Design of a Retractable Landing Gear for the Sagitta Demonstrator UAV

Abstract

This paper gives an overview about the development of the retractable landing gear for the SAGITTA demonstrator, a flight testbed for future UCAV (Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle). Due to the Special requirements of the SAGITTA demonstrator and the lack of suitable COTS (Commercial-of-the-Shelf) solutions available on the market, an entirely new development of the retractable landing gear was necessary. The first part of this paper describes the design process and the special challenges for the development of a small high-performance landing gear under the technical constrains of the SAGITTA project. Subsequently, the landing gear development including shock absorber and brake system design and the tests, carried out at the specially developed test stand, are discussed. The main focus lies on the use of handbook formulae for larger aircrafts landing gear design that are applied to the requirements of a small UAV in this paper. The conducted drop-tests of the developed landing gear showed satisfying results.