An airliner in which the wheel bogies of the main landing gear are stored one behind the other in a narrow, hollow keel at the bottom of the fuselage. The narrow keel replaces the usual voluminous hold under the passenger cabin. This decreases the cross-sectional area of the fuselage, to reduce aerodynamic drag.;One main strut of the landing gear angles forward during retraction, while the other strut angles backward. That allows the bogie tandem storage. It also requires swiveling a bogie as it enters the keel. The folding of the drag brace during strut retraction powers the swiveling mechanism. Elsewhere, the side brace folds and twists during retraction.;Dividing the main wing spar at the fuselage and passing only the bottom half under the cabin preserves the reduced hold volume. The decreased cross-sectional area allows the passenger cabin to be enlarged. It creates a “wide-body” supersonic airliner able to carry more passengers.
展开▼
