Lunar Carrier landing gear. How does it work?

[Sky1Driver]

One of my favorite UFO vehicles is the Lunar Carrier. I was always fascinated by its landing gear. It looked so complicated and how did it all fit in the wing? Well, after staring at screenshots and almost every available photo of the vehicle taking off and landing, this is what I came up with (besides eyestrain). Additional inspiration came from the close up of the landing gear for Seagull X-Ray and that NASA transport seen in JOURNEY TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN. The final result was added to my update to Jonathan E’s Lunar Carrier/Module schematic.

Attached is a theory on how the landing gear retracted into the wings (it would be a very tight fit).

 

[keef666]

This has always made me wonder with this craft, why did it need to be so long, its not as if the thing needed a runway to take off so the landing gear could have been made shorter and more studier? And when you look at the space shuttle on the back of a jumbo 747, wonder who they got that idea off?

 

[Sky1Driver]

I believe the Lunar Carrier had such tall landing gear to offset the ground effect which is common with VTOL craft (see: ground effect-wikipedia-VTOL aircraft-Bell X-14). The landing gear would require a special hydraulic/mechanical system to allow it to fold and compress into the gear well- something similar (and less complicated) was the landing gear system for the Concorde. The multiple sets of wheels distribute the weight of the Lunar Carrier so it could use almost any runway (see the Boeing 747 and Airbus A380).