主起落架舱门专为所有突发事件而设计

对于空中客车 XWB 客机，它们必须满足严格的结构，空气动力学，紧急情况和美学要

求。
设计结果：

 门设计有意翘曲，可对闩锁施加压力，以防止发出嘎嘎声。
 门可以限制起落架，该起落架在无意中展开，但如果门液压系统故障 ，则可以将其打
开。
 六个纵梁中的五个与门皮粘合在一起，从而最大程度地减轻了重量。

在商用飞机上的数百个结构零件和数百个运动零件中 ，很少有结构和运动的零件
同时面临着起落架舱门对空气动力学和机械性能的要求。在飞机上最大的移动
结构中，它们必须在所有飞行条件下都表现出色 ，并且在飞机断电或起落架故障
时必须满足许多应急要求。最近负责为空中客车公司 （法国图卢兹 ）A350 XWB
设计和制造主起落架舱门（MLGD）的工作，Daher-Socata（法国巴黎）向 HPC 敞
开了大门，并揭示了其背后的许多工程知识复杂的复合结构 ，在其起落架门生产
的悠久历史中获得。

Daher-Socata 是较大的 Daher 集团的航空航天和国防部门，包括几个制造工厂 ，

其中大部分位于欧洲（其余分布在美国，墨西哥，非洲和亚洲 ）。负责制造 A350
XWB MLGD 的工厂位于法国塔布，在法国比利牛斯山脉附近图卢兹西南约 150
公里/ 93 英里处。
Tarbes 工厂的前身是飞机制造商 Morane Saulnier 于 1911 年成立，该公司于
1954 年设计和制造了世界上第一架商务飞机 MS 760 Paris。该公司继续建造
了 MS 880 Rallye 通用航空飞机，然后建造了仍受欢迎的 TBM 公务机。1966 年，
法国国有企业南德航空（Toulouse）收购了 Morane Saulnier，并改名为
Socata（Societe de Construction d'Avions de Tourisme et d'Affaires）。2000
年，Socata 成为 EADS 的全资子公司（荷兰莱顿）。2009 年，Socata 被卖给了
Daher。

Tarbes 工厂经过多年的扩展，现在主要用于飞机的热固性复合材料航空结构制
造业务，范围从 A380（前起落架）到 A330（肚罩）到 A350 XWB。Daher-Socata
还制造一些金属结构，并为空中客车公司和欧洲直升机公司 （法国马里尼亚讷 ）提
供制造前，物流和支持服务。（事实上，Daher-Socata 是欧洲直升机公司最大的飞
机结构供应商。）

在这种相对罕见的服务关系下，Daher-Socata 不仅制造零件，而且还为在空中客
车总装线工作的人员提供将整流罩安装在飞机上的服务。因此，空中客车公司减
少了部分组装风险，并为 Daher-Socata 提供了更多的飞机财富。Tarbes 的项目
经理 Frank Tonon 说：“它对我们在欧洲的客户非常有效……。我们与空客和
Eurocopter 的工人一起在总装线上进行工作，这是该计划的重要组成部分。”

翘曲的门才是好门

因此，毫无疑问的是，Daher-Socata 赢得了在机身下方和机翼之间制造两架
A350 MLGD 的合同，每架 A4 MLGD 为 4m x 2.2m（13.1 英尺 x 7.2 英尺）碳纤维
复合结构。门在机身中央背靠背铰接，仅在起落架缩回或展开时才打开。每个起
落架操纵杆位于机身附近的每个机翼下方，用于存放在机身下方。MLGD 是扁
平的和矩形的，除了 0.9m / 3 英尺宽的弯曲舌片，该舌片从与铰链相对的一端开
始延伸，以符合机身曲率（请参见左上图）。

Daher-Socata 的压力负责人 Philippe Vallee 列举了四种操作上的意外事件，这

些事件在门的开发过程中给设计和工程团队带来了额外的压力：

1. 正常运行：通过液压作用打开和关闭门，然后展开或缩回起落架。
2. 起落架故障，已关闭：如果意外起落架展开，则门保持关闭状态并锁定。
3. 液压动力故障，第 1 部分：万一失去液压动力，则门将通过起落架展开被推开。
4. 液压动力故障，第 2 部分：如果起落架将门推开，并且在飞行中保持打开状态，则门承
受飞行动力的压力。

