Abstract: Enhanced directional stability in an aircraft anti-skid braking system is achieved by using one common deceleration command (16) which is a selected one of left and right brake pedal deceleration commands (19, 119). The individual brake pedal deceleration commands (19, 119) are used to modify (34, 134) the common or selected deceleration command (16) and provide respective side wheel velocity commands to retain a differential braking capability (36, 136), and thereby avoid the potential for instability inherent when utilizing individual deceleration commands for the left and right wheel brakes of an aircraft.

Abstract: An apparatus for energizing the coil of, and detecting the resultant armature actuation in, a solenoid of the type having a movable armature reciprocable along an axis between first and second positions, a spring bias normally biasing the armature toward the first position, and an actuating coil for inducing a force on the armature tending to move the armature from the first position toward the second position in response to current flow in the actuating coil. A voltage is first provided to the solenoid coil and thereafter, a resulting current flow is differentiated and a zero crossing comparator is utilized to determine when the differentiated current is zero and, therefor, the time at which the sensed current flow reaches a maximum (dv/dt=0). The time at which the armature began to move in response to the resulting coil current may be inferred and the voltage to the solenoid coil interrupted a Predetermined time after the time at which the armature began to move.