Nose wheel steering

The nose wheel (engl. Nosewheel Steering , NWS) is used to an aircraft to steer at low speeds, at the bottom ( rollers ). For example, the pilot uses the NWS to taxi the aircraft from the parking space onto the runway and at the beginning of the take-off run, when the rudder has no aerodynamic effect.

Different input devices are available for controlling the nose wheel, depending on the type of aircraft, mostly the nose wheel is linked to the rudder pedals, in larger aircraft there is sometimes an additional hand crank or a small wheel (English tiller ) with which only the nose wheel is without Operation of the rudder can be controlled. This hand crank is only on the captain's side and is operated by the captain with his left hand.

The design and control options depend on the aircraft manufacturer and partly on the airline, so there are sometimes bilateral or only on the pilot's side in Command controls, and the deflection via the pedals can be limited or dependent on the current taxiing speed.