Valiant B. Mk. 2 Landing gear

Black Bomber

It is hard to find anything on the undercarriage, there is a bit of info and some pics of the B.2 generally on this thread, http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=110023&highlight=valiant , including some unusual shots posted on Twin Otters Newark links,

my understanding is that the main gear legs swivelled rearwards, the four wheel bogies maintainig their parellel position to be housed in the trailing edge fairings – sort of Tupolev or Britannia style.
Would be great to see some detail though, especially if Black Knight can post something from a manual.

If you get really stuck and are desperate to see the mechanism I’m wondering if the BAe archives at Farnborough will have pics, it’s surprising at what unpublished material they have.

Great looking aircraft though!

I agree about the rotation, and the looks. A very rational suggestion about the archives.

Thanks!

Black Bomber

I don’t recall it rotating, iirc it just folding flat backwards. I have copies of some of the omd’s so I’ll dig them out & see if there’s anything on them.

By ‘rotating’ I mean rotating still in the line of flight, about a horizontal axis, to be stowed inverted relative to the gear-down position, just like the Tupolevs.(Although it’s interesting that the Valiant rotation is taking place earlier in the cycle than in the Toops.) It’s quite clearly to be seen on the video at Farnborough.

Anything you can dig out would be appreciated.

Thanks!

my understanding is that the main gear legs swivelled rearwards, the four wheel bogies maintainig their parellel position to be housed in the trailing edge fairings – sort of Tupolev or Britannia style.

The Tupolev landing gear – on the Tu-16, Tu-134, Tu-154 etc – didn’t just swivel rearwards – it rotated through 180deg, so the wheel truck lies inverted inside the trailing edge fairing.

Ken

As pagen01 says my understanding is the same re the undercarriage. It was done so the spars could be strengthened for low level sorties.

In my personal opinion I thought this Valiant was by far the most beautiful. The best thing to do is what I did, contact Julian Temple ( if he is still in charge of aviation ) at brooklands museum, they have every drawing for every Vickers aircraft & more. I made some 1/200 scale models of this valiant & got copies of different drawing & photos from there & they just asked for a generous donation. Julian was incredibly helpful for me.

It is hard to find anything on the undercarriage, there is a bit of info and some pics of the B.2 generally on this thread, http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=110023&highlight=valiant , including some unusual shots posted on Twin Otters Newark links,

my understanding is that the main gear legs swivelled rearwards, the four wheel bogies maintainig their parellel position to be housed in the trailing edge fairings – sort of Tupolev or Britannia style.
Would be great to see some detail though, especially if Black Knight can post something from a manual.

If you get really stuck and are desperate to see the mechanism I’m wondering if the BAe archives at Farnborough will have pics, it’s surprising at what unpublished material they have.

Great looking aircraft though!

I don’t recall it rotating, iirc it just folding flat backwards. I have copies of some of the omd’s so I’ll dig them out & see if there’s anything on them.