Aircraft Wheels and Carbon Brakes Patents: Top Companies 2026
- 70.1% of records sit with just five assignees out of 288 records in scope, and 92.7% sit with ten — this is a tightly held field, not a fragmented one.
- Filing peaked in 2021 at 41 and the 2022 midpoint of 33 shows momentum flattening well before the most recent, still-incomplete year.
- B60T and B64C dominate the claim space at 74.7% and 50.7% of records respectively, while ceramics (C04B, 3.5%) and digital brake control (G06F, 2.4%) remain thin.
What this landscape covers
This landscape maps 288 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine aircraft brake, carbon brake disc and aircraft wheel terminology with technical claim language covering energy absorption per stop, wear rate, antiskid control, brake temperature and electric brake actuation. The scope is narrowed by IPC classes B60T8 (vehicle braking systems), F16D65 (brake components) and B64C25 (aircraft undercarriages), so it captures the intersection of automotive-derived braking mechanics with aerospace-specific landing gear engineering.
Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in the trend chart understate actual filing activity; treat the recent-year numbers as a floor, not a ceiling.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 288 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and how those records distribute across IPC subclasses.
A flattening filing curve
Filings rose from 6 in 2017 to a peak of 41 in 2021, then eased to 33 by the 2022 midpoint — a pattern consistent with a field that expanded through the late 2010s and has since plateaued rather than continued to accelerate.
Where the claims sit
B60T (vehicle brakes) and B64C (aeroplanes and helicopters) together anchor most records, with F16D (clutches and brakes) close behind. Thinner classes — ceramics processing, digital data processing, and ground installations — mark areas of the field with comparatively less claim density.
Shares are the percentage of the 288 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
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This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about aircraft wheels and carbon brakes and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
US11940027B2 — Aircraft brake temperature control system
An aircraft brake temperature control system controls the temperature of a landing-gear brake by using a controller to drive one or more fluid-moving devices to direct a flow of fluid onto the brake in a selectable mode. The system integrates into a broader aircraft system built around this fluid-driven thermal management approach.Filed by Airbus Operations Limited, published 2024-03-26.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4995483A | Motor position feedback controlled electrically actuated aircraft brake | 158 |
| 2 | US6659233B2 | System and method for aircraft braking system usage monitoring | 156 |
| 3 | US4986610A | Brake system with brake selection means | 81 |
| 4 | US5962135A | Carbon/carbon friction material | 80 |
| 5 | EP0384071A1 | Method and apparatus for increasing the service life of aircraft multiple disc brakes | 80 |
| 6 | US20080258548A1 | Aircraft brake control architecture having improved antiskid redundancy | 74 |
| 7 | US20030025035A1 | Optimal control design for aircraft antiskid brake control systems | 63 |
| 8 | US4822113A | Braking torque control system | 62 |
| 9 | US3956548A | Duo material carbon composite brake disk | 60 |
| 10 | US4474060A | Torque readout sensor | 54 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations within this corpus; read them as a signal of influence on the field, not of current technical importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three findings from the dataset that matter more for strategy than the raw counts alone.
The top of the field is narrow
Five assignees hold 202 of the 288 records in scope, and the top ten hold 267 — 92.7% of the field. A new entrant is not filing into open space at the system level; it is filing around a small number of established portfolios.
Growth has flattened, not accelerated
Filing activity peaked in 2021 and the 2022 midpoint sits below that peak, suggesting the technology space matured rather than continuing to expand. Recent-year counts are additionally understated by publication lag.
Materials and software claims are thin
Ceramics and refractory materials (C04B) appear in only 3.5% of records and digital data processing (G06F) in 2.4%, against 74.7% for core vehicle-braking claims. Friction-material chemistry and software-driven brake control sit well behind the mechanical core.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to aircraft wheels and carbon brakes, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked leaders and the receiving-office spread point to a field concentrated among a handful of aerospace and braking-systems specialists, filed predominantly in the US and European offices.
A single assignee sets the pace
The leading assignee holds 69 of 288 records, well ahead of fifth place at 28 and tenth place at 9 — a steep drop-off that marks this as a leader-and-long-tail structure rather than an even spread.
Filing is US- and Europe-centred
The United States (115) and the European Patent Office (81) account for the bulk of receiving-office activity, with Canada, the UK and China each in the 18-20 range — a filing pattern that tracks the major commercial aircraft manufacturing and certification jurisdictions.
Co-filing is concentrated among affiliates
The nine identified co-assignee pairs are dominated by entities that share a common corporate parent, with the strongest pair co-filing 29 records together — consistent with intra-group filing coordination rather than cross-company joint development.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Airbus Operations Limited | 0 | — |
| Hydro-Aire Inc. | 0 | — |
| Goodrich Corporation | 0 | — |
| Meggitt Aircraft Braking Systems Corporation | 0 | — |
| Airbus Operations SAS | 0 | — |
| Honeywell International Inc. | 0 | — |
| Xi'an Aviation Brake Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| The Boeing Company | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio benchmarking or identifying open claim space.
Map claims against the leading portfolios
With 70.1% of records held by five assignees, a freedom-to-operate review should start by pulling the independent claims from those portfolios rather than surveying the full 288-record field.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTest the under-claimed branches
Ceramics processing and digital brake-control classes show low record shares against the mechanical core, which is a starting point for a novelty search rather than a conclusion — verify with a targeted claim-level search.
Run a white-space search in EurekaCommon questions on aircraft brake and wheel patents
The ranked list of 34 assignees is led by a single company holding 69 of the 288 records in scope, with the field concentrated further among the top five, who together hold 70.1% of all records. The top ten hold 92.7%, leaving a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants below that line. This concentration means portfolio review for freedom-to-operate purposes should prioritise the leading handful of assignees rather than the full ranked list.
Filing activity peaked in 2021 at 41 records and had eased to 33 by the 2022 midpoint, indicating the field has flattened rather than continuing to accelerate. The most recent years in the dataset are understated because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 figures should not be read as a genuine decline. Overall the pattern points to a maturing rather than an expanding filing base.
The dataset spans vehicle braking systems (IPC B60T, 74.7% of records), aircraft and helicopter structures (B64C, 50.7%), and clutch and brake components (F16D, 44.4%), forming the mechanical core of the field. Smaller but present areas include temperature measurement (G01K, 6.3%), aircraft equipment (B64D, 3.8%), ceramics and refractories (C04B, 3.5%), and digital data processing (G06F, 2.4%). Because records can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% of the 288 records.
Based on IPC composition, ceramics and refractory materials claims (3.5% of 288 records) and digital data-processing claims tied to brake control (2.4%) sit well below the 74.7% share held by core vehicle-braking mechanics. This suggests friction-material chemistry and software-driven control logic are comparatively less claim-dense than the mechanical brake system itself, though this observation should be confirmed with a targeted claim-level search rather than treated as a guarantee of open space.
The United States receives the largest share of filings in this dataset at 115 records, followed by the European Patent Office at 81. Canada and the United Kingdom each show 20 records, China 18, and Austria 13. This spread reflects the major jurisdictions for commercial aircraft manufacturing, certification and the associated aftermarket for brake systems and components.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.