Landing gear is the undercarriage assembly that supports an aircraft on the ground and absorbs the impact of touchdown, typically consisting of wheels, struts and shock absorbers. Early aircraft used simple fixed gear, but the Dayton-Wright RB-1 Racer, a purpose-built racing airplane first flown in 1920, is generally credited as the first aircraft fitted with retractable landing gear, folding the wheels into the fuselage in flight to reduce aerodynamic drag. Retractable gear became standard on higher-speed aircraft through the following decades, and modern landing gear typically includes hydraulic shock struts, brakes and, on larger aircraft, multiple wheels arranged in bogies to spread the load.
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Partially Attested
YearYear marks the Dayton-Wright RB-1 Racer, built for the 1920 Gordon Bennett Cup and described by this source as one of the first instances of undercarriage retraction for aerodynamic benefit alone; it is not the origin of landing gear in general. SignificanceThe Dayton-Wright RB-1 Racer used a hand-cranked retractable undercarriage, one of the first instances of retraction for aerodynamic benefit alone. 1 FAQs
Why did retractable landing gear take years to become common?
Extra weight offset the drag savings until aircraft speeds in the 1930s made drag the bigger concern.
Retracting the wheels reduces drag, but the gear adds extra weight, and the balance between that weight and the reduced drag was the most important factor in whether retractable gear was accepted. Drag matters more as an aircraft goes faster, so as aircraft speeds in the 1930s reached about 200 miles per hour (322 kilometers per hour), the added weight became less important than cutting drag, and retractable landing gear became commonplace on most aircraft.
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Source Wikipedia: Dayton-Wright RB-1 Racer
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Dayton-Wright RB-1 Racer
Lead section, first sentence
The Dayton-Wright RB-1 (Rinehart Baumann model one), also known simply as the Dayton-Wright Racer was a high wing single-engine monoplane racing aircraft developed in the United States to participate in the 1920 Gordon Bennett Cup air race.
Lead section, retractable undercarriage sentence
The aircraft also featured a retractable undercarriage operated by a hand-crank making it one of the first instances of undercarriage retraction for aerodynamic benefit alone.
In Field: Aerospace Engineering, Categories
1920s United States sport aircraft
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