Aircraft with unusual landing gear configurations
 

I have an offspring working on his final year aero eng project and need a little help.

I dimly recall there being an aircraft that more-or-less had a wheel at each corner of it's boxy fuselage. Think shopping trolley or, heaven forfend, a helicopter...

I know why it's not a great idea, but I'd like to look at the history of any type that did try it to see what handling problems it had in reality.

Couldn't think of a better place to ask!

Lockspeiser LDA-01? It had a more conventional nosewheel in a later guise...

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....ecd938178a.jpg

Brilliant - it's not the one I'm thinking of but it gives me something to go on. Many thanks.

Hmmm, there was a light aircraft... high wing... tractor engine... (no, I'm not thinking of anything with Wipline floats!)

Various car-planes over the years...

Fairchild XC-120 was another four wheeler...

Sikorsky S-55/H-19
Westland Wasp
Lockheed XFV
Flying Bedstead :O

Not the one you are looking for, but I present the SNECMA Coléoptère.


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....129dca4f02.jpg

Kalinin-7

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....d3806efc2.jpeg

And the M-323

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....69c29c36b.jpeg

And of course the “Roc” Stratolaunch

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....16476444b.jpeg
(The plane on the left of the picture)

I think that's it! That or the 115 Boxcar which your link led me to.

Childhood memory playing tricks and remembering the full hull depth running further back (and so back wheels even further back), and seeing the pod on its wheels whilst ignoring the main gear.

I think my quest is over - nobody made a non-canard with the main gear split substantially fore and aft - except the B-52, which needs the high angle of incidence to get off the ground (and nose-down in flight attitude).

Thanks all.

CH47 is basically a box with wheels at each corner

One of these ?


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....7d15c110e.jpeg

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....fc5cbb7bb6.jpg

https://www.theengineer.co.uk/octobe...ying-bedstead/

O'Neil Model J Magnum.

Magnum Pickup


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....8296595ac7.jpg

I think the Magnum Pickup may be the aircraft I'm thinking of in Post 4 though that's not the pic I recall, the gear config looks right! Probably a photo from Oshkosh in one of the mags.

Of course there was the rather hideous East German airliner, the Baade 152:


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c6c764528d.jpg

Dornier had something special for the Do 27 on mud and soft grounds:
https://images.app.goo.gl/VqzjhtnCTuhnt4v7A

If I have nightmares tonight, you know who I'm going to blame...

And there's me thinking that the Trident (weird but logical) offset nosewheel qualifies -not even close

I'm glad it wasn't only me getting ready to suggest that.

And there was the Vickers Windsor......

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....57c2c9b063.jpg

Enough with the ugly aeroplanes already. My eyes are bleeding.

I always thought the Windsor was a dumb idea but it's only dawned on me, literally in the last few months, that with a geodetic wing it wasn't so dumb after all.

Here is one more:http://www.luftarchiv.de/index.htm?/piloten/ar232.htm

No piccy, but I seem to recall a Percival high wing s/e intended for freight and agricultural work ?

CJ, I think you are referring to the Percival Protector ?

Could be the Edgar Percival (as opposed to just Percival) Ep.9 which was an odd looking thing but with a relatively normal undercarriage, given its design.

Ah yes, the Prospector (remember seeing one at Oshkosh) - which reminds me of the Auster Shopping Trolley - the B.4:

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....00b741b77.jpeg

Possibly off-topic (not really configuration), but I wonder if there were any issues with the Tridents off-centre nose wheel. I've never heard about there being any problems but it sure looked odd.

https://i.stack.imgur.com/XZEYN.jpg

The Il-62 tailwheel. Used on the ground to prevent tipping.

And my all time favorite the Sea Dart:

Yes, the offset weight of the wheels when stowed caused the aircraft to fly right wing low.

That's certainly odd but the picture I found was a bit less odd.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Percival-N747JC.JPG

Ah yes, N747JC was the EP9 I saw at KOSH! I remember another one at Biggin in the late 80s - involved in a nasty fatal crash shortly afterwards at Lydd - parachutists aboard as I recall.

Ah,so that explains why they frequently used to stray from centre line when going up and down UA37 ,and often needed a 'little help'

Is that why CAAC bought them?

Check out the B-36 version of that:

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....0ef66cf52e.jpg

Did they develop that after the Boscombe Down out-landing? :}

:ok:
As far as I know it was tested on the prototype, so the answer is: probably not. It would certainly have been a better option on that particular occasion... :cool: