For some considerable time, experience has been accumulated on the retardation of military aircraft on landing by means of a brake parachute. A patent for such a device, for example, was granted to Captain, now Colonel, Prospero Freri, in Italy in 1930. The first useful applications were towards the end of the Second World War on gliders and fighter aircraft, but systematic use of this type of decelerator on American aircraft began just before 1950. The first postwar British service aircraft fitted with a brake parachute was the Vulcan, followed closely by the Lightning and the Victor. These three aircraft use brake parachutes to reduce the landing run and also to reduce wear and tear on the aircraft brakes and tyres. The Lightning in particular has been the subject of extensive application of the brake parachute.