Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle Path: utzoo!henry From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: shuttle landing anomaly Message-ID: <1989Aug16.230127.97@utzoo.uucp> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology References: <4500@portia.Stanford.EDU> <57706@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Date: Wed, 16 Aug 89 23:01:27 GMT In article <57706@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Harold McMillanwrites: >... I thought that the nose wheel hit unusually hard. >Maybe they had a hard time getting the nose down and over-corrected. Easy to do, I believe, because the nose gear is short enough that with all wheels on the ground, the wing's angle of attack is negative (leading edge lower than trailing edge) and it is pushing *down*. This is also why on landing, especially with a heavy load, they try to hold the nose gear off the ground for a while -- putting the nose down immediately worsens the load on the main gear, which is already a somewhat marginal design. -- V7 /bin/mail source: 554 lines.| Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology 1989 X.400 specs: 2200+ pages. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu