GB552266A - Improvements in or relating to aircraft landing gear - Google Patents

Abstract

552.266. Aircraft undercarriages. BENDIX AVIATION CORPORATION. Sept. 26, 1941, No. 12535. Convention date, Oct. 21, 1940. [Class 4] Aircraft landing wheels are driven prior to landing, to prevent damage to the wheels, by electric motors through an hydraulic clutch which serves also to brake the wheels after landing has been effected. The motors may be started and stopped automatically. The armature of an electric motor 65 mounted in the fixed axle 8 of the landing wheel 6 drives through a one-way clutch 68 the shaft 69 of the sun-wheel 52 of an epicyclic reduction gear the spindles 62 of the planet wheels 53 of which are secured to one member 57 of a hydraulic clutch. The inter gear member 49 of the epicyclic gear is fixed to the axle 8 and the other member 58 of the hydraulic clutch is. secured by screws 70 to the hub cap 26 of the wheel 6 which is mounted by bearings 11 on the axle 8. The clutch for energising the motor may be closed automatically by a centrifugal device when the main engines decelerate preparatory to landing and the circuit is automatically broken by the opening of a second switch by the landing gear as it completes its extension movement just prior to landing. Upon contact with the ground the wheel speeds up further, whereupon brake shoes 44 are engaged with the inner surface of an element secured to the member 57 of the hydraulic clutch by a centrifugal device 29 acting through a rod 36 and a cam 42. The clutch 57, 58 thus acts as a fluid brake. The brake shoes 44 are held applied by a detent 41 until disengaged by the operator of the aircraft through cable 17 and rod 14. The motor for extending and retracting the landing gear may also be controlled by the automatic switches that control the wheel motors 65.