最后，有一个设计考虑因素要压倒一切，这涉及到 MLGD 与锁定其关闭的闩锁的

配合。称之为“听觉因素”。Vallee 说，无论是房屋，办公室还是飞机中的任何一扇
门，都可以完美地悬挂并对齐，很容易但通常是松散地靠在门闩上。他解释说，在
飞机上，完美的门“将在飞行过程中振动并发出嘎嘎声。对于乘客来说，这是一件
非常令人痛苦的事情。” 另一方面，翘曲的门可能更难关闭和闩锁，但翘曲会产生
内在的应力，使它无法振动。

因此，正是 Daher-Socata 决定设计 A350 XWB 的 MLGD，并内置了经线，以保持

门的舒适和无嘎嘎声。问题是，需要多少翘曲才能适当地给门施加压力并满足空
气动力学要求？Daher-Socata 的设计人员使用 DassaultSystèmes（法国 Vélizy-
Villacoublay）的 CATIA 软件评估门在各种条件下的形状和性能，包括初始关闭
和闩锁以及正常的巡航速度。

工程师发现，随着飞行器改变高度和空速而不断变化的气压会导致 MLGD 变形。

设计人员确定了这些更改的发生位置和方式，然后使用该数据来优化设计。
Tonon 说，最终目标是开发出一种模压成型的形状，该形状将以巡航速度展平，以
创建一个不会在闩锁上振动的空气动力学上不可见的门。“我们有 22 个人从事
这一部分的应力计算，” Tonon 说。“这并不容易，但这很有趣。”

经过几次迭代，Daher-Socata 的设计师决定采用最终的“翘曲”设计，该设计包括
MLGD 边缘和飞机底侧起落架开口之间的门关闭处明显的未指定尺寸的间隙。
这种模制的翘曲反映在生产工具中。Vallee 说：“一旦定义了模具形状，设计就会
冻结。”

全部放在一起

基本门包括一个碳纤维蒙皮和六个碳纤维欧米茄纵梁，其中五根是共粘的。它还
具有 170 个金属零件-一些用于结构支撑和一些固定装置。在门的内部中央，垂
直于桁条，弯曲的金属缓冲器为存放的起落架提供了主要的接触点，以防在关闭
门时意外展开。成品门的复合材料重量为 52％，其余部分由钛，铝和钢制成。

皮肤是通过自动纤维铺放（AFP）在塔布生产的，该纤维使用位于 KAKA
Robotics（德国奥格斯堡）铰接 6 轴机器人末端的 Coriolis Composites（法国奎
文）纤维铺放头（参见照片，左上方） 。蒙皮模具垂直固定，而 16 拖 AFP 头采用
Hexcel（康涅狄格州，斯坦福德）的 M21E 碳纤维/环氧预浸料丝束，宽度为 6.35 毫
米/0.25 英寸，厚度为 7 毫米/0.28 英寸。Tonon 说，皮肤敷设大约需要 12 个小时。

纵梁也是用 Hexcel 的碳纤维预浸料制成的，现在可以手工铺设，但 Tonon 表示，

铺设将很快实现自动化。同时，桁条在 Pinette Emidecau（法国沙隆索恩省，法
国）热成型压力机上成型，最终尺寸为 105 毫米/4.1 英寸高和 140 毫米/5.5 英寸
宽。通过在 Maschinenbau Scholz GmbH＆Co. KG（德国科斯费尔德）高压釜中
共固化，将其中的五根桁条粘合到皮肤上。将两扇门（一架飞机）同时装袋并固化。
Vallee 说，由于该位置较高的机械负载，后来将第六根纵梁用螺栓固定在每个门
的蒙皮上。
每个 MLGD 在离开 Tarbes 工厂之前，都必须进行检查，以验证内置的经纱尺寸。
这是在 Daher-Socata 称为“预粉碎/预变形”的过程中完成的。门被放置在一个
大的蓝色液压致动装置中，该装置在激活时会模拟全速飞行中闩锁的 MLGD 的
压力和应力。在这种压力下，通过 FARO（佛罗里达州玛丽湖）激光测量系统对门
进行了两个小时的尺寸评估。此过程验证门的形状是否随设计而改变，并为
Daher-Socata 提供一个数据集，该数据集充当每个 MLGD 的“指纹”。在将门交
付到空中客车总装线之前，必须满足一定的尺寸公差。Tonon 说，Daher-Socata
尚未建造出不符合尺寸规格的门。

Daher-Socata 将设计和制造知识与经验相结合，可确保公司在未来几年内参与
多个商用飞机项目。目前，这家法国公司很高兴指出 A350 XWB 首次飞行的视
频-在此期间 MLGD 一直处于打开状态-作为该公司能做什么的证明。“那首飞
是我们的验证，”托农说。“那些门按照设计的目的工作。”

Main landing gear doors designed

for all contingencies
For the Airbus XWB airliner, they must meet strict structural, aerodynamic,
emergency and aesthetic requirements.
#a350 #a380 #airbus

Design Results:

 Door designed with intentional warp to provide stress against latches, to

prevent rattling.
 Door can restrain landing gear that is inadvertently deployed yet can be opened
if door hydraulics fail.
 Five of six stringers cobonded with door skin for maximum weight savings.

