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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Julius Wong who wrote (15169)	3/10/2007 12:47:23 AM
From: energyplay	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 217688

The body gear steering doesn't appreciably reduce the turning radius, but does reduce or eliminate differential braking or engine thrust needed for turns. You still need a ground tug for tight areas like you said. Looks like the body gear steering would reduce the amount of force the tug needs to turn the aircraft, and also the stress on the nose gear. Some info on ground manuvering a 747 from Boeing. There's a clear diagram of what the body gear does about 3 pages in. boeing.com This is similar to rear wheel steering in some trucks. There was a Mitsubishi sports car that had a very slick system - the rear wheels turned out from the turn at low speed for tighter parking, went neutral as speed increased, and then a little in the same direction as the turn (same as the front tires) to inprove cornering. The A380 is just flat out bigger. I expect they won't need body gear steering because most airports will build new gates at the end of terminals with more space anyway. I also expect there won't be that many A380s flying for a long time. I don't know if it is Boeing's propaganda, but it seems there is some reluctance to embrace the A380 by many people in aviation. I wonder if it is the large cost of new airport facilities, which the airport authorities will of course pass on to the airlines. The other effect of the A380 and the 787 seems to be that much of the aircraft grade carbon fiber capacity in the world will be used for a few years.