Big Pete

Just brilliant

First saw one fly when I was a kid & almost cacked me pants coz of its size & noize

rob878

Pretty much Andy. The X-rays will have been carried out and a report/result sent to whom ever made the legs, (in the RAF they would be sent to the aircraft IPT or the design authority) so I would guess in this case it would be Messier Dowty (Leslie will probably be able to confirm or deny my guess). On the strength of the results, the Design Authority will send back its recommendations.

In this case I would guess, "no cracks apparent", however as the number of landings (the usual unit measure for Main Landing Gear lifing) appears to be guess work then they would return a report stating something along the lines of,

"L+R MLG cleared for flight until "insert date" on condition of NDT "insert technique" being C/O (Carried Out) after every AF (After Flight servicing)." This would also appear in the Reds or Greens, ensuring that the task is C/O and also to allow the aircrew to know what is Lim'd or ADF'd on the jet.

In this way the MLG can be used and the Design Authorities **** is covered. If a fault should occur before the end of the season then it will be picked up.

Once the units have been removed and serviced, when they are refitted the lifing is a known quantity and the requirement for the NDT can be removed, and usual service schedules for the units reinstated.

I hope that this isn't teaching you how to suck eggs, or insulting your intelligence.

andys

yep thats pretty much what I thought. Think its either Marshalls or Goodridge who are the DA for them. Some interesting blog entries here

Vulcan to the Sky Trust - Avro Vulcan Bomber XH558 - Vulcan To The Sky Trust

Leslie

I think it was Dowty who made the undercarriage units. They would be the most likely source anyway.

I seem to remember that fitiing a new leg was not an easy matter of straightforward replacement. I remember a nosewheel leg having to be replaced once and it turned out that the aircraft which were built at Shorts were effectively hand assembled in many respects and that the new leg had to be fitted by hand which took a hell of a long time.

That would explain the different handling characteristics of many of the aircraft and we all had our own favourite for displays.

Les