Not being hampered by actually knowing anything about designing an
aircraft, I've long wondered why there are no brakes on the nose
wheels of tricycle-gear airplanes.  

With other vehicles (2, 3 and 4 wheel):

  Front wheel braking typically accounts for about 70% of total
  braking.

  Front wheel braking is substantially more effective than rear wheel
  braking.

  Counter-intuitively, decreasing the lateral force available (hard
  braking or wheel locking) on the rear wheel(s) is much more likely
  to result in a loss of control of the vehicle than similar decrease
  on the front wheel(s).  Oversteer.

Yeah, I realize you'd likely lose the ability to steer by
differential braking, but a steerable nose wheel fixes that.
Doesn't seem to be a problem for kid's tricycles, golf carts and such.

I don't think that "nose dive" is a plausible concern as I *think*
the amount of weight transfer to the front wheel would be the same
for a given total braking force applied from either the front or rear
wheel(s).

I wondered if anyone had ever tried the experiment but I can't find
a reference and the only tricycle gear aircraft I know of with front
wheel brakes is the Viking powered parasail.  I suspect Viking
drivers don't worry a lot about braking distance.

Could it be something as simple as that main gear breaking is "good
enough"?  I mean, what's the point in being able to stop in 300 feet,
if you still need 600 feet for takeoff?

Must be something I'm missing here.  
Just wondering.

Paul Davis INTP

pdavis@bmc.com

Phone (713)918-1550