Composites have become extensively used in aircraft, including the latest Airbus A380 and Boeing 787 models. Due to their high specific strength ratio, the composites can help to reduce fuel consumption. For this reason, small business jets and light aircraft have begun to use composites in their fuselage designs. The main purpose of this study is to analyze the reaction of the composite landing gear of a light sport aircraft (LSA), under loading. Finite element analysis software was used to analyze and compare the static and dynamic loads on the LSA landing gear. Takeoff weight and sink speed, defined by FAR and ASTM, were used as parameters. This work investigated three different types of landing gear materials: aluminum alloy, glass fiber reinforced composite and carbon fiber reinforced composite. The maximum stress, maximum strain and displacement of landing gear of different shapes (leaf, column and tube shapes) was also measured. Of all the samples tested, tube-shaped glass fiber reinforced composite landing gear exhibited the lowest maximum stress under a static load; it also exhibited the smallest maximum strain and y-axis displacement. The results for dynamic load show taht column-shaped landing gear exhibits the smallest maxiumum stress. The results also show that landing gear made with glass fiber reinforced composite exhibits the lowest maximum strain under a dynamic load, while landing gear made with carbon fiber reinforced composite exhibits the largest displacement of the three materials.
