System for indicating an airplane hard landing

A device mounted to a portion of an aircraft landing gear for indicating occurrence of a hard landing for an aircraft, comprising:

• a housing member mounted to a portion of an aircraft landing gear strut assembly, the housing member including:
• an indicator member movable from a first position to a second position such that when moved to the second position the indicator member is configured to indicate occurrence of a hard landing for the aircraft and at least a portion of the indicator member extends outwardly from the housing member when in the second position;
• an elongated actuator member movable from a first position to a second position configured and operative such that when the elongated member moves to the second position it causes the indicator member to move to the second position and when positioned in the first position at least a portion of the elongated actuator member extends outwardly from the housing member;
• a releasing member operatively coupled to the elongated actuator member configured to be in a first state when the elongated actuator member is in the first position and a second state permitting said elongated member to move to the second position upon the occurrence of a hard landing for the aircraft;
• and
• a biasing mechanism for causing the indicator member to be maintained in the second position after the elongated actuator member is moved to the second position.

A device mounted to a portion of an aircraft landing gear for indicating occurrence of a hard landing for an aircraft, comprising:

• an indicator member movable from a first position to a second position such that when moved to the second position the indicator member is configured to indicate occurrence of a hard landing for the aircraft;
• an elongated actuator member movable from a first position to a second position configured and operative such that when the elongated member moves to the second position it causes the indicator member to move to the second position, the elongated actuator member having an intermediate portion and first and second end regions wherein an intermediate portion of the elongated actuator member is pivotally coupled to a portion of the aircraft landing gear such that the first end region of the elongated actuator member is caused to pivot outwardly relative to a portion of the aircraft landing gear when the elongated actuator member is caused to move to the second position;
• and
• a releasing member operatively coupled to the first end region of the elongated actuator member configured to be in a first state when the elongated actuator member is in the first position and a second state permitting said elongated member to move to the second position upon the occurrence of a hard landing for the aircraft.

An aircraft landing gear system comprising:

• a mounting system for coupling an indicator to an outer cylinder of the landing gear system;
• a sensor to detect a pressure in a shock strut of the landing gear system;
• the indicator comprising:
• an actuator movable when the pressure on the shock strut exceeds a desired load and stroke threshold indicative of an event;
• a shear pin coupled to the actuator and designed to shear when a desired level of force is applied to at least a portion of the shear pin;
• and
• a visibly recognizable device biasly movable from a non-indicating position to an indicating position upon shearing of the shear pin.