Of the hundreds of structural parts and hundreds of moving parts on a

commercial airplane, there are very few that are both structural and moving
that also face the aerodynamic and mechanical-performance demands placed
on landing gear doors. Among the largest moving structures on an aircraft,
they must perform flawlessly under all flight conditions and meet a host of
contingency requirements in the event of aircraft power loss or landing-gear
failure. Recently tasked with the job of designing and fabricating the main
landing gear door (MLGD) for the Airbus (Toulouse, France) A350 XWB,
Daher-Socata (Paris, France) opened its doors to HPC and revealed much of
the engineering knowledge behind these complex composite structures,
acquired during its long history in landing gear door production.

Daher-Socata is the aerospace and defense arm of the larger Daher Group
and comprises several manufacturing facilities, most of which are in Europe
(the balance is spread throughout the U.S., Mexico, Africa and Asia). The
facility tasked with manufacturing the A350 XWB MLGDs is in Tarbes,
France, about 150 km/93 miles southwest of Toulouse near the French
Pyrénées.

The Tarbes facility was established in 1911 as Morane Saulnier, an aircraft

manufacturer that, in 1954, designed and built the MS 760 Paris, the world’s
first business aircraft. The company went on to build the MS 880 Rallye
general aviation craft, followed by the still-popular TBM business planes. In
1966, the French state-owned Sud Aviation (Toulouse) bought Morane
Saulnier, and the name was dropped in favor of Socata (Societe de
Construction d’Avions de Tourisme et d’Affaires). In 2000, Socata became a
wholly owned subsidiary of EADS (Leiden, The Netherlands). In 2009,
Socata was sold to Daher.

The Tarbes plant expanded over the years and now houses, primarily, the
thermoset composites aerostructures manufacturing operations for aircraft
ranging from the A380 (front landing gear) to the A330 (belly fairing) to the
A350 XWB. Daher-Socata also makes some metal structures and offers
premanufacturing, logistics and support services to both Airbus and
Eurocopter (Marignane, France). (Daher-Socata, in fact, is the largest
aerostructures supplier to Eurocopter.)

Under this relatively rare type of service relationship, Daher-Socata not only
fabricates parts but also provides personnel who work on the Airbus final
assembly line to install the fairing on aircraft. Thus, Airbus dilutes some of
its assembly risk and gives Daher-Socata a greater stake in the aircraft’s
fortunes. Frank Tonon, program manager at Tarbes, says, “It works very well
for our customers here in Europe .... We work on the final assembly line with
Airbus and Eurocopter workers and are very much a part of the program.”

A warped door is a good door

It was no surprise, then, that Daher-Socata won the contract to manufacture

the two A350 MLGDs, each a 4m by 2.2m (13.1-ft by 7.2-ft) carbon fiber
composite structure, under the fuselage and between the wings. The doors
are hinged back-to-back in the center of the fuselage and open only when the
landing gear are retracted or deployed. Located under each wing, adjacent to
the fuselage, each landing gear levers inward for storage under the fuselage.
The MLGDs are flat and rectangular except for a 0.9m/3-ft wide curved tab
that extends from the end opposite the hinges to conform with the fuselage
curvature (see drawing, top left).

Philippe Vallee, stress leader for Daher-Socata, lists four operational

contingencies that put extra pressure on the design and engineering team
during the door’s development:

1. Normal operation: Doors open and close via hydraulic action, followed by

deployment or retraction of the landing gear.
2. Landing gear malfunction, closed: Doors remain closed and locked in the event
of inadvertent landing gear deployment.
3. Hydraulic power malfunction, part 1: Doors are pushed open by landing gear
deployment in the event of loss of hydraulic power to the doors.
4. Hydraulic power malfunction, part 2: Doors withstand pressure of flight
dynamics in the event that landing gear push the doors open and they remain
open while in flight.

