In view of the contradiction between the bearing capacity,stiffness and pneumatic hammer in the design of conventional aerostatic bearings,a design method based on virtual recess and passive damping was proposed.A novel rectangular aerostatic thrust bearing with recess and damping holes was designed by using this method,and the static characteristics were studied.The results show that compared the conventional aerostatic bearings,the maximum bearing capacity of the designed aerostatic thrust bearing is increased by 43.4% and the maximum stiffness is increased by 51.3% under the air supply of 0.5 MPa.The optimum stiffness can be obtained by reducing the number of damping holes,reducing the orifice diameter,increasing the air supply pressure and adding recess.The best comprehensive performance of static and dynamic stability characteristics can be obtained by increasing the number of damping holes,reducing the orifice diameter,increasing the air supply pressure and adding recess.