Classic British Flight Sim

Kevin, Aharon,

The reason for the offset, sideways retracting nose gear was to accommodate the three autoland computers which are located in the avionics bay below the cockpit. In those days, I think it was quite an achievement to shrink the computers to a size and weight whereby they could be carried but there still wasn't that much spare space available, so making the nose gear retract sideways (which necessitated it being offset to one side) saved a bit.


I think this is also why the runway extension turning circles at Hatfield were somewhat asymmetrical.

Toby

TobyV wrote: ↑

21 Sep 2017, 20:53

Kevin, Aharon,

The reason for the offset, sideways retracting nose gear was to accommodate the three autoland computers which are located in the avionics bay below the cockpit. In those days, I think it was quite an achievement to shrink the computers to a size and weight whereby they could be carried but there still wasn't that much spare space available, so making the nose gear retract sideways (which necessitated it being offset to one side) saved a bit.


I think this is also why the runway extension turning circles at Hatfield were somewhat asymmetrical.

Toby

Cheers Toby

Always good to learn the reasons behind what look to be odd decisions. I can only begin to imagine what size those computers would have been back then. A modern smart phone would probably trounce them in processing power.

Kevin

TobyV,

Thanks for more interesting explanations!

Regards,

Aharon

Aharon , think I remember that at 60 kts we cancelled reverse thrust , as below that speed the slush , rain and snow [ that you can see being thrown up ]
would go back and up and into the engine air intakes . Potentially causing flame-outs .
Toby , not sure about your decription of the turning circles [ dumbells ] . Without a picture I'll try and describe . On bigger stuff on a standard 45m wide runways , sometimes with a turning circle only to one side of the runway end . Very often you drove up the straight side , til the end of the Rwy then hard over with the nosewheel tiller , rudder pedals , closing inner side of turn throttle [s ] , and maybe goosing outer side throttles . Last resort was reverse on the inner [ s ] . Thus completing the turn within the circle ;
Mauritious made it easy for 74s , by having 2 transits . ie . 2 sticks that when lined up out of the side window of the cockpit ; would give you the correct sightline for nosewheel positon [ 16' behind cockpit ] to begin the turn . And another 2 that when similarly lined up told you it was the correct posit. to swing around and complete the line up .
60m. wide rwys [ a la' Shannon ], were often wide enough for a 180 degree turn . But gave a funny visual aspect on the approach ; very often leading to a thump of a landing .

rgds dave f .

Dfarrow,

Thanks for your kind explanations.

Regards,

Aharon