Retractable Aircraft Landing Gear
Overview
Design a main landing gear for a light aircraft, build it twice (as a working SolidWorks motion model and as a physical Meccano prototype) and make it fit a gear bay shared with three other teams.
Before designing anything, our group joined Groups 8, 10 and 15 in a "supergroup" to agree on one common gear bay, so every team's gear could swap into the same fuselage. We settled on a Piper PA-28R-sized bay. From there each team designed its own gear.
My part
I worked on the Meccano prototype design and build, the subcomponent drawings and the project logbook, and I presented the hydraulic extension, braking and live demo sections.
Concepts
We started on paper with a trailing-link gear and a telescopic oleo-style strut, then mocked up the motion in Meccano to see what would actually fit and move cleanly in the bay.
How it works
- Retraction: a motor winds a pulley and string to lift the gear back into the bay.
- Extension and damping: a syringe acts as a hydraulic cylinder. Pressing it pushes the gear down, and the same closed fluid line gives visible damping on "landing". We bled the air out so the motion stayed smooth.
- Braking: a second syringe drives Meccano links that press brake pads against the tire.
- Extras: spring suspension and LED indicators, all inside a wooden mock-up of the bay.
Virtual prototype
We rebuilt the same mechanisms in SolidWorks, with matching parts and movement, and ran a motion study to show the full deploy and retract cycle inside the bay.
Problems we hit
- Weak motor: the kit motor was defective and the backup didn’t have the torque, so we sourced a stronger one within budget.
- Brake parts: Meccano had no parts for a real disc brake, so the pads press on the tire instead.
- Tight packaging: fitting the hydraulics, pulleys and wiring inside the shared bay took several rearrangements.
What I'd change
- A belt drive instead of string, for smoother and more reliable retraction.
- Limit switches to detect full extension and retraction.
- Proper brake discs and pads.
- Variable-speed control on the hydraulic extension.