DEVELOPMENT OF LANDING GEAR

Similar to the designing of the aircraft itself, before the establishment of

a formal contract, the concepts of the landing gear had to be first
prepared. A need for a new or modified aircraft will be determined by
the marketing organizations. The results are gathering through market
surveys, discussions with potential customers, or close attention to
deliberations being made by various airlines or military organisations.
The basic requirement will then be established after discussion between
the marketing and preliminary design department. This is follow by
preparations for basic concepts.
Maintenance of the complete documentation is extremely important
throughout the whole designing process. The very minimum of each
aircraft configuration should at least consist of a listing of its assumed
weights and geometric data in the landing gear files and attached to it is
the summary of the basic essentials of the gear by the designers. The
configuration and/or the complexity or distinctiveness of the landing
gear involved will affect the depth of the summary.
In the concept formulation phase, the main focus is to determine the
location of the landing gear on the airframe, the number and the size of
the wheels. The former is, at this time, a function of center-of-gravity
location and general structural arrangement. The weight of the aircraft,
braking requirement and flotation requirement (if specified) will
determine the number and the size of the wheels.
In the project definition phase, the preliminary design activity begins to
focus on the detail as well as analysis of the design as the general
configuration has been decided. At the end of this phase, proposal
preparation usually takes place and as much detail and credibility must
be provided. Able to sell the product is the main objective of the
proposal so it should convince the customer that proposed aircraft design
is able to meet his requirement and overcome all other competitors
product. This explain the need for detail and analysis as it is able prevent
argument regarding its capability.
Certain design changes may be requested by the customer at this point
which may be due to influence of a competitors proposal and this will

directly affect the cost, weight and performance of the landing gear if it
were being implemented.
Illustrated below is a picture of the summary of the preliminary design
activity. The second picture shows the post contractual design activity
through Critical Design Review.

The following tasks are to be performed before the Critical Design

Review (CDR):
Tire and wheel selection or design is concluded, load/speed/time data
revised, and vendors established.
Brake energy requirements are updated, vendors selected, and the
design finalized.
Shock absorber details and support structure are sized to be
compatible with the revised loads.
Electrical and hydraulic power requirements are defined for
retraction, extension, and steering.
Flotation analyses are updated again to reflect changes in loading on
the landing gear.
Installation and space envelope drawings are prepared to facilitate
determination of stowed landing gear clearances and to provide
appropriate information to the airframe designers.
Tests and models may be used in this phase to acquire confidence in
the proposed design, to gain a better understanding of problem areas, to
display complex kinematics, and to evaluate the locking mechanisms.
The entire design is then documented for presentation at the CDR.

Before the first flight, various tests are being carried out. Failure Modes
and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is one of the many conducted. This
analysis is essential as it could assess if any failure would occur in any
parts in the overall landing gear system and what effects it had on the
aircraft. The timings for this analysis are usually made such that any
changes in the design would not affect the schedule of the first flight as
some deficiencies may be uncover by the analysis.
In the last 2 decades, in acknowledgement for the growing demand for
increased readiness of mission as well as improved economics, it
became a must for reliability and maintainability analysis to be carried
out. Therefore, emphasis on life cycle costs and durability had been
increased. Methods and measures had also been improved to minimize
maintenance man-hours required per flight hour.