On Jul 9, 10:50*am, "
wrote:
http://www.eaach1.org/Design/comm6v1-1R4.pdf

Subject at hand: *Landing gear design.

Article in above link pretty much puts into words my understanding of
why tail draggers do what they do. *I've been thinking about an
original design for cheap one man flying (OK, lots of borrowed stuff
put together in my own unique way) and one of the little problems I
keep coming up with is cross wind control. *Around here if it won't
land in a 10 Knot (gusting 30) side wind it's a fair weather toy.

For structural and weigh reasons a conventional 2 up front gear would
work best, but as we all know it isn't the best choice for low time
modern pilots, or cross wind conditions. *A simple solution is a
castering main gear similar to John Moody's as used on the Easy
Riser. *The problem then becomes one of ground handling due to lack of
directional control with respect to the ground. *Complexity rules out
a fixed tail and steering main gear.

2 solutions:

1) * * Angle the axis of the castoring main gear so that the weight of
the craft tends to align the casters with the axis of the plane, or
use a locking, maybe semi locking as used in the nose gear of the
BD-5, castoring main gear. *One could then use a conventional steering
tail wheel.

2) * * Pure differential braking in combination with a negative king
pin inclination *- no lock or de-tent on main gear.

I'm open to all ideas and references to other planes that have used
similar gear - there must be some somewhere?

I have not had the option of examining an Ercoupe gear so any links to
pics/parts manuals would be appreciated. *The B-52 gear is not under
consideration.................... *:-)
======================
Leon McAtee

I recall flying a Cessna 170 with "crosswind gear" which was a sort of
castering main gear. It was the worst handling taildragger I have
ever flown. Almost all 170 owners modified their airplanes to non-
castering mains.

If you plan oleo type hydraulic struts for your mains, the alignment
"scissors" can be skewed so the wheels steer outboard (increase toe-
out) as the strut compresses. It sort of "steers into the skid" as
the airplane swerves and transfers weight onto the outer wheel. That
gives you an extra second or two to 'catch it" as a groundloop starts.