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> An aircraft can land without brakes, as during landing most of the work of stopping a commercial aircraft is done through the use of thrust reversers. However, landing without the aid of brakes will significantly increase the amount of runway an aircraft uses on landing. Brakes are also necessary for aborting takeoffs, through the use of Auto Brakes, which automatically activate should pilots decide to abort a takeoff for whatever reason.
The risk is clear: takeoffs will be significantly more dangerous to abort and runway overruns will be more likely, but this doesn't immediately halt aviation and is a more or less necessary step when the brake parts cannot be obtained.
Your polemic reaction is much closer to feeling like propaganda than the original article, in my opinion.
And, yes, aircraft can safely land without brakes (although they might be hard-pressed to safely abort a takeoff). But what happens after that 10-day permitted period the article discusses?
I'm sure there's a black market in replacement aircraft parts that will help with maintenance, and I'm sure it's not beyond the wit of Russian industrial espionage to gain plans, or reverse-engineer (especially with the help of China), and manufacture locally sourced replacement parts, but that doesn't appear to have happened to an extent sufficient to cover ongoing maintenance needs yet.
And so we have this situation: the normalisation of deviance.
Original article refers to "leaked memo". There's not a single proof that such memo exists, that it was circulating inside Aeroflot, that it was translated correctly either by the original site or Moscow Times. It could be created for propaganda reasons ("Ukraine has lost counteroffensive, but Russian airplanes will start falling out of the skies!") out of thin air.
> And, yes, aircraft can safely land without brakes (although they might be hard-pressed to safely abort a takeoff). But what happens after that 10-day permitted period the article discusses?
Brake pads would be replaced or the plane wouldn't be allowed to fly. It's not a big problem to buy replacements in China or UAE or some other country. We have no problems buying anything produced in US and EU, although for somewhat higher price than before.
Also, I'm pretty sure that we can produce brake pads domestically. We still have some remnants of the aircraft industry although West fought hard to kill it in the last 30 yars. And making brake pads is not a rocket science. It's pretty simple part even for an airplane.
> and I'm sure it's not beyond the wit of Russian industrial espionage to gain plans, or reverse-engineer (especially with the help of China), and manufacture locally sourced replacement parts
We are talking about brake pads here. It's not like you need to steal some plans to make them. It's basically a metal plate with some abrasive material attached to it. Probably the simplest part of the airplane.
Nope. We just sat by and watched whilst your own oligarchs pillaged your natural resources and asset stripped your industry. This was a mistake. We should not have allowed that to happen. But the alcoholic dotard Yeltsin is most to blame, since a lot of it occurred whilst he was in power.
However, you say over the last 30 years, for most of which Putin has been in power. Are you suggesting that he allowed this to happen on his watch? Is he not the awesome leader who made Russia strong again after all? What are you actually saying here? He lay down and just let the West screw your aircraft industry? That doesn't seem very likely. It certainly doesn't seem like the image that Putin likes to portray. Perhaps he, and the rest of Russia's leaders, just mismanaged the hell out of everything and that's why your aircraft industry isn't doing so well?
> we can produce brake pads domestically
Brakes are more than just brake pads, as I suspect you well know. Still, I'm sure Russia can produce all the necessary parts, which is why I'm interested in what happens after the 10 day permitted period.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moscow_Times#After_2014
It says basically that airplane has several brake pads, so the memo says that the plane can fly for up to 10 days after seeing that some of the brake pads had worn out.