Tag: landing gear

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Video answers: Why the 737 doesn’t have landing-gear doors

Here are the answers to last Friday’s video, enjoy!

Suggested ICAO level for video: 5+

  1. Boeing wanted the 737 to be low to the ground, as a result they realized that they didn’t have enough space for landing-gear doors.
  2. They’re heavy and complex, making the plane heavier and more likely to have a problem and cause delays.
  3. No, the landing-gear doors cover the wings and landing gear struts, but not the wheels.
  4. Boeing engineers decided to place hubcaps on the wheels to reduce the drag.
  5. If the hubcaps are lost there is a significant fuel penalty that the pilots have to apply to the flight plan.
  6. Boeing uses rubber blade seals to remove the gap between the wheel and the wheel-well bay.
  7. As the main landing gear is retracted, the brakes are applied to stop the wheels spinning.
  8. Icing doesn’t affect the wheels as the aircraft flies because that’s not an area of the plane that typically suffers from icing. Icing usually forms on wing leading edges, horizontal stabilizers, tail fin and the nose.

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Video: Why the 737 doesn’t have landing-gear doors

This week’s video describes why the 737 doesn’t have landing-gear doors and why that works.

Try to answer the following questions about the video and come back on Monday for the answers.

Suggested ICAO level for video: 5+

  1. What made Boeing decide not to use landing-gear doors?
  2. What are some of disadvantages of landing-gear doors?
  3. Is the 737 landing gear completely uncovered?
  4. What did Boeing do to reduce the drag created by the exposed tyres.
  5. What happens if this solution is lost?
  6. What solution did Boeing create to prevent objects being thrown into the wheel-well bay?
  7. What happens to the main landing gear wheels as they’re retracted?
  8. Why doesn’t icing affect the tyres as the aircraft is in flight?

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Have a great weekend!

Why does the Boeing 737 not have any landing-gear doors?

Paid promotion: https://brilliant.org/mentourpilot/ Have you ever seen a Boeing 737 take off and noticed that the wheels are still visible after the gear has been retracted? In this video I will tell you all about the reason for this, the aerodynamic impact and some protection systems that you might not know about.

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Undercarriage fire

Here’s the text to the listening from yesterday.

Enjoy!!

The left main gear of a commercial aircraft caught fire after landing on runway 06 at Schipol International Airport, Netherlands. The fire was extinguished and there were no injuries, but the runway was closed for 45 minutes.

An investigation revealed that the automatic anti-skid system was disabled on the left main gear the day before the accident.

The ground staff forgot to put a warning sticker in the flight deck about the problem with the anti-skid system.

After landing the crew applied brakes, which was in violation of the prescribed procedures when landing with a disabled anti-skid system. The tires burst and a fire started.

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Landing gear smoke

Here’s the text to the listening from yesterday.

Enjoy!!

A Boeing 777 approached its destination and landed safely on runway 21. As the plane taxied to the apron the tower advised the pilots that they could see smoke coming from the right main gear. The plane stopped on a taxiway and the fire services sprayed the right main gear with foam. After checking the plane they discovered a hydraulic leak which was dripping onto the right main gear and causing the smoke. The plane continued to taxi to the apron and the passengers disembarked without a delay.

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Landing gear smoke

Listen to this recording and try to write what your understand. You don’t need to understand every word, just the most important ideas. Use your own words to write what happened.

You can listen as many times as you want.

Check below the recording for some of the difficult words and come back and check the full text from this recording tomorrow.

Suggested ICAO level: 3+

Have a great day!

Difficult words: foam (n.), hydraulic leak (n.), drip (v.)

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Landing gear problems

Here’s the text to the listening from yesterday.

Enjoy!!

An Embraer ERJ-145 was scheduled to depart from a small regional airport in the north-east of USA. Everything seemed fine as it took off with 45 passengers on board. 25 minutes after departure, the crew was informed that there was tyre debris on the runway. The crew didn’t know if this debris was from their landing gear or not. They continued the flight as normal and when they arrived at their destination, they performed a low pass over the runway and asked for controllers and others on the ground to perform a visual inspection of the landing gear. Everything seemed to be normal, and they continued with another approach to land. They landed safely but after disembarking the passengers, the ground crew looked more closely at the plane’s landing gear. They had damage to the inboard left-hand-main tyre. This also caused damage to the flaps and the plane was removed from service until repairs were completed.