Originally Posted by
tartare
A further technical question for you all if I may.
Do heavy aircraft such as airliners or the C-17 use the weight on wheels sensors to measure the actual all up weight of the aircraft in real time, and then display that figure on the flight computer, EFIS thingey?
Not on any aircraft that I ever worked on, which includes 737,747, 767 A320, A330, and A340.
All Weight on Wheels systems I've encountered have utilized simple proximity sensors, normally a couple of reed switches, on each leg which are actuated by targets mounted on the torque link. When the oleo is compressed the targets are brought close enough to the switches to actuate them. This places the aircraft into ground mode allowing various functions which are not possible in air mode, thrust reverser actuation as an example.