Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Light on its feet?

 


10 comments:

  1. i guess in a relative sense?

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  2. Yeah, lighter per square foot of contact.

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  3. I get the lower ground pressure thing, but... imagine how quickly those tracks would have to turn on landing...? And, the long axis of the track body would have to be perfectly aligned with the long axis of the aircraft on contact; if not, the result would be, well, unpleasant. Seems a solution in search of a problem.
    Mike in Canada

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    1. Think about the test pilot and crew that made the first takeoff and landing with that.
      And that's the first photo I've seen of a B-36 with that rig; I wonder how it worked out.

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    2. Like the giant single main gear tire it never went into production.

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  4. The ad states that Goodyear had experience building track gear for other airplanes. Does anyone know what planes used track gear? Until I saw the above, I'd never heard of such a contraption.

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    1. To answer to my own question, I did some looking on Al Gore's amazing interweb and discovered the A-20 Havoc and C-82 Packet were both tested with tracked gear. The video I found showed the Havoc having tracked mains, with a standard nosewheel. The Packet had tracks all the way around.

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    2. Havoc was a cool lookin' number.

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  5. I'm sure Goodyear made plenty "developing" this boondoggle for the government.

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  6. The C47 (DC3) also was tested with tracks for rough airstrips.

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