Landing gear Exercise 12

Landing gear usually includes wheels equipped with shock absorbers for water or snow, but some aircraft are equipped with skis for snow or floats for water, and/or skids or pontoons.

Most modern aircraft don’t have tricycle undercarriages.

The Boeing 727 had a retractable tail bumper.

To decrease drag in flight some undercarriages retract into the wings and/or fuselage with wheels flush against the surface or concealed behind doors; this is called semi-retractable gear.

Most retraction systems are electrically-operated or even manually-operated, though some are hydraulically-operated.

Aircraft with at least partially retractable landing gear did not appear until 1917, and it was not until the late 1920s and early 1930s that such aircraft became common.

An alternate method of reducing the aerodynamic penalty imposed by fixed undercarriage is to attach aerodynamic fairings on the undercarriage.

Amber lights indicate the gears are in transit; red lights indicates that the landing gear is in the up-locked position.