The Comparison of a “Wake Brake” and a Parachute for the Landing of Aeroplanes

Extract

It would seem that Mr. Heughan (Journal, March 1954) has missed the basic design criterion of drag exerted for a given weight (and bulk) penalty. No mention is made of this fundamental point in the choice of a device for the reduction of the landing run of an aircraft. The choice of comparison of the “Wake brake” with a 7 ft. brake parachute has therefore been made somewhat arbitrarily. Brown does not state that “the usual size of a parachute used for braking an aeroplane is 7 ft.”; on page 271 of the reference concerned (“Parachutes,” Sir Isaac Pitman, 1951), a case for “a particular aircraft” was quoted as “ using a 7 ft. parachute.”