With the nose, cabin, and empennage drafted, Justin and Rudy researched landing gear. They did research primarily on the taildragger and tricycle landing gear. We decided on a taildragger landing gear layout, as it is inexpensive, lightweight, structurally simple, and better adapted for undeveloped runways. As an inexperienced team of highschoolers who may not have a developed runway, we decided the taildragger was best suited for our purpose despite its inherent difficulty to control. Since exact landing gear location is dependent on the center of gravity which we cannot precisely determine until the entire fuselage is drafted, we variablized the landing gear dimensions so they could be easily adjusted in the future. We then modeled the wing bearing struts, which are just in the beginning stages of design as calculations for ideal placement of these struts are not completed.
*Editors note: the thought processes and design choices presented in this article don’t necessarily represent those implemented into the final design and are subject to change. Flight Club Aerospace is a group of amateur students with no formal education in any fields of engineering. We present this information for educational purposes only, with the understanding that it is not to be re-created without adequate professional oversight and mentorship. For our latest designs and updates, please see our most recent blog posts.
