# P-47 Landing Gear



## Zipper730 (Nov 16, 2017)

I remember reading that the P-47's landing gear telescoped so it would be possible to stow in the wings while carrying 8 x 50 cal.

I remember hearing that despite the complexity, it had few problems: How did they avoid that?


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## MiTasol (Nov 22, 2017)

The only P-47 I worked on was belly landed in a swamp and the task was to remove the wings without damage to allow for transport so I was not aware that the maingear struts shrunk.

From experience on the F4U and Grumman S2 Tracker aircraft I would expect the P-47 to use the same concepts as they use.

On the Corsair there is a shrink cable from an anchor point forward of the pivot point that pulls the strut "up" during retraction but does not affect movement when the gear is down. The Corsair gear retracts rearwards.

On the Tracker the same effect is caused by a telescopic shrink strut mounted forward of the pivot point that causes the same effect. Again the Tracker gear retracts rearwards.

The photo at P-47D Thunderbolt – WalkAround shows a diagonal strut (arrowed) that *could* be a telescopic shrink strut given the angle it is at. Unfortunately the struts on this aircraft are flat so some detail is missing.






Have a look at sites like Republic P-47 Thunderbolt Modeler's Online Reference and you may find other photos to confirm this is correct.

I will try and find some diagrams for the Corsair and Tracker gears.


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## MiTasol (Nov 22, 2017)

See P-47D Walkaround, Texas | Large Scale Planes


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## Airframes (Nov 22, 2017)

Yep, the 'smaller', rod-like strut is a retraction telescoping strut, which compresses the main strut oleo as the gear retracts.


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## Crimea_River (Nov 22, 2017)




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## Zipper730 (Nov 22, 2017)

So the F4U, S-2, and P-47 all used this?


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## Doom! (Nov 23, 2017)

Ok, that is pretty cool. I love P-47's and I wasn't aware of this feature.


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## Zipper730 (Nov 23, 2017)

How hard would it be to have designed a double telescoping-strut so you could get a big landing gear and a big prop and retract it into a small space with reasonable reliability?


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## Crimea_River (Nov 23, 2017)

That would be your Sea Fury.

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## MiTasol (Nov 23, 2017)

Zipper730 said:


> So the F4U, S-2, and P-47 all used this?



Yes, Rods for S2 and P-47, cable for F4U


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## MiTasol (Nov 23, 2017)

Zipper730 said:


> How hard would it be to have designed a double telescoping-strut so you could get a big landing gear and a big prop and retract it into a small space with reasonable reliability?



Compare the complexity, number of potential failure points, assembly weight, manufacturing costs, and maintenance man-hours of the Sea Fury gear with the P-47 gear. The P-47 gear wins on all counts.

The Sea Fury gear is a good example of the first law of British aircraft design. _Why make it easy when with a bit of effort you can make it bloody near impossible._

Mi

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## Zipper730 (Dec 13, 2017)

Regarding the Sea-Fury: How much extra length was reduced when the gear was double-telescoped and retracted?



 Airframes
, 

 MiTasol
, 
S
 Shortround6
, 
W
 wuzak


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## Zipper730 (May 2, 2018)

Deleted


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