A340 landing gear. The A340 has the centre bogie, but the A330 does not. During departure out of FRA (Frankfurt) a few years ago the center bogie left the airplane and ended up in a farmer's field. Apparently, the oleo was a little over pressurized. True story.
I toured the Science museum in London, England on a layover about seven years ago, the A340 landing gear (right main) sat conspicuously in the lobby. It made for a great picture and an enRoute article.
Here's some fun facts from October 2003 edition:
Angle that an airplane flies when approaching for landing 3 degrees
Distance of Wright brothers’first flight 120 feet
Length of the wing of an Airbus A340 198 feet
Highest cruising altitude of a Boeing 767-300 43,000 feet
Highest point a thunderstorm can reach 70,000 feet
Number of bathtubs a typical thunderstorm could fill 3,500
Average cabin temperature 23 ˚C
Outside temperature at cruising altitude -57 ˚C
Maximum strength of winds at cruising altitude 450 km/h
Angle that an airplane flies when approaching for landing 3 degrees
Angle for takeoff 12 to 15 degrees
Number of times a small car could circle the world on the fuel required for a Toronto to Tokyo flight 55
Number of days NASA suggests you take to recover from jet lag for each time zone crossed one
Temperature in the combustion chamber of a typical jet engine
700 ˚C
Amount Concorde stretches while in flight
25 cm
First digit of a flight number denoting a European flight 8
Substance, other than air, found in an aircraft tire nitrogen
Altitude at which seat belt signs are generally turned on for landing 10,000 feet
Weight of the Airbus A340 landing gear 17 tonnes
6 comments:
Yikes! The B-767 can cruise at 43,000ft? So what about that Coffin Corner??? Must be really touchy at that altitude?
(Back home on AC2 tomorrow!)
Whywhyzed. Yes, I'd say they would be looking at it during cruise hoping things will be smooth.
Enjoy the flight back from NRT.
Any bumps going over?
Doug
wow the wright brothers flight was a third of going from one wing tip to another..thats crazy, i wonder if they thought that someday aviation would be like this
Andrew. The Wright Brothers entire flight could have flown down the cabin of a Boeing 777 and that's only in economy class!
As far as aviation since then, it's been quite a ride.
Thanks again for your posts.
Doug
Hi Doug,
Did the loss of the centre bogey on that flight result in any special circumstances when landing? Did the flight continue right to Canada or did it land back in Germany?
Jack
Jack. A Lufthansa flight saw the center bogey break away from the A340 catapulting itself into a farmer's field. They announced on tower frequency something to the
effect, "Air Canada you lost your landing gear." They didn't specify. The A340 pilots had an indication in "red" (not good) for the center gear.
In other words, they were unsure what was wrong with the gear. They jettisoned fuel for quite some time so they would not land overweight. The landing back in FRA was uneventful.
Thanks for the question.
Capt. Doug
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