A theme has developed, as I've read more about the Charger (and other designs which use the same cantilever-and-donuts gear): the landing gear is a problem area.
The advice on Firebolts with the Charger-type gear is to replace it with the old Skybolt bungee gear. The word on Chargers with standard gear seems to be to reinforce things, without terribly specific advice on where to reinforce. It's already heavy gear, from what I can tell (.090" box section legs with a lot more steel than the standard bungee gear).
What about the idea of modifying the Charger's gear to be a more traditional bungee design? It looks like the main gear attachment point at stations B-B' can be left unmodified, and the rear-triangulating leg of the gear can be attached at station C with minor modifications (basically the addition of an attachment point). The formulation of the bungee attach points shouldn't present substantial changes to the design, since there's already cross-bracing there (not shown) to accomodate the donut-shaft attachments. It's already designed for stresses in the same direction.
The only complication is the design of the gear legs themselves, and I feel like there's sufficient prior art lying around that I could come up with something that matches the dimensions of the cantilever gear without having to break out any heavy engineering tomes. It probably wouldn't be the lightest possible design unless I get a real engineer involved, but it probably also wouldn't outweigh the as-designed gear.
Thoughts? I know, deviating from the plans is probably a terrible idea, but I'd like to explore it before giving up on it. I'd appreciate your experienced views.
The advice on Firebolts with the Charger-type gear is to replace it with the old Skybolt bungee gear. The word on Chargers with standard gear seems to be to reinforce things, without terribly specific advice on where to reinforce. It's already heavy gear, from what I can tell (.090" box section legs with a lot more steel than the standard bungee gear).
What about the idea of modifying the Charger's gear to be a more traditional bungee design? It looks like the main gear attachment point at stations B-B' can be left unmodified, and the rear-triangulating leg of the gear can be attached at station C with minor modifications (basically the addition of an attachment point). The formulation of the bungee attach points shouldn't present substantial changes to the design, since there's already cross-bracing there (not shown) to accomodate the donut-shaft attachments. It's already designed for stresses in the same direction.
The only complication is the design of the gear legs themselves, and I feel like there's sufficient prior art lying around that I could come up with something that matches the dimensions of the cantilever gear without having to break out any heavy engineering tomes. It probably wouldn't be the lightest possible design unless I get a real engineer involved, but it probably also wouldn't outweigh the as-designed gear.
Thoughts? I know, deviating from the plans is probably a terrible idea, but I'd like to explore it before giving up on it. I'd appreciate your experienced views.
