automobile safety ABS History

Early systems[edit]

ABS was first developed for aircraft use in 1929 by the French automobile and aircraft pioneer Gabriel Voisin,^{[citation needed]} as threshold braking on airplanes is nearly impossible. These systems use a flywheel and valve attached to a hydraulic line that feeds the brake cylinders. The flywheel is attached to a drum that runs at the same speed as the wheel. In normal braking, the drum and flywheel should spin at the same speed. However, if a wheel were to slow down, then the drum would do the same, leaving the flywheel spinning at a faster rate. This causes the valve to open, allowing a small amount of brake fluid to bypass the master cylinder into a local reservoir, lowering the pressure on the cylinder and releasing the brakes. The use of the drum and flywheel meant the valve only opened when the wheel was turning. In testing, a 30% improvement in braking performance was noted, because the pilots immediately applied full brakes instead of slowly increasing pressure in order to find the skid point. An additional benefit was the elimination of burned or burst tires.^[4]

By the early 1950s, the Dunlop Maxaret anti-skid system was in widespread aviation use in the UK, with aircraft such as the Avro Vulcan and Handley Page Victor, Vickers Viscount, Vickers Valiant, English Electric Lightning, de Havilland Comet 2c, de Havilland Sea Vixen, and later aircraft, such as the Vickers VC10, Hawker Siddeley Trident, Hawker Siddeley 125, Hawker Siddeley HS 748 and derived British Aerospace ATP, and BAC One-Eleven being fitted with Maxaret as standard.^[5] Maxaret, while reducing braking distances by up to 30% in icy or wet conditions, also increased tyre life, and had the additional advantage of allowing take-offs and landings in conditions that would preclude flying at all in non-Maxaret equipped aircraft.

In 1958, a Royal Enfield Super Meteor motorcycle was used by the Road Research Laboratory to test the Maxaret anti-lock brake.^[6] The experiments demonstrated that anti-lock brakes can be of great value to motorcycles, for which skidding is involved in a high proportion of accidents. Stopping distances were reduced in most of the tests compared with locked wheel braking, particularly on slippery surfaces, in which the improvement could be as much as 30 percent. Enfield's technical director at the time, Tony Wilson-Jones, saw little future in the system, however, and it was not put into production by the company.^[6]

A fully mechanical system saw limited automobile use in the 1960s in the Ferguson P99 racing car, the Jensen FF, and the experimental all wheel drive Ford Zodiac, but saw no further use; the system proved expensive and unreliable.

The first fully electronic anti lock system was developed in the late 60s for the Concorde aircraft.

Modern systems[edit]

Chrysler, together with the Bendix Corporation, introduced a computerized, three-channel, four-sensor all-wheel^[7] ABS called "Sure Brake" for its 1971 Imperial.^[8] It was available for several years thereafter, functioned as intended, and proved reliable. In 1970, Ford added an antilock braking system called "Sure-track" to the rear wheels of Lincoln Continentals as an option;^[9] it became standard in 1971.^[10] In 1971, General Motors introduced the "Trackmaster" rear-wheel only^[11] ABS as an option on their rear-wheel driveCadillac models^[12][13] and the Oldsmobile Toronado.^[14] In the same year, Nissan offered an EAL (Electro Anti-lock System) as an option on the Nissan President, which becameJapan's first electronic ABS.^[15]

In 1972, four wheel drive Triumph 2500 Estates were fitted with Mullard electronic systems as standard. Such cars were very rare however and very few survive today.

In 1985 the Ford Scorpio was introduced to European market with a Teves electronic system throughout the range as standard. For this the model was awarded the covetedEuropean Car of the Year Award in 1986, with very favourable praise from motoring journalists. After this success Ford began research into Anti-Lock systems for the rest of their range, which encouraged other manufacturers to follow suit.

In 1988, BMW introduced the first motorcycle with an electronic-hydraulic ABS: the BMW K100. Honda followed suit in 1992 with the launch of its first motorcycle ABS on theST1100 Pan European. In 2007, Suzuki launched its GSF1200SA (Bandit) with an ABS. In 2005, Harley-Davidson began offering ABS as an option for police bikes.