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US 12,454,348 B2Granted
Aircraft landing gear
AssigneeAirbus Operations GmbH
InventorNicholas Hancock
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An aircraft landing gear has a suspension mechanism which has a four-bar linkage that comprises four links rigidly extending between a corresponding four pivots. A lower link of the four-bar linkage supports front and rear wheels, and is movable relative to an upper link between lengthened and shortened positions. A shock absorber urges the four-bar linkage towards the lengthened position. A length of the upper link of the four-bar linkage is adjustable.
Claims20
An aircraft landing gear comprising:
- a suspension mechanism which has a four-bar linkage and a shock absorber, wherein with the aircraft landing gear in a deployed configuration:
- the four-bar linkage comprises an upper link rigidly extending from an upper front pivot to an upper rear pivot, a lower link rigidly extending from a lower front pivot to a lower rear pivot, a front link rigidly extending from the upper front pivot to the lower front pivot, and a rear link rigidly extending from the upper rear pivot to the lower rear pivot;
- the lower link has a front wheel support and a rear wheel support, each wheel support being arranged to support one or more wheels;
- the four-bar linkage is configured to move between a lengthened position and a shortened position, the upper link and the lower link being closer together when the four-bar linkage is in the shortened position than when the four-bar linkage is in the lengthened position;
- the shock absorber is arranged to urge the four-bar linkage away from the shortened position and towards the lengthened position;
- and
- a length of the upper link is configured to be adjusted so as to change a distance between the upper front pivot and the upper rear pivot.
4 more elements
An aircraft landing gear comprising:
- a suspension mechanism which comprises a biasing member and a linkage, the linkage comprising four rigid, elongate members connected to one another by pivots to form a quadrilateral with one of said pivots in each corner,
- wherein one of said rigid, elongate members forms a bottom of the quadrilateral and has a forward wheel mounting point and a rearward wheel mounting point,
- wherein one of said rigid, elongate members forms a top of the quadrilateral,
- wherein the suspension mechanism has a tall configuration and a short configuration, the rigid, elongate members forming the top and bottom of the quadrilateral being closer together when the suspension mechanism is in the short configuration than when the suspension mechanism is in the tall configuration,
- wherein the biasing member biases the suspension mechanism towards the tall configuration, and
- wherein the rigid elongate member forming the top of the quadrilateral is configured to be adjusted in length so as to change a distance between two of said pivots.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.