Hybrid Wing-Body Aircraft Landing Gear Design

Abstract

This paper details the design considerations for landing gear of hybrid wing-body (HWB) aircraft. This includes landing gear locations, weight distribution, leg and axle dimensions, tire selection, and oleo properties. Traditional landing gear placement, in which the main gears are located very closely to the center of mass, and thus bearing the majority of the load distribution, is oftentimes not feasible in HWB aircraft due to unique geometric constraints. Given these design considerations, SDI Engineering has created detailed landing gear models for multiple HWB aircraft designs within GearSim, a proprietary landing gear and aircraft modeling and analysis software tool. These models provide loading information about the various landing gear components which were then compared to similarly sized traditional aircraft models. Results from these simulations show that for larger HWB aircraft, the landing gear configuration and design can be similar to traditional large aircraft such as the B777 or A380. However, for smaller HWB aircraft, the nose landing gear (NLG) must be designed to carry a larger proportion of the load during regular aircraft operations. This can be overcome by the use of larger tires, or a four-wheel NLG that is discussed in further detail. The methods presented in this paper can be used by future landing gear and subsystem design engineers to better optimize landing gear for more detailed HWB aircraft designs in the future.