A method of landing an aircraft having wheels includes causing the aircraft to land in a manner that causes the wheels to have a spin-up phase on contact with the landing surface during landing. A braking force is applied immediately after the wheels touch the runway so as to reduce, or delay the start of, the spin-up of the wheels. The braking force is, for example, applied using the same braking system as used conventionally to decelerate the aeroplane on landing. The peaks, over time, of the vertical wheel to ground loads (LV) and the horizontal drag loads (LH) caused by friction between the tires of the wheels of the aircraft and the ground can be decoupled, or separated, such that the maximum total load,owing to the combination of the vertical loads (LV) and the drag loads (LH), sustained by the aircraft during landing is reduced (compared with peak 8).