Anti-lock braking systems were first developed for aircraft in 1929 by the French automobile and aircraft pioneer Gabriel Voisin[citation needed]. An early system was Dunlop's Maxaret system, introduced in the 1950s and still in use on some aircraft models, in 1936 the German Company Bosch also developed a first electronic version[citation needed] which was made of more than 1000 analogue electronic parts and was still fairly slow. This was a fully mechanical system. It 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, in automobile use, somewhat unreliable. However, a limited form of anti-lock braking, utilizing a valve which could adjust front to rear brake force distribution when a wheel locked, was fitted to the 1964 Austin 1800. The first car (worldwide) to have ABS fitted as standard (across the entire range) was the Ford Granada Mk 3 (of 1985).
The American firm Kelsey Hayes (now part of TRW Automotive), developed the first electronic ABS system in the late sixties and introduced on the 1970 Lincoln Town Car. It was a rear wheel system, as was General Motors' Cadillac version of anti-lock brakes called Track Master, which was introduced in 1970 on the Eldorado coupe and made an option for the entire line in the following year.
The first true electronic 4-wheel multi-channel ABS was co-developed by Chrysler and Bendix for the 1971 Imperial. Called "Sure Brake", it was available for several years and had a satisfactory performance and reliability record. The German firm Bosch had been developing anti-lock braking technology since the 1930s, but the first production cars using Bosch's electronic system became available in 1978. They first appeared in trucks and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. Interestingly, Mercedes-Benz has recently advertised that it had 4-wheel ABS first, when, in reality, they were beaten by seven years - by a company they now own: Chrysler[citation needed]. BMW started using ABS at the time, making the technology standard on all vehicles in 1986. ABS Systems were later introduced on motorcycles.
