I recently saw a photo of an Arado 234 that had been pushed backward into a parking area. Its nosewheel had obviously castered 180 degrees during the push and was “pointing” aft. Does this mean 234s had fully castering nosegear, meaning directional control on takeoff was by differential braking? (I don’t think anybody played with differential thrust on those touchy early 004 engines…) Only other possibility is that the nosegear was rudder-pedal controllable but could be disengaged for ground handling. Anybody know?
By: Vega ECM - 4th August 2013 at 16:01
According to the very authoritative work “Flugzeug Fahrwerke” (German WW2 Landing Gear) by Gunter Sengfelder the Ar 234b had no direct pilot control of nose wheel steering. It was purely a damped, free to caster nose wheel where the aircraft direction was controlled by diff braking or diff engine thrust. Although not mentioned I suspect there is a wheel centre detent or lock as suggested above.
By: pogno - 4th August 2013 at 11:16
I am guessing the nose wheel is free to caster on the ground but with some sort of centering action or lock, either manually applied by the pilot or automatic when the weight comes off the leg. This would be needed to keep the wheel centered during retraction and perhaps during the take off roll when the brakes would be used to keep directional control until the rudder started to be effective.
Richard
By: Rocketeer - 4th August 2013 at 08:03
Many aircraft can unlock the tail or nose wheel for ground towing….maybe thats the case? I would think differential was the way?
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August 4, 2013 at 3:51 am