Nose gear failure on USMC F-35B in Japan
 

They were towing it after a emergency/precautionary landing.


https://eurasiantimes.com/down-out-u...its-nose-down/

Oh dear, seems they left the brakes on and that snapped the nosewheel off.

Before someone else says this:
That'll buff out
:)

Awwwwwwww, by the initial lost I had it planned out!

Don’t they have undercarriage locks or shear pins in the towing arm?

I like this bit, taken from the report..

" A recurring occurrence in all three mishaps was that the nose of the F-16s appeared to take the brunt of the damage."

Astute bit of observation and reporting there then....fancy this being the case with the proximity of the nose u/c to, erm, the nose and radome !

Yes it will be on the end connected to the leg, hence the towing eye stayed with the leg. It obviously decided it didn't want to go on, God knows why the driver didn't just stop then and there to find out why.

The video appears to show the aircraft being towed in a series of more ‘jerky’ movements until the nose undercarriage retracts and causes the tow bar shear pin to do its job and break at a pre-determined load. The resultant investigation will determine If the cause was a tug problem or aircraft brake problem (possibly intermittent anti-skid) If serviceable aircraft brakes were ‘on’ I doubt the tug would have been able to move the aircraft.

I understand that a geometric mechanical over-centre mechanism positively locks most undercarriages in the down position and most usually on the ground undercarriage ground lock pins are fitted to prevent the mechanism from having any possibility of unlocking.

If the incident required the aircraft to vacate the runway soonest perhaps the haste omitted safety pin(s) being fitted and for anyone riding the brakes that nasty ‘thud’ would have focused the mind they were sitting on a proficient ejection system.

By the look of the two continuous black lines from the rear tyres in the OP video, it looks like the rears were well and truely locked on for a good while.

Nose gear failure on USMC F-35B in Japan
 

https://quizlet.com/559542040/f-35-t...t-flash-cards/

Extracts

During emergency conditions, what two methods could you apply aircraft brakes

Aircraft tow pedal brake and parking brake switch


Tow mode status indicator cannot show what two colors when performing normal aircraft towing

Yellow or red


Personnel must perform what when aircraft brakes are inoperable

Aircraft towing with disabled tow mode



What two actions should be performed if the brake rider identifies the tow mode status indicator light is yellow during normal operations

Decrease use of brake pedal and parking brake



The Ground Maintenance Motor PumpGMMP

provides hydraulic power on the ground to actuate doors during maintenance mode. It also operates in emergency mode, providing backup hydraulics



[img]blob:https://www.pprune.org/5d0ae706-74fd-4c21-85c4-534f85b3fb9d[/img]

Spaz posted this image awhile back when the RoKAF jet landed gear up. Tow Mode status directly above Parking brake ????

Nose gear failure on USMC F-35B in Japan
 

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....e751507a9e.jpg
glitch posting previously

Thanks 'lefty loose'. A slightly different F-35 Travelling Sim cockpit: 6ca85c2b-d1cf-434d-b87b-d94abdfea96a-CockpitsimulatorshowsoffthepartiallymadeinUtahF35LightningII fighterjetADAMFORGIEKUTV70.JPG (1600×1200) (amazonaws.com)
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....7ae0052a1f.jpg

I expect the tug could haul a loaded C-17 or a C-130 up a slight hill without much trouble. A bit of rubber scraping off an F-35 isn't an impediment.

They should have spent a few extra dollars on tow dollies. Hmm, product improvement proposal idea!

Not as bad as seeing the nose gear (and much more) torn off a C-130 when an airport sort of forgot to tell anyone a 100 foot section of the runway had been excavated in the middle.

<I was one of the engineers for AWADS, CTII, and Tunner cargo transporter. I only did the part users liked, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.>

"Sunday, 2022/12/04: Morning, crane raised F-35 nose. Mechanics lowered front landing gear, and repaired it. While front landing gear off-ground, nose fastened to flat trailer. From 16:00, trailer took over one hour, to slowly tow F-35 to hangar."
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/lnews/okinawa...090021093.html