Influences of Two Landing Gear Designs on Helicopter Crashworthiness and Weights

The systems approach to crashworthiness is applied to a study of two landing gear designs to evaluate their influences on helicopter weights for survivable crash-impact conditions. Both landing gear designs share a trailing arm configuration; however, one is coupled and the other uncoupled. The coupled design requires that both main landing gear struts stroke and absorb energy together during high roll impacts. The designs and their influences on the crushing behavior of the landing gear, fuselage and crew seat, and the responses of the occupants are evaluated with program KRASH. The results of the analysis are used to develop weight trend curves for the two designs as a function of the impact parameters (impact velocity, roll angle and pitch angle) and the probability of occurrence of survivable helicopter accidents.