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Wooden landing gear test

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NorthwestJack

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2008
Messages
73
Location
Monroe ,Wa ( close to Seattle)
Well i finally managed to test my wooden landing gear. it seemed to handle 3G's without any problem so I probably overdesigned it.
This unfortunately made it about 8 lbs. heavier than an aluminum landing gear of similar strenght.
You can see my test rig in the following pictures. I used the garage door opening and hung a 4x6 beamfrom the top. I hung 4 buckets from the far end of the beam, and each bucket had 60 lbs. of gravel in it. the post going down to the landing gear was at 12 inches so there was a 1 to 12 lever advantage , giving a total force down of 2900 lbs.
On the plus side: it has a streamlined shape of a NACA 0012 profile, so it should have a lot less drag than the aluminum. The other benefit is that because of its width it will be very easy to bolt to the bottom of my fuselage, and will also resist any twisting backwards.
The landing gear was laminated from hundreds of 3/16 by 3/4 Douglas fir pieces and glued and brad nailed( as a way fo clamping it) to a 1/4 inch plywood form which was sandwiched inbetween and basically became the core. By the way I did use GORRILLA GLUE!! , and no it did not come apart.:nervous:
If I had to do it over I would try to mayby use a balsa wood core to save weight.
the dimensions of the landing gear are :
2 inches thick at the nose
16 inches wide at the widest and 6 inches at the wheels.
Wheel to wheel 8 ft.
Fuselage width is 2 ft.
Jacq
 

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