Wheel plane

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Wheeled airplanes were called airplanes with a wheel landing gear in contrast to float planes , flying boats or airplanes on skids . Amphibious aircraft such as the Consolidated PBY Catalina , which can take off and land from both land and water, are a special case .

Wheeled airplane with tail wheel landing gear

term

The term wheeled aircraft comes from the early days of aviation, when land and seaplanes had roughly the same meaning. It served to clearly distinguish the two types of aircraft.

With the advent of aircraft-carrying ships, this term also became important in order to clearly distinguish whether it was a seaplane for use on ships or an aircraft for aircraft carriers . During the Second World War , the importance of the wheeled aircraft for the German Navy , as well as for the naval forces of other countries.

Especially in World War II, it was important for ships at sea to recognize whether an enemy aircraft was a wheeled plane or a seaplane. This made it possible to infer whether an enemy aircraft carrier was in the vicinity, threatening attacks with bombers and / or torpedo bombers . Likewise, enemy aircraft with wheeled undercarriage in the coastal area, far away from enemy land airports, indicated the presence of an enemy aircraft carrier. With the end of the Second World War, the tasks of sea warfare from the air were largely transferred to carrier and land-based aircraft, i.e. wheeled aircraft, also because their economic efficiency was higher.

technology

The wheels of the wheeled aircraft are used for take-off and landing and for moving the machines on the ground, either on land and / or on aircraft carriers . The wheel chassis is mostly designed as a three-legged chassis . This means that two legs at the center of gravity of the aircraft carry the weight of the machine, while the third is used for stability. The two weight-bearing legs with their wheels are arranged approximately at the level below the wings, while the third leg is either under the bow or the tail of the aircraft. By the end of the Second World War, most types of aircraft had a tail wheel.

Exceptions to the three-legged landing gear are tandem landing gear with "support wheels" on the wings or unicycle landing gear on gliders.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Hoernes: Book of Flight , Volume 3, Verlag Georg Szelinski, Vienna 1912, page 21.
  2. ^ Wilhelm Hadeler: The aircraft carrier , JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1968, page 23.
  3. ↑ Georg W. Feuchter: History of the aerial warfare - development and future , p. 63, Athenäum-Verlag 1954
  4. ↑ Situation presentations by the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy to Hitler 1939–1945 . JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1972, ISBN 3-469-00364-5 . Page 175.
  5. ↑ Walther Hubatsch: Weser Exercise The German occupation of Denmark and Norway 1940 . Musterschmidt-Verlag, Göttingen 1960, 2nd edition, page 279.
  6. ^ Fritz-Otto Busch: Battle for Norway's fjords. Case Weser exercise north. , Ernst Gerdes Verlag, Preetz 1964, page 402.
  7. ↑ Ludwig Bölkow: A Century of Aircraft - History and Technology of Flying , p. 430, VDI-Verlag, 1993, ISBN 3-18-400816-9