I just thought I should share this, I was looking something up in a very old (1939) textbook on aeroplane design, and came across the following...
The present interest is in the so-called "tri-cycle" landing gear. This reverses the location of the single wheel which in the conventional landing gear is the tail wheel, and now becomes the nose wheel for the new type.
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Various tests have been made by the Army, by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, and by a few commercial companies.
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There should be greater passenger comfort since the passengers are sitting in a cabin which is level not only when flying but also on the take-off, and in landing. With conventional gear of today, the three-point attitude of the airplane on landing and at the start of the take-off may be decidedly uncomfortable.
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Since the airplane cannot nose over, there si the possibility of landing at almost any angle of attack. For the private flyer who may be a "dub" pilot, this is a very good feature since the landing technique need not be well-nigh letter perfect. For transport airplanes, the possibility of landing at almost any angle is advantageous in blind flying when the ground is not visible.
However it also says...
The front or nose wheel may "shimmy" unless there is friction damping.
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Difficulty may be encountered with the nose wheel in riding over obstacles. The tail wheel seem to behave better under such circumstances.
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The tail wheel has the advantage of protecting the tail surfaces. Unless a skid or special "crash pad" is provided for the rear portion of the fuselage when the nose wheel type of landing gear is used, the rear portion of the fuselage may be damaged in case of an unusual "tail low" landing.
(Airplane Design Manual, Frederick K Teichmann, Pitman, 1939)
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