What ways could a plane land if it had no wheels? Splurt your ideas out?

Question

This is a serious question but be as creative as you want.

Basically for my project we have to lower the weight of planes to make them use less fuel. The wheels are only used during take off and landing, the rest of the flight they are a dead weight and are extremely heavy so i thought maybe they could be removed somehow. Sounds crazy yes but can you think of how it could land without the wheels?

Someone suggested nose diving the plane into a building... the passengers have to live thanks!

Answer 1

Some aircraft such as the German Komet [rocketplane] during WW2 took off on a big set of wheels.  The wheels dropped off on take off and the plane landed on skids.  A number of pilots were killed trying to land on the skids, so it's not exactly a good way to do it. :)

Answer 2

The (prototype?) U-2 spy plane dropped its wheels on take off and landed on the beds of a pair of hopped up El Caminos doing about 100 mph. There's better ways to increase fuel economy. Slow down comes to mind. Increase aspect ratio of wings (longer/skinnier). Optimize air foil for slower flight. Winglets to counter the tip vorticies. Move the tail control surfaces to the front of the plane like Rutan did so the cannard and the main wing both lift instead of the tail pushing down and the main wing having to support it (making it larger). Oh Yeh; I forgot. They scrapped his twin s***w corporate planes didn't they? (made in conjunction with Lear?) That shows what idiots are in control.

Answer 3

The main gear of the U2 didn't come off, only the gear on the outer wing.

Answer 4

There is, in fact, a practical solution that was proved to work, and that was the Flying Boat.  Go back to the Boeing 314 Clippers, the Hughes Hercules, and other great flying boats of the 1930s and 40s.  Those airplanes did not carry the weight of landing gear, and used the reduction in weight to allow them to carry more useful load.

The flying boats were phased out because the facilities required for handling them were more complex than the landlocked airports of the time, and because more skill and training was needed for the personnel that worked with them.

But the idea could be reborn.  There were designs for very modern turboprop and turbojet airliners using flying boat hulls.  Try an internet search on "Saunders-Roe Princess" for some stories and pictures.  Inland rivers and lakes could be adapted for use as landing areas, and there are many sheltered landing areas along the coast.

Such a program would cost much more than continuing to use airplanes with retractable landing gear, but it would meet your assignment requirements.  You and your teacher should know that the landing gear on modern jet airliners are not a particularly large part of the weight of the airplane, but, if the question remains as stated, then landing and taking off on water is the simplest answer.

Good luck.

Answer 5

The only I can think of is he would either have to belly land in water or flat ground.  Airliners are set up for landing on water, I don't that they have ever done it.  All you can do is keep the nose up and ride the belly in.

Answer 6

There was a giant plane/glider during WWll that didn't have landing gear.  It landed by having more of a controlled crash.

Answer 7

You could make it a tilt-engine plane. The engines tilt up so that the plane can hover when taking off or landing, and the engines can tilt forward for high speeds. You could also just make a massive helicopter.

Answer 8

Take off with the plane on the wheels and drop them at say about 100 feet above ground.  Then land over a long runaway by simply floating to practically no speed and landing on air except you will drop from say 10 or 5 feet to 0 above ground.

Answer 9

Landing gear has taken on other forms other than wheels. A tracked bogie not unlike those on a tank was used as well as skis used for landing in snow and ice conditions like at Antartica and pontoons used to land on water. Some WW2 gliders landed on skids instead of wheels.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:B-36_...

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I'm not sure where you going with this.  May i suggest a mile long 50 ft. wide pan of JELLO?

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Less outragous a system that acts like a hovercraft and the airplance lands on a skirted cushon of air.  Not an economical idea but possible.

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Answer 10

why don't you expand your ideas by yourself, when one suggested nose diving the plane into a building you says"the pax has to live..." well the gears  and wheels are part of plane and it was made & design with the safety of its passengers first and foremost.

Answer 11

1 - Set up a high speed conveyor belt that could run at the same speed as the aircraft landing on it.

2 - Set up the runway like an air hockey table and land on the air cushion.

3 - Assemble a large net above  the runway to capture the aircraft as it flies over.

4 - Layer the runway with heavy viscosity foam.

5 - Install an inflateable cushion on the underside of the aircraft and land it like a hovercraft.

6 - Run a flatbed trailer up the runway and land on that.

7 - Install large parachutes on top of the aircraft and deploy them to land.

8 - Install rotateable engine nacelles and land like a Harrier jet.

9 - Install retractable rotor blades and land like a helicopter.

10 - Have flappable wings and land like a bird.

11 - Build the runway up a steep hillside and allow the airplane to just stall into it.

12 - Have 'service' aircraft at the airport to fly up and plug in universal landing gear just before the plane lands.

ALL OF WHICH PROVES THAT I HAVE WAY TOO MUCH SPARE TIME ON MY HANDS !!!

Answer 12

Skis, floats, hull, skids.