A reconsideration of the tail-wheel in an actively controlled, undercarriage management system

Extract

The arguments for the trend from tail-wheel to nose-wheel undercarriage configurations, which appear to be completely pervasive so far as current aircraft designs are concerned, are examined in the light of modern technological developments.

It appears that many of the problems that have led to the demise of the tail-wheel undercarriage configuration are surmountable in an actively controlled, undercarriage management system. There seems some prospect of performance gains from a system of this kind but a more detailed study than is attempted here is necessary to determine if these performance gains can offset the added complexity of the undercarriage management system to result in more cost effective designs.