Cessna's TTx is powerful, sleek and high-flying.
But wait — they forgot to retract the gear!
Key Takeaways:
Historically deemed crucial for high-speed aircraft, the necessity of retractable landing gear is now less certain due to advancements in fixed-gear designs (e.g., thin legs, effective wheel pants) that significantly reduce drag.
While retractable gear offers aerodynamic benefits, these gains are often marginal and complicated by other factors like engine power; they also introduce increased manufacturing, maintenance, and insurance costs.
Beyond drag reduction, landing gear systems vary in their primary functions of absorbing landing shock and dissipating energy, with advanced designs like oleo and trailing link struts providing superior damping and smoother landings.
“Landing gears are made retractable in all modern high-speed airplanes. The drag of fixed ‘under-carriages’ used in old-type, and still in small and slow airplanes, is avoided in this manner.”
Thus wrote Sighard Hoerner, the great compiler of drag data, in 1951.
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Peter Garrison taught himself to use a slide rule and tin snips, built an airplane in his backyard, and flew it to Japan. He began contributing to FLYING in 1968, and he continues to share his columns, ""Technicalities"" and ""Aftermath,"" with FLYING readers.
