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Build an All-Wood Landing Gear for a Model Airplane

December 18, 2021



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Airfield Models (http://www.airfieldmodels.com/)Designing a Wood-Composite Landing Gear for a Model Aircraft

Designing the landing gear and creating the pattern is exactly the same as done to create a dural (tempered) aluminum landing gear.

First, the wheel locations are drawn on the side and front views of the model.  Then the side and front views of the gear are drawn.  From that information the gear is "unfolded" and drawn as a flat pattern.  The blank is cut, cleaned, bent to shape and drilled for mounting screws and axles.

Laminating a gear is more involved than that but creating the pattern is exactly the same.

 
 

Designing the Landing Gear

The gear I built could comfortably support up to five pounds.  Adjust the number of laminations to make a lighter or stronger gear.  The grid is 1/8".  Scale and print for a different size.

What to Draw

Remember when I said Geometry is useful?

  • A Side View provides fore/aft locations.
  • A Front View provides leg lengths.  (Either the side or front view can provide vertical locations.)
Landing Gear Side View

Draw the side view of the gear.

I didn't need a fuselage side-view to build this model but I wanted to play around with raking the gear so to get one I traced around the completed fuselage to see how the gear would look.

The axle centerline is below the leading edge of the wing.  That's usually a safe place for a tail-dragger but it's not the only place that can be right.

Landing Gear Front View Draw the front view.

This drawing shows the gear and the form the gear is molded around. 

Landing Gear Pattern "Unfold" the gear to get an actual pattern.  I used the outer perimeter dimension to create the pattern to ensure the "feet" weren't too short.  By doing this all the inner laminations were too long and are cut away after the gear is formed and cured.

Other than the form this is exactly what you do to make a dural aluminum landing gear pattern.  A form isn't necessary for an aluminum gear.

It doesn't take very long to make an aluminum gear if you have a way to cut it.  I use a scroll saw, a metal-cutting blade and a liberal amount of oil.

Do not use a blade with reverse teeth to cut metal!  Reverse teeth on scroll blades are to prevent tear-out when cutting wood.  Metal-cutting blades do not have reverse teeth.

The gear is bent using a sheet metal brake or over a hard, straight edge such as a heavier piece of metal, your workbench, a vice (with smooth jaws) or whatever you've got.

Be sure the bends are not skewed to the lines where the bends are supposed to be or you'll end up with a skewed landing gear.

 
 

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How to Build a Wood-Composite Landing Gear
Building a Form to Mold a Wood-Composite Landing Gear

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