TABLE OF CONTENTS This book is part of the AIAA Education Series of textbooks and monographs, the intent of which is to meet the growing need for guidance in the highly specialized disciplines of aeronautics and astronautics. Some of today's landing gear designers started their careers when nearly all aircraft had tail wheels or skids and when the shock absorber was, at best, an ultrasimple oleo-pneumatic strut. Since that time, not only has much been learned about all aspects of landing gear design, but new materials have become available to help the designer provide the most efficient shock absorption, in the smallest space, with the lowest weight and cost. Over the past 20 years, another factor has increased in importance flotation; thus, the landing gear designer must now become familiar with the characteristics of the surface upon which the aircraft is operating.
The purpose of this book is to help those engineers who must design tomorrow's landing gears. It describes the step-by-step design process and some of the lessons learned. Section 1.4 provides information about the many sources from which more detailed data may be obtained.
The first wheeled landing gears appeared shortly after the Wright Brothers' maiden flight in December 1903. Santos-Dumont's "No. 14 bis" had a wheeled landing gear; this airplane made the first flight in Europe in October 1906. This was followed quickly by wheeled aircraft designed or flown by Voisin (1907), Delagrange (1907), Farman (1908), Bleriot (1908), Curtiss (1908), Cody (1908),...
