Ground Loads for Landing Gear and Airframe Design

This note gives the ground loads for the landing gears of an A320 type of congiguration
(i.e. 2 main landing gears (MLG) and a nose landing gear (NLG)). For aircraft with 3, 4 or
more MLG (B747, MD-11 and A340) the loads would take into account the distribution
between the MLG legs.

At aft centre of gravity (CG) conditions, approximately 95 to 96 % of the All Up Weight

(AUW) acts on the MLG group.

X positive aft (applied at axle except for braking cases when it is applied at the ground)

Y positive to right (applied at ground)

Z positive up (applied at axle)

Sign convention is for LEFT gear

Critical cases are those that give the maximum fore/aft, side and vertical loads (plus
moment cases for torque links and steering. Page 2 gives a full list of cases for the MLG.

For the MLG these are

Braked Roll (max. drag load)
Spring Back (max. forward load)
Turn Case (max.side load)
Pivot Case (max. moment for torque links)

For the NLG, the case are those given on page 3.

Danny Heaton Page 1 of 5 Nov 2002

Danny Heaton Page 2 of 5 Nov 2002
MAIN LANDING GEAR

Case X Y Z

STATIC 1g at MTOW or MRW 0 0 MTOW*0.96

2
TAKE-OFF (nose wheel on 0 0 1.7*MTOW*0.96
ground) [JAR25.491] 2
Note: Z will be modified
(increased) by the inclusion of
Thrust (all engines)
TAKE-OFF (nose wheel just clear 0.2*Z 0.2*Z 1.5*MTOW
of ground - zero load) 2
[JAR25.491]
BRAKED ROLL (nose wheel just 0.8*Z 0 1.2*MLW
clear of ground - zero load) 2
[JAR25.493] or
MRW
2
REVERSE BRAKING [JAR25.507] -0.55*Z 0 MTOW*0.96
2
TURNING (ny=0.5g) 0 0.5*Z MTOW*0.96
[JAR25.495] 2
0.5*MTOW*hg
t
PIVOTING (moment about Z axis MTOW*0.96
due to =0.8 at each wheel) 2
[JAR25.503]
Zmax (10 ft/sec) 0.25*Z 0 MLW*
(is the reaction factor (see 2
attached sheet) - typical value
for Airbus is 1.25) [JAR.479]
SPIN UP [JAR25.479] k1*Zmax 0 k2*Zmax
SPRING BACK [JAR25.479] k3*Zmax 0 k4*Zmax
k1, k2, k3 and k4 are constants and
can be derived from ANC 2.
Typical values for initial design
are
k1 =0.8*0.9=0.72
k2 =0.9
k3 = -0.75*0.95= -0.7125
k4 =0.95

3 COMPONENT LANDING 0.4*Z 0.25*Z 0.75*Zmax

[JAR25.479] (0.3*Zmax) (0.1875*Zmax)
DRIFT LANDING [JAR25.485] 0 -0.6*Z 0.5*Zmax
(-0.3*Zmax)

Danny Heaton Page 3 of 5 Nov 2002

NOSE LANDING GEAR

BRAKED ROLL - [JAR25.493(d) and ACJ] note - No drag Load

TOWING - [JAR25.509] FTOW = 0.15*MTOW - consider push and pull

NOSE WHEEL YAW - [JAR25.499] - only consider para(a), that is 1g vertical and 0.8*Z
laterally.

Zmax - [JAR25.725(b)]
Basis for derivation of mass over NLG (equivalent to MLW for MLG).

Derive RN and RM

Zmax for Nose Landing Gear = *RN (Compare with MLG, Zmax=MLW* /2)

Then use k factors as for MLG.

Danny Heaton Page 4 of 5 Nov 2002

REACTION FACTOR

Danny Heaton Page 5 of 5 Nov 2002