Landing Gear Related terms: frames, Flaps, Fuselages, Gears, Drag Coefficient View all Topics > wh, Download as PDF QQ Setalert @ About this page Materials and material requirements for aerospace structures and engines In Introduction to Aerospace Materials, 2012 3.2.4 Landing gear The landing gear, which is also called the undercarriage, is a complex system consisting of structural members, hydraulics, energy absorption components, brakes, wheels and tyres (Fig. 3.9). Additional components attached to and functioning with the landing gear may include steering devices and retracting mechanisms. Of the many components, it is the structural members that support the heavy landing loads and stop the landing gear from collapsing under the aircraft weight. The materials must be strong enough to support heavy take-off weight when an aircraft has a full load of fuel and the high impact loads on landing. Landing gear materials must therefore have high static strength, good fracture toughness and fatigue strength, and the most commonly used materials are high-strength steel and titanium alloy. The Anatomy of the Landing Gear Snorri Gudmundsson BScAE, MScAE, FAA DER(ret,), in General Aviation Aircraft Design, 2014 Landing Impact and Braking The landing gear is required by applicable regulations to react a number of landing scenarios. For GA aircraft, the applicable landing gear loads are stipulated by 14 CFR 23.471 to 23.511. For seaplanes, the hull landing loads are stipulated in 14 CFR 23.521 to 23.562. For land planes, there are individual requirements for landing on the main gear only, three-point landing, and side impact loads. The magnitude of these loads is very high and they are reacted as point loads in the airframe. In addition to the impact forces, the landing gear should provide good damping characteristics and should permit the aircraft to taxi over uneven ground without transmitting excessivesmocks 10 tne ainrame. Ine airprane snourG possess a goo, reliable, ana sare vraning system so tnar can manate all braking conditions. It should offer a parking brake that can hold the airplane at gross weight on a 1:10 gradient slope or on a level runway with maximum T-O power applied on one engine. Anti-skid brakes are recommended, Evolution of material selection in commercial aviation industry—a review Biplab Chatterjee, Sumit Bhowmik, in Sustainable Engineering Products and Manufacturing Technologies, 2019 9.6 Landing gear ‘The main functions of landing gear, undercarriage to the primary structure of the aircraft, are to enable the aircraft fora taxi, safe landing and takeoff, and to support the aircraft in the rest of the ground operation. There are different types of landing gear used for various aircraft as per their requirements such as wheel, skids, skis, and floats or pontoons. Skids type landing gears are used in helicopters, Balloon gondolas, and tail dragger aircraft. Skis type landing gear used where aircraft used to takeoff or and in frozen lakes and snowy areas. Ifthe ‘operational surface of aircraft is water, the pontoon type landing gear is selected for those aircraft. Normally, the weight of the landing gear is about 3%-5% of the aircraft takeoff weight (Mohammad, 2012). Although landing {gear is an essential component for safe landing and ground activities, it is a dead weight while aircraft is in the air ‘Thus, stowing the landing gear inside the aircraft reduces the unwanted aircraft drag, which in turn improves aircraft performance. Again, the landing gear can be classified on the basis of retraction nature mainly as (1) fixed type landing gear, that is, landing gear hangs underneath the aircraft during flight, and (2) retractable type landing gear, that is, landing gear stow inside the aircraft while in flight. All the modern commercial aircraft use wheel type retractable landing gear. In modern aircraft, there used to be two sections of landing gear, (1) main landing gear and (2) secondary landing gear. Main landing gear, positioned nearest to the CG of the aircraft, touches the ground first while landing and leaves the ground last during takeoff. Types of wheel arrangements are also different for various aircraft such as tail wheel type, tandem type, and tricycle type landing gear. Maximum single aisle passenger aircraft such as 8737, A320, and A319, use tricycle type landing gear. In case more than two wheels are attached in one strut of main landing gear, the attachment is known as Bogey. The main landing gears of al large aircraft of modern age such as A380 and B747 are multibogey type landing gear. The weight of the aircraft can be distributed among a large number of wheels and also advantageous from the safety point of view with multibogey landing gear. ‘The major components of landing gear include in modern commercial aircraft are wheel assembly, airfoil shock- transferring components, braking system, extension/retraction and safety devices, gear alignment units, steering control elements, etc. Aircraft wheel assembly needs to support the entire load during taxi, takeoff, and landing. Wheels are made of aluminum alloy. Some magnesium alloy made wheels are also used. Tires are mounted on the wheel. Tires are made stiffer to absorb high impact load while landing and enable the aircraft to operate at high speed during taxing in after landing without blowing out or separating from rim. Aircraft tires are often tubeless or tube type. Aircraft tire tubes are constructed with the natural rubber compound. Nylon reinforcing fabric layered with rubber made heavy-duty tubes in order to impart strength. In most modem aireraft, brake units are provided in main wheels whereas nose wheel or tail wheel without the brake, In early aircraft, brakes