Modelling of a Steerable Main Landing Gear and Development of a Crosswind Landing Assistance System

Abstract

The intention of this work was to investigate whether a steerable main landing gear combined with a crosswind landing technique without de-crab would enhance the saftey of flight and reduce the pilot's workload. The main idea is to align all landing gears with the runway heading in order to enable a touchdown while maintaining a crab angle, which is needed to counteract the crosswind force. The critical de-crab manoeuvre - i.e. alignin the aircraft with the runway heading - can be performed later, when the aircraft is settled aerodynamically stable on the ground and no danger of a sudden rolling motion or an uncontrallable wind drift exist.