gschuld
Well-Known Member
Just so nobody gets bored around here, I have another random question. The KR-1 and KR-2 originally were designed and flown on a very simply retractible main gear taildragger system, such as above. It had it's faults, and required a few structural upgrades to make them sturdy enough, but the general fold straight back design made for a very uncomplicated concept.
I would like to focus on the retract gear's lack of suspension. It is truly a stiff leg situation. It hasn't the natural flex of an angled fixed gear leg and no resemblance of a suspension system designed in common to a typical retract gear. The only "give" would seem to be in the tires themselves, assuming they did not "give way" entirely. I don't recall any of the KR owners with retracts complaining of any major rebounding or hard landing issues with their gears, but I have to wonder how differently they land than a more flexible fixed gear arrangement. Most fixed gear KRs have fairly to very short gear legs regardless, and they have relatively minor deflection as a result when landing. There have been a few more complicated, and heavier, retract designs built into KRs with main gear suspension, one plane used a motorcycle shock tower for each of the main gear legs.
Just for the sake of argument, let's assume that a strudy, reliable, simply main retract gear can be installed with fully sealed up and faired in gear doors with a weight and systems layout penalty within acceptible limits. Let's also assume that the 1/2 tear drop fairing formed into the gear door only had to blend in a 2" exposure of the wheels below the bottom of the wings lower surface(about what would be sticking out below a typical set of fixed gear wheel pants) The overall drag of the fully retracted gear would would logically be less than a faired fixed gear offering an assumed (WAG) 5mph cruise speed improvement in the 175mph range. Just enough to pretend to justify it(not really).
How much of a pain in the but would a non flexing gear like this behave on a 1350lb gross KR-2s?
Sorry to state the obvious here, but the objective would be far more for aesthetic reasons than performance reasons. The fixed gear simply doesn't seem to look right at all with an elliptical planform wing and rounded tail feathers that I am considering. No matter how I draw it, I'm only happy with it when it is drawn "clean" without fixed main gear/pants, like above.
George