are not used instead rely on ground friction, tail skids, etc. Older large aircraft generally equipped with expander tube brakes, now in modern passenger aircraft, the trend is to use carbon disk brakes. For other landing gear components, high strength steel is used for its robustness properties. The constant effort to develop new economic, lightweight, durable, robust materials for landing gear made it possible toreplace some ofits steel components by using titanium alloys, even composite materials also introduced in some landing gear components. Recently, ultra strength corrosion resistance steels have been used in B787 and Airbus 'A400m. The single largest titanium application is found in main landing gear truck beam of Boeing 8777. Applications of high-strength titanium alloys are also observed in titanium sliders of 8787 main landing gear and {gear links of Airbus A340. Aluminum alloys are also used in landing gear construction of modern passenger aircraft. Composite materials are used for the construction of main and nose landing gear door of Airbus: ‘4310-300, A320, A319, A321, A330, and A340. Similarly, the main and nose landing gear door of Boeing 8767 and 8777 are also made from composite materials. Carbon fiber braces are used for the B787 main landing gear. Aircraft Conceptual Layout Snorri Gudmundsson BScAE, MScAE, FAA DER(ret.), in General Aviation Aircraft Design, 2014 4.2.8 Landing Gear Configurations A large number of different landing gear configurations have been developed for use in aircraft. Six examples are shown in Figure 4-17. It should be stressed it does not show all the options, only those that are used on 99.99%, of all GA aircraft. The most widely used configuration is the tricycle, followed by the taildragger. One of the advantages of a taildragger is less drag than the tricycle. An example of improvements attained by a small aircraft is that of the Cessna 150. It is claimed that converting a tricycle version of the aircraft to a taildragger gave it an increased cruising speed of nearly 8 knots. [4]. The benefit is always a function of the airplane and its overall drag, but 2 4-10 knot increase in cruising speed is reasonable. The monowheel with outriggers is a popular design for sailplanes and motor gliders like the British-designed Europa XS and the German Scheibe Tandem-Falke. The monowheel configuration reduces the drag of the landing, ‘gear. The same is true of the tandern wheel configuration, although itis rarely used in GA aircraft. The British Hawker Harrier isthe best-known example of tandem wheel configurations. Tricycle, taildraggers, mono- and tandem wheel configurations may all be retractable. Fixed landing gear will increase the drag of the airplane and, if this is the case, the designer should strongly consider wheel fairings for drag reduction. The floats increase drag substantially, but allow operation on land and water. They are still popular among many pilots who are more interested in access to obscure wilderness retreats than high airspeeds. Floats and amphibious airplanes are dealt with in Appendix C3, Design of seaplanes. The loop. For this reason, itis better for inexperienced pilots and, thus, better suited for trainer aircraft. Similarly, the Je landing gear makes the vehicle dynamically stable on the ground and reduces the risk of a ground taildragger configuration is dynamically unstable and more prone to ground looping. Itis better for operation off unimproved runways. The pros and cons of and the conceptual design of the landing gear are presented in far more detail in Chapter 13, The anatomy of the landing gear. Taildragger aircraft have a number of advantages that make them more attractive for “bush-plane” operations. ‘The primary advantage is the high AOA that can be generated at a low airspeed (in fact at zero airspeed). This way the airplane can be allowed to accelerate and then the pilot can quickly “drop” the tail, allowing the airplane to lift off in ground effect. Such techniques give the configuration markedly shorter runway requirements and, thus, make it better suited as a bush-plane. Interestingly, this is not always reflected in the data. For instance, the Cessna Model 180 (taildragger) and 182 (tricycle) are effectively identical excluding the landing gear. Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1970-71 [5] reports each having identical T-O and landing distances at the same weight, but the imperative. The configuration 180 is favored as the bush-plane option, providing evidence that pilot technique ivy vewer suneu 1UF ops possibility of the landing gear hitting ground obstructions (large rocks or other obstructions) during the T-O run (two wheels versus three). (or on uninproveu ranuinig stnps Because Uwe wrigers On une grour The taildragger configuration is generally thought to be harder to land and maneuver on the ground than a tricycle gear due to a high deck angle, which makes it harder to see over the nose of the airplane. This. configuration is usually used on small aireraft, although it has been featured on large aircraft. The largest taildragger ever built is the eight-engine Soviet Tupolev ANT-20 Maxim Gorky, with a gross weight of 116,600 Ibi. ‘The Curtiss C-46 Commando is another large taildragger, although its gross weight of 48,000 Iby is dwarfed by the ANT-20. The total structural weight of the float is the highest, but least for the monowheel. The structure required to react, the main landing gear impact load will weigh less than the structure required to react the impact loads of both tricycle and taildragger. The configuration is also the least expensive to manufacture. It is a drawback that itis vulnerable to crosswinds and too much taxiing on