Whitley fitted with tricycle undercarriage

[Schneiderman]

No information on this but the drawing number falls within those for the AW41 Albermarle, so I suggest that this could have been a proposal to trial the nose wheel undercarriage designed for that aircraft

 

[PMN1]

Particularly since it still has the tail wheel.

 

[jcf]

The wheelspat suggests that it was probably fixed like the nose gear of the Lockheed XJO-3. Which was the first tricycle gear aircraft to take off and land on aircraft carrier on 29 August 1939, long before Eric Brown in a P-39. Commander Thruston B. Clark made 11 take-offs on that day on the Lexington CV-2 off of the coast of California.

 

[Nik]

All things considered, leaving that tail wheel on was a sensible provision: Don't most tricycle aircraft now have a reinforced skid, skeg or similar there ??

 

[Schneiderman]

The wheelspat suggests that it was probably fixed like the nose gear of the Lockheed XJO-3.

Yes, and the main wheels have been moved rearwards with a revised retraction mechanism

 

[publiusr]

XJO-3 works as a true tricycle equipped plane. The drawing makes be wonder if you still have to fly it as if it were a tail dragger…

 

[Schneiderman]

Armstrong Whitworth took out three patents in 1939 covering alternative retraction mechanisms for the undercarriage, GB530386, GB53087 and GB530388, so I would think that the adapted Whitley was intended to trial one or more of these systems. The rearward shift of the main wheels would probably have placed them behind the centre of gravity so that the aircraft could be run as a tricycle, the tailwheel left in place as a precaution.

 

[publiusr]

I can see that with Concorde…but most light aircraft have the empennage/tail canted upwards a bit aft IIRC.

Maybe I’m looking at this wrong, but the AW 41’s nacelles are such that it needs to rotate the nose and get that tail up so they face forwards.

 

[Schneiderman]

Actually I should have said that the three patents are for UC systems which allow for a greater degree of shock-absorbing vertical movement with the aim to allow heavy aircraft, with flaps, to land without the need to 'flare' and hence shorten the landing run.