Question about landing gear on commercial flights
Posted by FriendlyKibblez@reddit | aviation | View on Reddit | 5 comments
Please forgive my ignorance, but when planes at commuter airports touch down, I always see a huge plume of tire smoke when they land. I get why it happens, but is there a reason why the wheels don't spin up at all to try and negate that?
TheAntiRAFO@reddit
Asked and answered. Both here, and on YouTube.
The answer is the answer to most thing in aviation, weight, complexity, true benefit (not much for a spinning mechanism), cost, certification, failure modes, and likelihood of causing an accident at some point in millions of uses.
FriendlyKibblez@reddit (OP)
More things that can go wrong, without a good benefit to offset it. Got it. Thanks!
TheAntiRAFO@reddit
Bingo. Hence why aviation uses the most efficient and least complex systems as much as possible.
thecuzzin@reddit
tldr: It helps to slow down the aircraft on landing.
BrtFrkwr@reddit
I read something years ago that the Air Force tried some things to spin up the wheels before landing but discovered that the tires blew on touchdown. I don't know why but there was supposed to be an explanation having to do with physics. Haven't seen anything about it since. But replacing tires and removing rubber from runways is an expensive proposition.