Thrust reverse

An airplane is a complicated machine. For an airplane to preform properly and safely, it must be
maintained regularly to stay in shape for the longest life span possible. Most concerns are about how to
make an airplane faster and have stronger engines, however what’s not being discussed enough are the
systems needed to control and stop the plane after touchdown. Well designed systems must be
equipped to make an airplane loose power when it’s not needed.

Brakes are what’s used primarily to stop the landing gear wheels and eventually converting
rotational energy to heat energy, thus stopping the plane. Another device used to slow down the plane
are air brakes (plates located on the top surface of each wing). When pilots deploy the air brakes, they
rise and create a surface to block airflow and create friction. A different odd method is available for use
which is to redirect the engine’s inlet air backwards in a function called “Thrust reverse”.

On top of the engine power lever, a movable tap sends signal for actuators to move specially
placed engine surface plates to reverse the direction of incoming air. The actuators can be pneumatic,
hydraulic, or electrically activated. There are three different designs:

1. Clamshell doors 2. Bucket doors 3. Blocker doors

The clamshell doors design is named so because of the door shape looking like a clam shell. In
this system, a pneumatically activated actuators move the doors from stowed position to deployed
position. Doors in the new position will block the regular airflow toward the exhaust. The new position
also reveals gaps called “cascade vanes” in the side wall of the engine and thrust is redirected from the
exhaust to the sidewall and exhausted towards the front of the engine. This action creates thrust in the
opposite moving direction and acts like a braking force.

The bucket door system gets its name from the two doors shaped like two bottomless bucket
halves. When the system is deployed, the last portion of the engine exhaust section is moved with
hydraulically activated actuators. The new position redirects exhaust air from the end of the engine back
to the front side. The two doors create a shape V structure at the end of the engine attempting to slow
the plane down.

Blocker doors system gets its name from its operation. As discussed before, air has 2 paths to
take when entering an engine: compressor and bypass path. This system blocks (redirect) the bypass air
without affecting the compressor air flow. To keep the hot exhaust air away from the engine inlet, only
the cool bypass air is blocked and redirected towards the front of the engine. This system proved that it
could keep the engine healthy while using thrust reversing.

The thrust reversing system is valuable and extremely useful, but consequences can be
catastrophic if used improperly. For example: Flight Lauda Air 004 was featured on National
Geographic’s Airplane Crash Investigation after it crashed in 1991 completely because of thrust
reversing. Flight 004 unintentionally deployed its thrust reversers mid-flight because of a short in the
system’s electrical connection. The airflow by the ominous engine disturbed the balanced plane leading
to an uncontrollable nose-dive and crashing eventually. This tragedy made airplane manufactures and
legal transport agencies to take actions.
 Systems were developed in the aircraft computers and several edits were made to the “logic”
section. These edits prevented the airplane computers and pilots to deploy thrust reversers mid-flight,
but only after touchdown and speed is decreased. in addition, mechanical locks were equipped to lock
the thrust reversing tap from accidently or intentionally moving mid-flight, but only at certain speed and
altitude.