The Missing Control: Air Brakes Are Indispensable

Would you drive a car without brakes?

Peter Garrison

Wednesday, April 08, 2026 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

Air brakes are among those things—the onward march of modernity relies on them—that you don’t see the need for until you get them, and then you can’t imagine doing without them. [Credit: Peter Garrison]

Key Takeaways:

Air brakes are crucial for pilots to achieve rapid, controlled descents and deceleration, essential for managing air traffic and specific flight conditions efficiently.
Their use evolved from sailplanes and dive-bombers (for precision and recovery) to become indispensable for modern jet aircraft, which lack the inherent braking of propeller-driven engines.
The primary function of an air brake is to increase drag, enabling quick descents without issues like over-speeding or engine over-cooling, making them a highly valued tool for pilots despite potential design quirks.

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“Van Nuys Tower, experimental November Two Mike Uniform, Sepulveda Pass at 3,000, request transit along the 405, going to Whiteman with Golf.”

Traffic on the 405 is heavy. Below me thousands of cars are creeping through the pass between the Los Angeles basin and San Fernando Valley. I’ve been following the Malibu coastline eastward at 3,500 under a shelf of KLAX Class B and above the patches of urban desert left by last year’s wildfires. The Getty Center—a sprawling hilltop museum that generously provides a landmark even to pilots indifferent to art—has now slid beneath my left wing, and I’m dropping down to 2,900 to pass under Burbank’s Class C.