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Aviation glossary

Landing gear

Also: undercarriage, gear, main gear

The aircraft

Assembly of legs, wheels, shock absorbers and brakes that supports an aircraft on the ground and absorbs landing loads; on most airliners it retracts in flight.

What it is

Most of today's airliners use a tricycle layout: a steerable nose gear to direct the aircraft on the ground, and two or more main gear legs under the wings or fuselage that carry nearly all the weight. Each leg has an oleo-pneumatic shock absorber, and the main wheels carry brakes, made of carbon on many modern types. Older aircraft such as the Douglas DC-3 used a conventional layout with a tailwheel instead.

Wheel count rises with weight to spread the load on the runway: an Airbus A320 usually has six wheels, a Boeing 777 has twelve on its two main legs and an Airbus A380 has twenty-two in all. After take-off the gear retracts into its wells to cut drag, and if the hydraulics fail it can be lowered by gravity using an alternate system.

On Vuelopedia

Douglas DC-3 Airbus A380

Related terms

LandingThe final phase of flight in which the aircraft crosses the runway threshold, touches down on its main gear and slows to taxi speed. Take-offThe phase in which an aircraft accelerates along the runway to rotation speed, raises its nose and climbs away to a safe height above any obstacles. TaxiingMovement of an aircraft on the ground under its own power between the apron and the runway, along taxiways and following instructions from ground control. Runway surfaceMaterial a runway is built from, such as asphalt, concrete, gravel or grass, which determines the aircraft and weights it can accept. MLWMaximum weight at which an aircraft is certified to land, determined mainly by the strength of the landing gear and the airframe.
Whole glossary

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This page was last updated on October 9, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). Landing gear. Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/landing-gear

MLA

“Landing gear.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/landing-gear. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Vuelopedia. “Landing gear.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 9, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/landing-gear.

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) Landing gear. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/landing-gear (Accessed: 16 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_landing_gear,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{Landing gear}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-10-09},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/landing-gear},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/landing-gear}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-16},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-16}
}

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/landing-gear |title=Landing gear |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-09 |access-date=2026-10-16 |language=en}}

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