Patent ID: 11939045
Assignee: THE BOEING COMPANY
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 13:
14. A landing gear system for an aircraft including a fuselage, the landing gear system comprising:
a landing gear assembly coupled to the fuselage, the landing gear assembly including:
an energy absorber including a housing and a piston movable within the housing along a first axis in a plurality of normal-operation stroke positions;
a land-contact assembly attached to the energy absorber, wherein the energy absorber and the land-contact assembly are movable together from an extended position to a retracted position;
a retraction assembly attached to the energy absorber via a pivot point and fixed to the fuselage, wherein the retraction assembly includes an actuator movable to a locked position which locks the energy absorber and the land-contact assembly in the extended position, and the actuator is movable to an unlocked position which releases the retraction assembly and rotates the energy absorber and the land-contact assembly relative to the pivot point to the retracted position;
a trigger assembly coupled to the energy absorber and the retraction assembly, wherein the trigger assembly is configured to retract the land-contact assembly from the extended position to the retracted position in response to the piston of the energy absorber reaching a maximum stroke position in which the trigger assembly triggers the actuator to actuate from the locked position to the unlocked position to release the retraction assembly in a controlled manner which rotates the energy absorber and the land-contact assembly relative to the pivot point to the retracted position, and wherein the maximum stroke position of the piston is beyond the normal-operation stroke positions of the piston; and
wherein the trigger assembly includes a switch incorporated into the housing of the energy absorber and the switch provides active control of the trigger assembly.