GB847382A - Improvements in douglas d.c. 3 and like aircraft - Google Patents

Abstract

847,382. Fairings for aircraft undercarriages. TRANSAIR Ltd. June 18, 1957 [June 21, 1956], No. 19311/56. Class 4. In a Douglas DC3 aircraft wherein the main landing wheels each retract partially into an open wheel well, doors are provided which fit snugly round the projecting portion of the wheel to extend the nacelle fairing over the open well. Two doors 10, shaped at their lower edges and provided with brushes 18 to seat against each wheel, are each hinged at 12 to a lower edge of the wheel well and a further door or flap 33 is secured at 35, 36 to the undercarriage back-stay 32 to seal off the rear part of the wheel-well opening. Each door 10 is connected by a link 25 to a slide 24 freely mounted within a channel-section member 21 mounted on a firewall 20 and formed at its upper end with a rearward projection 28. The slide carries also a spring-loaded pivoted bell-crank latch, one arm of which extends rearwardly under projection 28, the other arm depending for latching engagement with a fixed plate 30 whereby each door is held in its open position to which it is urged by elastic cord (not shown). The undercarriage strut 22 is "broken" during retraction at a knuckle joint 37 and during the latter part of the retracting movement the joint 37 or a part of the strut adjacent thereto engages the latch 29 to free slide 24 and then raises the slides, links 25 and doors 10 to the closed position the door 33 completing the closure as the back-stay reaches its uppermost position.