Undercarriage arrangements

Below are featured the wheeled undercarriage (also called landing gear) arrangements of some modern commercial jet airliners and large military aircraft.

Types of wheeled units

This table shows the main types of individual, basic wheeled units (single-wheel unit or bogies composed of multiple wheels) used on most aircraft undercarriages.

Symbol Wheeled unit Example
2 wheels, 1 axle
Airbus A380 nose landing gear (consisting of a single 2-wheel bogie)
4 wheels, 2 axles
An Airbus A330's central landing gear (consisting of two 4-wheel bogies)
6 wheels, 3 axles
A Boeing 777's central landing gear (consisting of two 6-wheel bogies)
14 wheels, 7 axles
An impressive, and unique of its kind, Antonov An-225's 14-wheel bogie from the plane's central landing gear (consisting of two 14-wheel bogies)

The tables below show how various types of wheeled units are arranged to form the undercarriages of some popular aircraft from manufacturers Antonov, Airbus, and Boeing.

Antonov

Aircraft Wheels and
Configuration
Nose section Center section Example
An-225 32 wheels
[2x2]+[2x14]
The Antonov An-225 with its impressive 32-wheel landing gear. Note the front gear made of two independent, parallel 2-wheel bogies

Airbus

Aircraft Wheels and
Configuration
Nose section Center section Example
A318, A319, A320, A321 (standard)6 wheels
[1x2]+[2x2]
An Airbus A319 from bmi
A300, A310, A320 family (optional), A33010 wheels
[1x2]+[2x4]
A340-200/30012 wheels
[1x2]+[2x4+1x2]
An Airbus A340-300 from Kuwait Airways. The usage of an isolated 2-wheel unit in the central landing gear is unique to this aircraft
A340-500/60014 wheels
[1x2]+[3x4]
A35010 wheels
[1x2]+[2x4]
A38022 wheels
[1x2]+[2x4+2x6]
Airbus A380 in Airbus markings

Boeing

Aircraft Wheels and
Configuration
Nose section Center section Example
717, 727, 7376 wheels
[1x2]+[2x2]
747 Jumbo Jet18 wheels
[1x2]+[4x4]
A Boeing 747-400's central landing gear. Note the strong backward tilt of the bogies, typical of 4- and 6-wheel bogies, to ensure efficient touch down with the ground when landing
757, 76710 wheels
[1x2]+[2x4]
77714 wheels
[1x2]+[2x6]
A Boeing 777-200 from United Airlines. Using 6-wheel bogies, instead of the common 4-wheel bogies, was visionary at the time of the design of the 777
787 Dreamliner10 wheels
[1x2]+[2x4]
A factory Boeing 787 Dreamliner
B-52 Stratofortress8 wheels
[2x2]+[2x2]
A Boeing B-52 Stratofortress featuring its characteristic landing gear
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, December 11, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.