Early 747 Wing Gear
O.K., just having a discussion about various speed brake systems and someone mentioned that they thought early 747's had the ability to extend the wing gear only, possibly as a speed brake. That immediately reminded me of something I had forgotten. Growing up not far from ORD in Chicago, in the early 70's, we lived under what was a fairly commonly used traffic pattern for certain runway configurations, so on some days, we would have lots of traffic passing over the house, including a pretty good amount of 747's. I remembered that is was fairly common to see them flying with the wing gear only extended. I have also seen photos of the gear handle on early 74's with a wing gear only postion. So my question is, does anyone know what the purpose was of operation with the wing gear only extended? Was it actually some type of speed brake device? As I said, I just remebered this and know I'm very curious.