the ground. The same holds for the tandem wheel. Suspension and landing gear failures Edgar A. Ossa, Marco Paniagua, in Handbook of Materials Failure Analysis with Case Studies from the Aerospace and Automotive Industries, 2016 1 Introduction Landing gears in aircrafts and suspension systems in vehicles play an important role in both kinds of transportation vehicles. Landing gears are designed to support the aircraft while grounded and to withstand high loads during landing without any damage to its structure while providing comfort to the passengers. Despite the rigorous maintenance and part replacements imposed by the different Aviation Administrations, failures in aircraft systems are common. According to Wang and Long [1], who studied causes of failures on Boeing 737-300 aircrafts failures of landing gear systems account for approximately 996 of the failures suffered on this kind of aircraft (see Figure 8.1). Considering the importance of this system during landing of aircrafts, itis necessary to understand the main causes of failures of these systems in order to avoid any catastrophic incidents involving injures to passengers, or in the worst scenario, loss of lives. On the other hand, the automotive industry suffers even more failures than the aviation industry, in part because a maintenance program is not usually followed as well as the aviation industry. It is even common that ifa vehicle part fails, itis just replaced and the root cause of failure is not investigated in order to prevent future failures, According to Heyes [2], who studied causes of failures of 70 vehicle components, failures of suspension systems account for approximately 13% of the failures of the automotive industry (see Figure 8.2). Failures of suspension systems are very sensitive as they can cause the loss of control of the vehicle, which can lead to serious accidents and loss of lives. This chapter will be concentrated with a brief description of common reported cases of failures of landing gears and suspension systems in order to provide ideas for the improvernent. of maintenance procedures and production standards for these components looking onward toward a reduction on recurrence of failures. MYDTIC AT CARDACTANLIPS UP CURRUDLUIN Zaki Ahmad, in Principles of Corrosion Engineering and Corrosion Control, 2006 D Case 4 Failure of landing gears. (Courtesy: S.J. Keecham, Naval Development Center, Westminister, PA, USA.) ‘A main landing gear shock strut piston assembly failed catastrophically while on the ground, separating both axle stubs and lower portion of the shock strut piston from the gear. The aircraft had 559 flight hours and no records of overweight. Material ‘The steel used was air-melt 4340 and not vacuum melt. Observations The cracks near the origin indicated the failure to be caused by intergranular cracking or hydrogen embrittlement followed by fracture. The axle bore showed active pitting. The failure occurred by intergranular stress corrosion cracking. Recommendations It was recommended to use vacuum melt steel. Air-melt steel is more susceptible to stress corrosion cracking than vacuum melt steel. To avoid hydrogen embrittlement, cadmium plating in vacuum ("ion plating" vacuurn equipment) was also recommended. Aircraft Drag Analysis Snorti Gudmundsson BScAE, MScAE, FAA DER{ret.), in General Aviation Aircraft Design, 2014 Drag of Nose Landing Gear Drag of nose landing gear is presented in the graph in Figure 15-52. The method requires the distance of the gear from the nose, o, total length of the extended landing gear, ¢, and tire diameter, d to be known. The ratio afd is. first determined and used to select the appropriate curve. Then the wheel height ratio, e/, is calculated and used with the selected curve to read the drag coefficient on the vertical axis. Then, this can be converted into the additive drag coefficient, which is based on the reference wing area as follows: (15-98) Disposal and recycling of aerospace materials In Introduction to Aerospace Materials, 2012 24.2.4 Steel recycling Steel used in landing gear and other highly-loaded structures can be recycled. Steel is the most recycled of ll the metals, with about 60% of steel products being recycled. The most common products for scrap steel areautomobiles, food cans and appliances; scrap from aircraft represents a tiny fraction of the total amount of recycled steel. The recycling of steel involves melting the scrap metal at high temperature (1600-1700 °C) inside a furnace. Chemicals are added to the molten steel to remove carbon and other alloying elements as dross. The purified iron is then cast into ingots, billets or some other product for reuse. There are strong environmental reasons for recycling the steel in aircraft. Every tonne of steel that is recycled makes the following environmental savings: 1.5 tonne of iron ore; 0.5 tonne of coal; about 250% energy saving, compared with making new steel from iron ore; reduction of carbon dioxide and other gas emissions into the atmosphere by over 80%; reduction of slag and other solid waste products of 1.28 tonne. The only major problem with steel recycling for the aerospace industry is itis not profitable. The cost of removing steel components, cutting them into small pieces, transporting them to the recycling plant, and then recycling and casting the metal is greater than the sale value of the recycled steel. Table 24.3 gives the relative prices of scrap metals from aircraft, and steel is much less valuable than the other materials. The main incentive for the aerospace industry to recycle steel is environmental rather than economic. Table 24,3. Relative prices (proximate) of reeled metals compared wih steel Metal Price relative to steel Steel 1