Aircraft System - Week 7 Summary

Lecture 7a :Undercarriage System

TYRES
- Tyres: Old tyres use utilised tubes , Newer tyres are tubeless
Mastrand: reduce nose wheel shimmy due to the "H" shape cross section
Chined: tyres has Rubbed Ridge on should of tyre, an "i" shape which reduce water spray, good
for rear mounted engines
Tundra: Tyres are the aircraft equivalent of off-road tyres
- Tyres are exposed to a harsh environment:
Mechanical Loading
Heat
FOD
- Thermal fuse plug is used to determine if a tyre has over heated
- Blown fuse deflates tyre to prevent blow out
- Major damage which requried replacement of tyre are:
Tread depth
Sidewall cuts
Chunks of tread missing
Exposed inner fabric
Significant cracking
etc.
LANDING GEAR
- Two primary wheel configuration : Tail Dragger and Tricyle
- Nose wheel: commonly to have dual nose wheel where the second one is for backup in case of blow
out, also gives better pressure distribution ( referred to PATCH area)

- Main gear : single wheel configuration is not recommended due to smaller patch area, higher
slamdown risk, increase in losing control ability. Therefore, dual wheel configuration is more commonly
used due to its advantage over single wheel configuration.
- Bogies : the wheel in bogies are both inline and tandem. The advantages of using a bogie unit is :
Larger patch area -->increase the ability to land on different runways,
The unit tilts at an angle similar to the flare angle --> reduces slamdown risk
The disadvantage of using bogies unit are :
Increase weight due to more wheel and hydraulic system to control
More expensive
Brake is over heating
SHOCK STRUT - OLEO
- A shock strut or oleo strut is a self contained hydraulic unit in which the hydraulic oil is used to
compress air or nitrogen gas
Other Undercarriage Components
- Trunnion and Bracket: the trunnion is pivoted to enable the gear to rotate when being retracted
- Torque link joins the shock strut and piston together, which maintain the gear direction, preventing the
inner cylinder from rotating relative to the outter cylinder
- Landing Gear Safety Switch is electrically operated
LANDING GEAR CONTROL
- Alternate Gear Extension: If the hydraulic system fails, electrical activation will release the locks and
the doors and gear will free fall into a down and locked position
- Gear position indicators:
3 Green lights will be on if the gears are down and locked
Amber light will appear if the gear or the gear door is not in the position commaned by gear
selector
- Hydraulic Retraction System


STEERING:
- Can be controlled by either rudder pedals or tiller
BRAKES:
- Anti -skid system system allows a skidding wheel to continue turning by automatically releasing and
re-applying brake. An anti-skid braking system pumps the brakes to control the skid. This system will not
operate at speed below 15-20 knots. If the system fails, full control will be returned to pilot
- Auto-brake: This is an automatic braking system and can be selected prior to landing. 3 different levels
are heavy, medium, light. The automatic brake will disengage if mannual braking is applied during
landing
- Park brake: this system will locks fluid pressure in the hydraulic braking system to prevent aircraft from
moving when stationary
- Fusion plugs: A fusion plug will melt if the wheel overheats and cause the tyre to deflate in a controlled
manner. This is done to avoid explosive blown-out. Those plugs are located in the wheel
- Emergency braking: this sytem cane be hydraulic or pneumatic based. Anti skid system will be
deavtivate if the emergency braking system is activated.
HYDROPLANNING:
- Hydroplanning is when a layer of water prevents direct contact between the tyre and the ground
- The spped at which hydroplanning will be experienced depends on whether the wheel is rotating or
not:
Rotating Wheel : v = 9 *sqrt (Pressure)
Non-rotating wheel: v = 7 *sqrt (Pressure)
v : aircraft speed in knots - Pressure in PSI
IF THE LAYER OF WATER IS DEEPER THAN 0.1 INCH ( i.e. 2.54 mm) , HYDROPLANNING WILL OCCUR
ABOVE THE SPEED PREDICTED
- Viscous Hydroplanning:
Viscous hydroplanning is hydroplanning on a dry surface ( only a thin layer of water). This can
occur at much lower speeds than normal dynamic hydroplanning
It was caused by the contact with reverted rubber from tyre or rubber which has been deposited
on runway