufacturer had, in certain cases, departed ones of the criteria involved. Having designed one undercarriage
from hydraulics on the score of weight and cleanliness. In with a certain percentage of friction by a particular method, they
raising the working pressures, the hydraulic engineers were should be able to design another on the same lines, providing
merely chasing the pneumatic protagonists j where woul&.this the other undercarriage was geometrically the same as the first
end? Had Mr. Parker any comparative figures on installation one. When the sizes of wheels were altered, it would make a
weights? difference. It was probably wrong to use that method without

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 D I S C U S S I O N ON AIRCRAFT A U X I L I A R Y SYSTEMS AND E Q U I P M E N T 303
adaption when using undercarriages with twin wheels, because emphasize that such jacks must have relatively low friction and
this implied lubrication without leakage. As an opinion, he
the wheels were much smaller and the influence of the side loads
would be greater. would doubt whether any current designs of jack would give
100,000 operations at full load without failure. This, of course,
As regards bearing materials aluminium alloy was excellent.
was a very big margin over most requirements, as 10,000 opera-
Bronze and light alloy usually worked fairly well when properly
lubricated. Wear, in the ordinary engineering sense, did nottions had been the most that anyone had thought necessary for
exist in undercarriages. They did not do enough work to wear undercarriages or other similar hydraulic services. When, how-
out, but it was damage or corrosion which was the trouble. ever, it became necessary to consider services that worked
continuously in fiight, this standard of reliability and life was
He entirely agreed with Mr. Davies’s remark about steel cast-
ings and undercarriages. It was unfortunate that this countryquite insufficient and something very much better must be
offered. He would like to hear the views of others on this point,
could not produce steel castings for the airframe until the war
about which t k r e was usually much reticence.
was finished-the available steel casting capacity being engaged
in making engine liners. As regards welding, this was still the As regards the nature of the eventual failure, it could be said
only country of any importance which did not weld its under- that this was not solely wear by abrasion, but was also dis-
carriages. integration by exuusion into working clearances.
He agreed with the comment about the difficulty of machining In reply to Mr. Woodhams, the question of relative weights
of different types of system had been a contentious point for a
a sliding tube with an axle on the end. It was obviously possible
but required large machine tools not normally available. long time. It was impossible to generalize; and many of the
The Germans had some remarkable fish-welded under- comparisons made in the past had been between one installation
five or more years old, and another that was an estimated weight
carriages at the end of the war, where the whole thing was joined
only. He would suggest that the only possible comparison was
together by flash-welding. The production runs involved had to
be very large indeed to justify it. weighed weights (on a given aeroplane) of alternative systems.
Replying to Mr. Woodhams, it was obvious that the position Obviously the question of weight was of great importance,
and he had suggested that an increase of pressure of 4,000 lb.
of the wheel was determined by airframe considerations and was
per sq. in. might achieve a weight saving of about 10 per cent.
nothing to do with the undercarriage designer. In tail wheel lay-
He did not feel qualified to answer for pneumatic specialists who
outs it was usually governed by the tendency of the aircraft to
nose over, and he would have thought that slightly more than might cherish great ambitions of offering much lower weights.
I n reply to Mr. Finniecome, piston clearances on most
16 deg. would be desirable. It was obviously related to the power
hydraulic mechanisms working up to 3,000 lb. per sq. in. were
of the brake. In the case of a tricycle it was more involved. If
of the order of 0*002-0*005
there were a large angle, it prevented the nose coming off the inch, although this figure varied
ground. If there were too small an angle, it might become somewhat with diameter, and was tower for small piston rods
than for large tubes. This clearance was sufficient to prevent
critically small and prevent stability. The angle of the leg was
trouble-ertainly
not important in itself. It w a s tied up with the overhang and the over the range of temperatures at which
undercarriages had to work-but
overlap. If they made the angle worse, they could get the same he agreed that differential
performance by increasing the overlap or decreasing the over-contraction had to be carefully watched on hydraulic equipment
intended to work over a very wide temperature range.
hang. If the angle of the leg were extreme, then they would have
to fall back to levered suspension, in that case fully justified.
The question of the flexibility of the liquid spring was
interesting. Its static position was only a question of the com- Mr. D. A. L. ROBSONsaid in reply that Mr. Davies had
pression ratio in the unit or the general shape of the elasticity mentioned the question of heat dissipation from a brake. During
curve. He would have thought that could be varied within broad an aircraft landing run there were two aspects of the heat
limits. problem which had to be considered; (1) the brake had to con-
Replying to Mr. Meyer, in the author’s experience the limit- vert a large amount of energy into heat, and (2) the rate of heat
ing factor on rubber shear or torsion springs as applied to under- generation was very high.
carriages was, in fact, the strength of the bond under endurance The time duration of the landing run was so small that it was
test. unlikely that any scheme could be devised which would result
In reply to Mr. Hoare, he said that there was very little infor- in an appreciable dissipation of heat during this period. Im-
mation available on tyre efficiency. The current practice was to provements could, he thought, be made so as to increase the
use the ordinary static deflexion curves; these were slightly less rate of heat dissipation after the landing run and so reduce the
efficient than a steel spring, and the efficiency was generally time which must elapse before another landing could be made.
taken as about 47 per cent. Some of the tyre makers claimed that Finning of the drum and the generation of an air flow across the
they could absorb slightly more energy when they dropped the drum surface had been shown to help. Liquid cooling with the
tyre. The modern tendency was to disregard that, because the possible use of the latent heat of the liquid might be useful but
difference was very small, and in the second place it was not at so far little success had been found from this approach.
all sure that the increase was real. The real difficulty was in the short period of the landing run
With regard to the shock absorber, the highest efficiency he when heat was being generated at a high rate. If the temperature
had come across was 93 per cent on a single drop. He thought it at the rubbing surface was to be kept within allowable limits the
very unwise to take an average figure of more than 80 per cent, heat must be conducted away from the surface rapidly. In drum
because on some designs they might not actually achieve much type brakes this meant the drum should have a good thermal
more than that. conductivity so as to reduce the temperature gradient through
He still felt that a wise designer would provide more travel the material. This would result in the outside surface of the
than required to satisfy calculation. drum rising to a higher temperature more rapidly and should
The scope of the paper did not cover nose-wheel shock help also with the heat dissipation problem. The most attractive
absorbers but was confined to main units where the compression feature of the friction brake was its simplicity and he thought
ratio would be about 4. The nose-wheel unit had to deal with every effort should be made to retain this.
additional requirements as correctly outlined by Mr. Hoare. Mr. Meyer’s experience of woven asbestos type friction
Higher compression ratios were certainly necessary, even as materials and their sensitivity to atmospheric conditions was
high as 10, and if means could be found to absorb energy during interesting. The development of non-metallic friction materials
slow closure or braking, so much the better. for high duty brakes was a very complex problem and one which
had been receiving the active attention of manufacturers for
Mr. S. M. PARKER, in reply to Mr. Hancock, said that his some time. In the present state of the art it did seem as though
remarks on jack reliability were essentially the result of experi- moulded materials might prove superior to the woven type but
ence. He had made the point in the paper, and would again it was difficult to forecast what developments might take place.

