Analysis of the wheel orientation angles in lockheed F-104S starfighter aircraft

This article contains kinematic analysis of the chassis mechanism used in Lockheed F-104S Star fighter aircraft, which is recently used by the NATO military aviation as an interceptor. The mechanism of the chassis is made up of several smaller subsystems with different functions. The first mechanism is used to eject the chassis before landing (touchdown) and fold it to hatchway after the lift off. The second mechanism is designed to perform rotation of the crossover with the wheel, in order to adjust the position of the wheel to fit it in the limited space in the hold. The third mechanism allows movement of the chassis resulting from the change in length of the damper. To determine the position of the following links of the mechanism was used calculus of vectors in which unit vectors were used to represent the angular position of the links. Often used equation, which describes a polygon vector, and the equation of unknown unit vector possible to determine if the other two and the angles between them are known. Calculations were performed in the three local systems of reference, thus were obtained the simplest forms of solutions for links positions. The corresponding scalar products of unit vectors are elements of two transition matrices. These matrices are needed for the vectors calculation in each of the three coordinate systems. The result of the analysis is to determine the angle of convergence and the angle of heel wheels as a function of variable length of hydraulic cylinder and the length of the shock absorber. It has been shown that length of the shock absorber has little effect on angle of convergence, but has a significant effect on the angle of the tilt-wheel landing gear.