Landing Gears and Brakes

Conventional Gear

Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail. The term taildragger is also used.

The tailwheel configuration offers several advantages over the tricycle landing gear arrangement, which makes tailwheel aircraft less expensive to manufacture and maintain:

  • A tailwheel is smaller and lighter than a nosewheel. As a result, the smaller wheel weighs less and causes less parasitic drag.
  • Due to the increased propeller clearance on tailwheel aircraft less stone chip damage will result from operating on rough or gravel airstrips.

The conventional landing gear also has its fair share of disadvantages:

  • Tailwheel aircraft are more suceptible to “nose-over” accidents due to injudicious application of brakes by the pilot.
  • Conventional geared aircraft are much more susceptible to ground looping.
  • Tailwheel aircraft generally suffer from poorer forward visibility on the ground
  • Tailwheel aircraft are more difficult to taxi during high wind conditions

Tricycle Gear

Tricycle gear is a type of landing gear in which a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels are placed slightly aft of the centre of gravity. Tricycle gear aircraft are the easiest for takeoff, landing and taxiing, and consequently, the configuration is the most widely used on aircraft.

Disc Brakes

A disc brake is a type of brake that uses the callipers to squeeze pairs of pads against a disc to create friction. This action slows the rotation of a shaft, such as a vehicle axle, either to reduce its rotational speed or to hold it stationary. The energy of motion is converted into heat. Many general aviation aircraft use differential single disk brakes installed on the main wheels.

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