Building on our success as recognised landing gear design consultants, we were approached by a Chinese client that was developing an amphibious firefighting/search & rescue aircraft. The client had issues with the system performance and integration of their complex landing gear system, and we were asked to address this.
Working closely with the client, our review of the landing gear extension and retraction system included an assessment of the system architecture (including electrical and hydraulic control systems), emergency system and locking features.
The review was carried out in the context of the ARP4754 systems development process, and emphasis was placed on a development process that will help the customer’s systems design team adopt an architecture with generic characteristics, regardless of the final design. Doing this will ensure that the correct redundancy, segregation/independence and safety levels are achieved.
Our review provided recommendations on how the extension and retraction system architecture should be changed to meet the performance requirements and safety objectives. The first amphibious aircraft of this type had its successful maiden flight in December 2017 and was certified in 2021.