I spent most of the morning really digging into aircraft landing gear kinematics. Oh boy what fun! No seriously, it was fun. So I finally figured out how to build the gear so it can have a forward retraction point. Most gear of this type either just moves up and down (C5) or tucks inward in to the belly (777). I needed this to tuck in forward on the wing.

What I came up with is a variant of an Avro Vulcan  main gear in combination with a little XB-70a action. 

Some changes to the mock-up I had before:

• Tucked the dual wheel sets closer together
• Moved the entire system forward and inward, because the gear trunnion didn’t set up in a believable place
• Built up the brake system for each wheel set

Okay, now I’m off to APE (Alternative Press Expo)!