School of Engineering and Mathematical Science

Conceptual Design: Landing Gear

In the aircraft the landing gear is one of the fundamental component
of the aircraft structures where the primary function of the landing gear is to facilitate the
ground, take-off and landing operations which has major influences on the aircraft
performance, stealth and cost. The appropriate design of the landing gear is necessary as
it can be the essential link between the aircraft and catastrophic failure as the entire
weight of the aircraft is supported by the undercarriage. The aim of the project is to
design a civil passenger aircraft for 110 passenger, with the main objectives to achieve
low weight and cost, minimum maintenance requirement, higher performances and
reliability. The landing gear can be retractable of fixed, although a retractable landing
gear contains more component and mechanism than a fixed landing gear due to its
maximum safety and performance quality a retractable landing gear is chosen for the
design. There are main 10 types of the landing gear: single, bicycle, tricycle, tail dragger
(conventional), quadricycle, multi-bogey, releasable rail, skid, seaplane and human leg.
In which bicycle, tricycle and tail dragger are considered for the design configuration due
to its use, safety and performance characteristics. Now the next task is to choose the best
configuration depending on design objectives and intended use.
Types of Landing Gear
Bicycle
This type of landing gear has two main gears, one at the aft and another at forward of the
CG position with small outrigger wheel required on the wings to prevent from tipping
sideways. The main advantages of this type of landing gear is low weight, easy to design
and manufacture and cheaper than most of the other configurations. However it is very
unstable at ground operation and at the rotation on the ground, compromising the safety
and performance of the aircraft limiting the use of this type of the landing gears by the
aircraft manufacturers.
Tricycle
This type of landing gear has two main gear at the same distance from CG in X and Y
direction and one forward nose gear far from CG position. This is one of the widely used
configuration with the following advantages such as better providence of visibility from

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the flight deck, better stability during ground handling, low drag during initial take off
condition and it also prevents ground looping of the aircraft as the cg of the main gear
keeps moving rather than looping due to the force acting on the cg of the aircraft.
However it has drawbacks such as heavy in weight, difficult to find nose gear storage and
add drag to the system.
Tail Dragger (Conventional)
The main undercarriage is located slightly forward from the cg and have small wheel
under the tail. In the first 5 decades of the aviation industry the conventional
configuration was widely used however in current aviation industry only about 10% of
aircraft are employed by tail dragger configuration. The main advantages of this type of
the aircraft are light in weight and provide greater ground clearance for large propeller.
The limitation of this type of the aircraft are inherent instability at ground operation,
limited pilot visibility, difficulties in taxi during high wind condition and ground lopping
as a result of too much braking.
Decision Matrix
Configuration

Scoring

FOM

Weighting

Tricycle

Tail dragger

Bicycle

Weight

40

0.5

Cost

25

0.5

0.5

Reliability &
Performance
Manufacturing

25

-1

-1

10

100

45
1st

37.5
2nd

37.5
2nd

Total

From the decision matrix tricycle is chosen as a best option for the design as it has
superior ground handling, safety and the extra weight compared to tail dragger and
bicycle can be lowered by the use of the composite materials and by the provision of the
new material productions technology to reduce the cost.
Further consideration now can be made on the two basic type of the landing gear which
are cantilever landing gear and articulated landing gear. Where the cantilever is widely
used configuration due to its cost and weight efficiencies, it is consist of a shock strut

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built in to the main supporting arm with the wheel directly below. However for dual
wheel the cost manufacturing and maintenance benefits are compromised due to its
complexity. On the other hand in the articulated landing gear the wheels are off axis with
shock strut running from the main supporting arm to the wheels. It is mostly used when
the ground clearance and storage space is limited while, the European companies mostly
prefer this type of landing gear as it can easily taxi smoothly on uneven runways.
Decision Matrix
Nose Landing Gear
Configuration

Scoring
(Tricycle)
Cantilever

Articulated

FOM

Weighting

Single

Dual

Single

Dual

Weight

30

0.5

0.5

0.25

Safety

20

-1

0.5

Cost

15

0.5

0.25

0.25

0.25

Operation

15

0.5

0.5

0.5

Ease of
maintenance

10

0.5

-1

0.25

Ease of
manufacturing

10

0.5

0.5

100

40
2nd

31.25
4th

33.75
3rd

46.25
1st

Total

For the nose gear dual articulated is selected for the design for its superior safety and
operation quality over the weight which can be decreased by the use of appropriate
material and its production technology.

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Main Landing Gear

Configuration

Scoring
(Tricycle)
Cantilever

Articulated

FOM

Weighting

Single

Dual

Single

Dual

Weight

30

0.5

0.5

0.5

0.25

Safety

20

0.5

Cost

15

0.75

0.5

0.75

0.5

Operation

15

0.25

0.75

0.25

Ease of
maintenance

10

0.5

0.5

Ease of
manufacturing

10

0.5

0.25

0.25

100

40
4th

46.25
2nd

45
3rd

47.5
1st

Total

For the main landing gear dual articulated landing gear is chosen as a best option
according to the aims of the design. Although dual wheel configuration of articulated
landing gear is complex to design and require maintenance more frequently than a single
wheel configuration, it has been chosen because of its safety and performance capability.
As one of the main objective is to reduce weight of the landing gear
without compromising its functional, operational, performance, safety and maintenance
requirement which can be achieved by the use of composite material providing ultra-high
strength, low weight and higher fatigue life. In addition the cost is another objective to be
achieved which can be made possible by minimum maintenance requirement strategies
such as providence of long term technology transition, efficient manufacturing which
will lead to reduced inspection steps and thus reduced maintenance actions to be carried
out and also by use of cost reducing metal (material) manufacturing methods. Moreover
to attain higher performance use of orifice damping with proper metering pin or valve
system can be made, increasing the efficiency to around 80-90%. Also instead of using
mechanical or hydraulic system an electrical system can be used to improve performance

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and to reduce fuel burn. Furthermore, the technology which can help us to meet the
challenges can be seen in table 1, from which the design objective can be achieved.

Articulated Landing Gear design (Source: www. code7000.com, G450 system)

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Table A: How technology will help to meet the challenges (Source:Info sys ,white
paper)3

References
1. Concept Design of Aircraft Landing Gear by S Fraser, S Goodchild, J Langer, J
Anderson, M Soul, R Swallow, Section 5.2 and 5.3.
2. Landing Gear Design Chapter 9, by Mohammad Sadraey, Daniel Webster College,
Section 9.3.
3. http://www.infosys.com/engineering-services/white-papers/Documents/landing-geardesign-and-development.pdf

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