Definition
An aircraft braking system that automatically applies wheel brakes after landing (or during a rejected takeoff) at a pilot-selected deceleration setting, without the pilot needing to press the brake pedals. The system is armed before landing, activates when the wheels spin up and the throttles are at idle, and can be overridden at any time by manual brake input.
Plain English
A system that brakes the aircraft for you automatically once you've landed, so the wheels slow the plane down at the rate you selected before touchdown.
Context Anchor
Seen in aircraft setup, landing performance planning, before-landing checks, and Flight Management System pages that support landing or takeoff performance.
Why Pilots Care
Reduces pilot workload during high-task landing phase and delivers consistent deceleration even on contaminated runways.
Intuition Check
Auto-brakes do not mean the airplane is fully stopping itself without pilot responsibility. They only apply a selected amount of wheel braking when the system is set and the proper conditions occur.
Example Sentence 1
Before landing on the wet runway, the captain armed auto-brakes to medium to ensure consistent stopping performance.
Example Sentence 2
After landing, the auto-brakes maintained the selected deceleration until the aircraft slowed to taxi speed.