The Runway Magazine Jan/Feb 2017 | Page 14

NOTE-
• The brakes do not become effective until aircraft speed is below 100knots .
• Thrust Reversals are not getting enough air intake to be effective below 80knots . So they are used for the initial deceleration and then closed once the aircraft slowed down .
STOPPING THE A380
This aircraft weighing in at 1,265,000 pounds when fully loaded . With the braking system , thrust reversers are the least critical components . Only the two inner engines on the A380 are equipped with them . Manufacturers have not installed reversers on the two outer engines to save weight and lower the chances that those engines would be damaged by ingesting foreign objects , as they often overhang the edge of the runway . With these two reversers , it does help to slow the A380 but not by much . But these are useful when there is water or snow on the runway , which makes the runway slippery . Most modern airliners use reversers to redirect the airflow . The airflow bypassing the engine core is blocked from exiting and channeled through an assembly of vanes , called cascade vanes . In the A380 , a pilot can deploy the thrust reversers only on the ground , and can select a range of thrust reverser setting from idle to maximum reverse , until the aircraft has slowed to below 70 knots , or 80.5 mph ( 1 knot equals 1.15 mph ). At that point , the thrust reversers must be set to idle . All airliner engines now have safeguards built in to keep the thrust reversers from accidentally deploying during flight . To stop the A380 , enormous composite Honeywell brakes on 16 of the 20 main landing gear wheels do most of the work . As on most new airliners , the A380 ’ s brakes are anti-skid . They work like the anti-skid brakes in your car , responding to extreme pressure by automatically pulsing to prevent brake lockup and skidding . Almost as important is the aerodynamic braking of 16 giant wing top spoilers deploying upwards to create drag and reduce lift . Reducing lift improves mechanical braking by putting more weight on the wheels .

Written By Supun Nirmal

14 f / Supun Nirmal g /+ SupunNirmal

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