Landing gear door operation

On Sat, 05 Jul 2003 03:54:46 GMT, "Lynn Coffelt"
wrote:

very early T-38's used hydraulic powered "ailerons" on the main landing gear
doors to help retract the main gear in flight. The wing was so thin that
there wasn't much room for conventional retraction mechanism. Seemed to work
OK, but later models found room for conventional mechanism. Did it use a
shrink scheme to retract the oleo strut while the gear retracted??? Been a
while!

JSC, which flies T-38Bs, used the part of the MLG door on the gear to
increase the drag so they could chase the Orbiter. It had a spring
normally or something and they fixed it in place. If I knew where my
SETP proceedings were, I'd dig it out. The paper was by John McBride
and Dick Grey. It was probably given in about '79 or so.

Mary

--
Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer

"Turn to kill, not to engage." LCDR Willie Driscoll, USN