Finally, there is one design consideration that trumps them all, and it
involves the fit of the MLGD against the latches that lock it closed. Call it the
“auditory factor.” Any door — in a house, office or airplane — that is perfectly
hung and aligned closes easily, but often loosely, against the latch, says
Vallee. On a plane, he explains, that perfect door “will vibrate and rattle
during flight. This is a very distressing thing for passengers to hear.” A
warped door, on the other hand, might be more difficult to close and latch,
but the warp provides a built-in stress that keeps it from vibrating.

So it was that Daher-Socata made the decision to design the A350 XWB’s
MLGD with warp built in to keep the door snug and rattle-free. The question
was, How much warp is required to properly stress the door and meet
aerodynamic requirements? Designers at Daher-Socata employed Dassault
Systèmes’ (Vélizy-Villacoublay, France) CATIA software to evaluate the door
shape and behavior in a variety of conditions, including at initial closure and
latching, and at normal cruising speeds.

Engineers discovered that constantly changing air pressures as the craft

changes altitude and airspeed cause the MLGD to change shape. Designers
determined where and how these changes occurred and then used that data
to optimize the design. The ultimate goal, says Tonon, was to develop an as-
molded shape that would flatten at cruising speed to create an
aerodynamically invisible door that did not vibrate against the latch. “We
had 22 people working on stress calculations for this part,” says Tonon. “It
was not easy, but it was very interesting.”

After several iterations, Daher-Socata designers settled on a final “warped”

design that included an apparent gap of  unspecified dimension at the door
closure between the MLGD edge and the landing gear opening in the plane’s
underside. This molded-in warpage was mirrored in the production tooling.
“Once we had the mold shape defined,” says Vallee, “the design was frozen.”

Putting it all together

The basic door comprises a carbon fiber skin with six carbon fiber omega
stringers, five of which are cobonded. It also features 170 metallic parts —
some for structural support and some fixtures. At the center of the door’s
inside, perpendicular to the stringers, a curved metallic buffer provides the
primary contact point for stored landing gear in case of accidental
deployment when the doors are closed. A finished door is 52 percent
composite by weight, with the balance made of titanium, aluminum and
steel.

The skin is manufactured in Tarbes via automated fiber placement (AFP)

using a Coriolis Composites (Queven, France) fiber placement head located
at the end of a KUKA Robotics (Augsburg, Germany) articulating 6-axis
robot (see photo, top left). The skin mold is fixtured vertically, while the 16-
tow AFP head applies Hexcel (Stamford, Conn.) M21E carbon fiber/epoxy
prepreg tows 6.35 mm/0.25 inch wide to a thickness of 7 mm/0.28 inch. The
skin layup takes about 12 hours, Tonon says.

The stringers, also made with Hexcel’s carbon fiber prepreg, are hand layed
right now, but Tonon says layup will be automated soon. In the meantime,
the stringers are formed on a Pinette Emidecau (Chalon sur Saône, France)
hot-forming press and have a finished dimension of 105 mm/4.1 inches high
and 140 mm/5.5 inches wide at the base. Five of the stringers are bonded to
the skin via cocuring in a Maschinenbau Scholz GmbH & Co. KG (Coesfeld,
Germany) autoclave. Two doors — one plane set — are bagged and cured
simultaneously. A sixth stringer, says Vallee, is bolted to each door skin
afterward, due to higher mechanical loads at that location.

Every MLGD, before it leaves the Tarbes plant, must be checked to verify the
built-in warp dimensions. This is done in a process Daher-Socata calls “pre-
crush/pre-warp.” The door is placed in a large blue hydraulically actuated
fixture that, when activated, simulates the pressure and stress of a latched
MLGD in flight at full speed. While under this stress, the door is subjected to
two hours of dimensional assessment via a FARO (Lake Mary, Fla.) laser
measurement system. This process verifies that the door shape changes per
design, and it provides Daher-Socata with a data set that acts as a
“fingerprint” for each MLGD. There are certain dimensional tolerances that a
door must meet before it is delivered to the Airbus final assembly line.
Tonon says Daher-Socata has yet to build a door that does not meet
dimensional specifications.

Daher-Socata’s combination of design and manufacturing knowledge and

experience ensures the company will have a hand in more than a few
commercial aircraft programs in the years to come. For now, this French
firm is glad to point to a video of the A350 XWB’s first flight — during which
the MLGDs were open the entire time — as proof of what the company can
do. “That first flight was our validation,” Tonon says. “Those doors worked
just as they were designed to.”