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304

Lornrnunications
Air Commodore F. R. BANKS, C.B., M.I.Mech.E., R.A.F.V.R., carriage was still the safest type to deal with such emergencieson
wrote that he would like to comment on Mr. Conway’s answer the runway.
to him that if they had used the tricycle undercarriage in the war
they would have taken a lower load of bombs to drop on the Mr. G. R. SHEARER, G.I.Mech.E., wrote that with reference
enemy. His reply to this was that quite a number of night to the proposed replacement of wheels by skids, would Mr.
bombers were prevented from taking part in operations because Conway explain the benefits to be derived from this form of
of a swing upon take-off; which at night was not always easy undercarriage. Was that change due to weight problems, or
to check in the early stages and could become uncontrollable. to some high-speed factor such as breakdown caused by over-
Also, in his opinion, the tricycle undercarriage would have been heating of the cover? Further, would Mr. Conway give any
a safer proposition in landing bombers after an operation; in further information as to the nature of the specially prepared
which weather, damage to aircraft, and general weariness of the surfaces to be used as runways, and also had any investigations
crew all played a part in making landing a tricky business. been made as to the type of undercarriage required by such a
Further, he would not necessarily agree that a machine with a system?
tricycle undercarriage carried less load; particularly in the
military sense where one did carry much higher loads than were Mr. H. G. CONWAY wrote in reply that he fully appreciated
considered safe and practicable in civil aviation. Whilst the Air Commodore Banks’s remarks about swinging at take-off on
rricycle undercarriage weighed somewhat more than the tail- a rail-wheel aircraft. Much of the difficulty with one or two
wheel type, the former probably would allow the same military particularly bad war-time aircraft could have been got over by
load to be taken off in the same length of runway; even though using a tail-wheel castoring lock. The real answer to the ques-
the all-up weight of the machine was slightly greater. tion, why more British aircraft did not have tricycle under-
Finally, commenting on the reply to the question regarding carriages, was probably that in 1935-6, when this country’s
the help which might be given by reversing pitch propellers, main operational type were conceived, nothing was known about
that this type of propeller would not be much use in the case of nose-wheels, and what had been used before had to be used
a twin-engined machine and the failure of one engine, he would again. It took some time for the claims put forward by the
mention that while one had to allow for accidents, these were United States to be accepted, and by that time it was too late.
not in the majority, and the normal safe day-to-day operation of The questions raised by Mr. Shearer had been mainly dealt
the machine must be mainly considered. In the case of emergency with in the reply to Air Commodore Oliver. The whole question
due to the stoppage of one engine it would obviously be a ques- of skids for aircraft was being investigated, but no final con-
tion of using the wheel brakes to the full, and a tricycle under- clusions had been drawn.

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