While brake systems in a lot of transportation vehicles have evolved since their first designs, one aspect of the brake systems hasn't changed much - the ability to adjust the shape of the body of the vehicle to create more drag / friction upon engaging the brake.
Such ability would be beneficial especially in emergency brake systems, where the "cost" for engaging the brake could be higher, as it is rarely used.
Example with trains - when an emergency break system is triggered, the only reaction is for the wheels to lock down.A design improvement would be to also change the shape of the body of the train, so it is more resistant to air.Such ability would be beneficial especially in emergency brake systems, where the "cost" for engaging the brake could be higher, as it is rarely used.
Other similar examples in such re-design would be:
Ships - deploy a steel plate or similar in front of the ship, so the shape of the whole object has more drag in the water, when trying to stop the ship (in an emergency or other). Such plate can be rotated if the ship needs to turn, instead of just stop.
Cars - change the shape of the car (on demand) just enough, so it is not so aerodynamic and stops faster.
Airplanes - deploying parachutes during the landing phase (during emergencies especially) would limit the need for longer runways for the heavier airplanes. This re-design has actually already been implemented with high-end equipment (like military aircraft, the space shuttle and similar, but there is no reason why it couldn't be adopted with commercial aircraft as well.
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