Having stretched the grey matter I have found the text of the article on my PC and it clearly says the main gear is steerable.
Sorry about the duff gen in my previous post. The article is below in full:
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Air Transport
Airbus A380 Gear Put Through Drills
Aviation Week & Space Technology
07/25/2005, page 42
Michael A. Dornheim
Los Angeles
Robert Wall
Paris
A380 tires damage airport surface during 'abusive' turn test
Gear Concerns
Airbus is being forced to respond to Internet-circulated pictures of A380 tow tests, which show the landing gear carving grooves in the asphalt during turns sharper than normal limits. Reaction pushed the company to issue a letter to "airline focal points" on July 19.
Officials at Airbus and Goodrich, which engineered and builds the main landing gear, insist the results validate their design and they do not plan any changes. "Although spectacular for the non-specialist, actual deformations are not as high as on some other aircraft," Airbus wrote to the airlines. "Preliminary results confirm the design values of loads and deformations."
But while they are happy with the gear, others--such as airport operators--see the torn tarmac and wonder what will happen to their property. Some want more information, such as how strong the damaged asphalt was.
The June 25 tow tests at Toulouse were intended to stress the landing gear during "abusive cases" outside normal operation, Airbus says. During the trials, the gross weight was 546 metric tons (1,204,000 lb.); maximum takeoff weight for the aircraft is 560 tons. The tests consisted of "towing and pushback maneuvers at high weight, with various nose-landing-gear steering angles ranging from typical operational values up to extreme cases, close to bottoming of steering actuators, beyond the allowed towing/pushback limits," Airbus says.
Maximum steering angle for the A380 during towing will be restricted to a standard 60 deg., Airbus says. The tests were performed at 60 deg. and higher, reaching a maximum of 72 deg.
"Given the gear deformation buildup, no truck driver would ever bring the aircraft to the extreme steering angles achieved during this particular loads testing," Airbus says.
The A380 has four main landing gear, two on the body with six-wheel trucks and two on the wing with four-wheel trucks. The wing gear are forward of the body gear. On an aircraft with a simpler single-axle main landing gear, the axes of the nosewheel and the main wheels intersect at the center of the turning radius. But multiple main gear axles form parallel lines that can't intersect at the turning center, and some of the tires have to scrub laterally in a turn. The sharper the turn, the more they scrub. The Boeing 747 alleviates this problem by steering the body gear at low speeds so the axes point toward a common turning center, which reduces scrubbing.
THE ENTIRE A380 body gear doesn't steer, but the aft axle does steer on the six-wheel trucks. If the body steering mechanism is inoperative, the A380 can be dispatched with the wheels aligned and locked. The wing gear do not steer at all. In these photos, it is the wing gear that are scrubbing. The tests were the first in a series to check A380 ground handling. In August-September, Airbus plans to assess minimum turn radius at heavy weight and taxiing the aircraft with engines running. U-turns are also on the to-do list.
Airbus officials have begun trying to explain the situation, saying the tests marked a positive step in verifying that the A380 can taxi using FAA Design Group V or ICAO Code E runway/taxiway systems--a standard measure for those surfaces.
FOR THE JUNE 25 TEST, body wheel steering was deactivated. The aircraft was near its maximum weight, with an aft center of gravity, to represent a worst-case condition. The test procedure consisted in towing/pushing the aircraft out and into a turn. When the turn radius was stabilized, the aircraft was stopped, and pictures of the landing gear were taken.
Airbus officials note that given the roughly 90F temperature on the day of the test, and the fact that the aircraft was turned beyond set limits, "it is not abnormal to have some local deterioration of the asphalt." But one airport official quipped: "Ninety degrees? Is that all?"
Three tires were replaced after the test. This wasn't mandatory, Airbus says, but helped with the flight test schedule.
Airbus expects the A380 to be able to perform U-turns in a similar or smaller space than the A340-600 due to its shorter wheelbase. Moreover, the company points out that with 20 main landing gear wheels, the per-wheel weight on the A380 is lower than Boeing's 777-300ER.