Some background on this subject, as applied to one user community, arising from the US Army UTTAS design requirements ( short version ):
In 1969, the Army initiated studies aimed at a UH-1 replacement. It should be remembered that the UH-1 started out as a med-evac machine, but which morphed into a combat assault vehicle due to Vietnam requirements. The Army used UH-1 accident and combat data to form the new requirements. For the landing gear, the crashworthy requirements arising from the accident/combat data decided the issue in favor of wheeled gear. A secondary operational issue in favor of the wheeled gear was that wheels alleviated the need to always hover a fairly heavy machine into its parking position, etc..
As I said, this is one segment of the user community who must address a demanding operational environment.
Last edited by JohnDixson; 5th Dec 2017 at 15:44.
Reason: punctuation, year error