Design and Folding/Unfolding Dynamics of an Over-Constrained Airplane's Landing Gear With Four Side Stays

Abstract

This paper introduces the design of a specific landing gear retraction system presenting a mechanism with four redundant side stays and examines its dynamic behavior during the folding and unfolding processes. First, a concept design of a four-side-stay landing gear retraction system is presented. To get the particular motion during folding and unfolding, the main kinematics parameters are given. Then, the influence of the side stay's kinematic redundancy on the mechanism parameters is examined. Because the mechanism is overconstrained, the allowable parameters belong to a specific region of the space called feasible region. Finally, a dynamic analysis of the over-constrained system is executed by using the Newton–Euler approach and compliant equations. Numerical simulations indicate that this kind of landing gear retraction system equitably share the loads between different side stays, and therefore, the total load at one side stay is greatly reduced.