Nose landing-gear systems and actuation

The Nose landing gear is a nose landing-gear system from Liebherr-Aerospace with aerospace-grade quality and in-production availability. Liebherr nose landing-gear systems and actuation are landing-gear solutions from Liebherr-Aerospace, supplied as structural hardware together with aircraft-specific actuation and integration engineering. The nose leg supports the forward part of the aircraft on the ground, carries steering loads for ground manoeuvring and retracts after take-off.

Liebherr designs and supplies extension and retraction actuation and steering actuation as part of complete landing-gear systems. Retraction and extension is listed as its own offering on the maker's page. Actuation is selected for the specific aircraft, so the nose-gear architecture depends on the platform's geometry, loads and systems.

Among the actuation options documented by the maker is an electro-hydrostatic nose landing-gear actuation system intended for more-electric aircraft. An electro-hydrostatic actuator combines an electric motor, pump and hydraulic cylinder in a self-contained unit, so the gear can be driven from the aircraft's electrical supply without a central hydraulic network. For an integrator working on an electric or hybrid platform, that removes the need to route hydraulic lines through the airframe for this function.

Liebherr also provides structural design and manufacture, including stress and fatigue analysis, and integration services such as complete dressings of the gear. It operates test and support facilities for developing and integrating landing-gear systems, subsystems and components, and it supports the aircraft through its life cycle. Development work is carried out at its site in Lindenberg, Germany.

The maker's experience covers commercial aircraft, business jets, helicopters and defence platforms, and its landing-gear know-how also applies to uncrewed vehicles. Case studies on the page include the AW139 medium twin-engine helicopter for Leonardo Helicopters and the A220-100 and A220-300 aircraft, for which Liebherr supplies two major integrated systems.

Typical applications of nose landing-gear systems with this scope are large uncrewed aircraft and eVTOL or other more-electric aircraft with wheeled take-off and landing, rotorcraft, and regional and business aircraft, with the gear configured and qualified for each airframe.