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Boeing737-ext

Tricycle landing gear is the most common landing gear scheme in the current days, it consists in two sets of big wheels under the wings and a small wheel in the nose, unlike conventional landing gear, the small wheel in tricycle can retract.

Advantages[]

  • The tricycle layout reduces the possibility of a ground loop, because the main gear lies behind the center of mass
  • Tricycle gear aircraft are easier to land because the attitude required to land on the main gear is the same as that required in the flare
  • they are less vulnerable to crosswinds
  • A tricycle gear offers better visibility on the ground.
  • A tricycle gear allows full brake application.
  • A tricycle gear makes loading and unloading easier because the fuselage is horizontal.
  • A tricycle gear has less drag during the initial stage of a take-off run.

Variants[]

  • In some modern commercial aircraft there's a fourth set of wheels in the center between the wing ones.
  • Some other aircraft like Tupolev TU-154 don't retract the rear gear under the fuselage, but in special compartiments in the middle of the wings.
  • Another light aircraft like Cessna or De Havilland Canada don't retract their landing gear.

Aircraft[]

Commercial Airplanes[]

Military aircraft[]

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