Folding main landing gear for cargo aircraft
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorJustin Duane Cottet
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods for folding landing gear of a cargo aircraft. One embodiment is a main landing gear of an aircraft that includes a shock strut coupled to a truck with one or more wheels, and a yoke pivotally coupled with the shock strut via a lower trunnion, and pivotally coupled with an aircraft structure via an upper trunnion. The yoke is configured to pivot about the upper trunnion in a direction back toward a tail of the aircraft and up toward a fuselage of the aircraft, and the shock strut is configured to pivot about the lower trunnion in a direction forward toward a nose of the aircraft and up toward the fuselage of the aircraft to retract the one or more wheels.
Claims20
A main landing gear of an aircraft comprising:
- a shock strut coupled to a truck with one or more wheels;
- and
- a yoke pivotally coupled with the shock strut via a lower trunnion, and pivotally coupled with an aircraft structure via an upper trunnion,
- wherein the yoke is configured to pivot about the upper trunnion in a direction back toward a tail of the aircraft and up toward a fuselage of the aircraft, and the shock strut is configured to pivot about the lower trunnion in a direction forward toward a nose of the aircraft and up toward the fuselage of the aircraft to retract the one or more wheels.
A method of retracting a main landing gear of an aircraft, the method comprising:
- initiating retraction of the main landing gear including a truck having one or more wheels, a shock strut attached to the truck, and a yoke pivotably coupled with the shock strut via a lower trunnion and pivotably coupled with a retraction actuator via an upper trunnion;
- pivoting the yoke about the upper trunnion in a direction back toward a tail of the aircraft and up toward a fuselage of the aircraft;
- and
- pivoting the shock strut about the lower trunnion in a direction forward toward a nose of the aircraft and up toward the fuselage of the aircraft to retract the main landing gear.
An aircraft comprising:
- a pair of main landing gears, each main landing gear comprising:
- wheels coupled by a truck and arranged in tandem longitudinally;
- a shock strut including a bottom cylinder attached to the truck, and a top cylinder that is telescopic with the bottom cylinder;
- a yoke including a lower trunnion and an upper trunnion, wherein the lower trunnion pivotally couples a bottom of the yoke with the top cylinder of the shock strut, and the upper trunnion pivotally couples a top of the yoke with an aircraft structure;
- a retraction actuator configured to pivot the top of the yoke about the upper trunnion to rotate the yoke back toward a tail and up toward a fuselage of the aircraft;
- and
- a radius arm to position the shock strut to pivot about the lower trunnion and fold relative to the bottom of the yoke to retract the wheels forward toward a nose of the aircraft and up toward the fuselage of the aircraft.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.