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Originally Posted by bigaggietrumpet The gravel idea is making more sense now that I think about it, though I don't think that it's a universal solution. If the gear sheared, the plane would land onto its belly (hopefully) and the force due to friction would increase. The only question is whether or not it would increase enough to overcome the overall momentum of the plane (there's a LOT of momentum there. Plus you have to deal with the nose gear shearing first, thus plummeting the plane nose first into the ground (pilots would really give you grief here). |
One more thing just to run off to the forum, I believe most if not all jetliners are designed to land on their engines in a worst case scenario. I believe there are a couple of aircraft out there with pads on the bottoms of the nacelles, and if one makes an engine landing, the pads are the only things that need to be replaced (bar engine damage)! Jetliners sure may seem fragile, but in truth they're almost built like tanks. I should see if I can find the max braking demonstration of the 777-200 during testing. I forget the details, but I'll see if I can pull them up.