The Piper Super Cub is a popular taildragger aircraft.

Conventional landing gear describes an aircraft landing gear configuration with an undercarriage arrangement consisting of two main wheels and a tail wheel. In early aircraft, a tail skid made of metal or wood was used. In modern aircraft, a small, articulated wheel assembly is attached to the most posterior part of the airframe. The terms taildragger and tailwheel' are aviation jargon for conventional gear. Piper PA-18 Super Cub 150 (G-HACK) at the Great Vintage Fly-In Weekend, Kemble, England, May 10th 2003. ... Piper PA-18 Super Cub 150 (G-HACK) at the Great Vintage Fly-In Weekend, Kemble, England, May 10th 2003. ... The undercarriage or landing gear is equipment which supports an aircraft when it is not flying. ... A wheel is a circular object that together with an axle allows low friction motion, e. ... In zootomy, several terms are used to describe the location of organs and other structures in the body of bilateral animals. ... Airframe is a novel by renowned author Michael Crichton first published in hardback edition in 1996 and as a paperback edition in 1997. ... Jargon redirects here. ...

History and Current Use

Tailwheel aircraft are no longer commercially produced in large numbers, yet they are still made in high numbers by individuals who build aircraft from plans or kits. Examples of these tailwheel aircraft are the Vans RV-4, kitfox, and the Murphy Moose. Commercially made tailwheel aircraft are still preferred for use in specialty applications such as aerobatic, agricultural aircraft, and bush planes. The Vans RV-4 is a small homebuilt aircraft supplied by the Vans corporation. ... Flown in 1984, the first Kitfox design was a two-seat STOL aircraft similar in concept to the famous Piper J-3 Cub. ... A radial-equipped Murphy Moose. ... Soon after aircraft were invented, pilots realised that they could be used as part of a flying circus to entertain people or impress others in what was termed aerobatics. ... An agricultural aircraft is an aircraft that has been built or converted for agricultural use - usually aerial spraying of pesticides or fertiliser. ... Categories: Aircraft stubs ...

Characteristics

This section applies to General Aviation aircraft only. General aviation (GA) encompasses all aviation other than scheduled airline flights and military aviation. ...

Taildraggers will behave just like tricycle gear aircraft when flying. Taildraggers, though, have ground handling characteristics that can be challenging. In a taildragger, the center of mass is located behind the front landing gear, which is an inherently less stable configuration than a tricycle landing gear. If the pilot is not able to keep the longitudinal axis of the aircraft alligned with the runway, then the center of mass of the aircraft will tend to rotate around the landing gear (the highest point of drag, or friction while on the ground) until the center of mass is in front of the highest point of drag. This results in an abrupt turn known as a ground loop, typically causing damage. There is no doubt that more skill is needed to take off and land a tailwheel aircraft, and some translate this to mean that tailwheel aircraft are harder to operate. However, the added skill is a benefit to any pilot, and some nosewheel pilots develop similar levels of skill without ever flying a tailwheel aircraft. A Cessna 152 with a tricycle landing gear Tricycle gear describes a kind of aircraft undercarriage, or landing gear, arranged in a tricycle fashion. ... The term, longitudinal means front-to-back or top-to-bottom as opposed to transverse which means side-to-side. In automotive engineering, the term, longitudinal refers to an engine in which the crankshaft is oriented along the long axis of the vehicle, front to back. ... This article is about the resistive force. ... In aviation, ground loop is the rapid circular rotation of an aircraft in the horizontal plane whilst on the ground. ...

The tailwheel landing gear configuration has benefits when landing in high winds and rough, unimproved runways in that in such applications the sometimes fragile front landing gear could be easily damaged as it is often relied upon to counter any transverse loading, or side loads. A tailwheel aircraft offsets side loads and maintains direction by using control surfaces, which along with the leverage from the structure of the aircraft, are made to handle such loads. In high crosswinds, as the speed of the tailwheel aircraft slows and the forces exerted by the control surfaces decrease it may be necessary to simply let the tailwheel aircraft rotate around and point nose-first into the wind. This tends to alarm untrained nosewheel pilots. The use of a locking tailwheel may reduce this weather vane tendancy, but it once again adds transverse loads to parts of the aircraft structure that are not typically designed for such loads. Many nosewheel landing gear are structurally little more than props to hold up the front of the aircraft, and do not deal well with sideloads. It should be noted that skilled pilots of tricycle landing gear use techniues very similar to tailwheel pilots in order to avoid damaging the front landing gear in challenging situations. Also, single engine tricycle gear aircraft typically have very little clearance between the front propeller and the ground, making operations on rough or unimproved airfields problematic. This can be countered on tricycle gear aircraft by modifying the landing gear to accomidate larger tires and wheels. The term, transverse means side-to-side as opposed to longitudinal which means front-to-back. In automotive engineering, the term, transverse refers to an engine in which the crankshaft is oriented side-to-side relative to the wheels of the vehicle. ... Aircraft flight controls allow a pilot to guide a plane to a destination. ... A weather vane, also called a wind vane, is a movable device attached to an elevated object such as a roof for showing the direction of the wind. ...

While on the ground, visibility over the nose may be reduced due to the pitch attitude of the aircraft, depending on the model and geometry of specific aircraft. But, not all taildraggers have poor forward visibility on the ground. For example, theCessna 170taildragger has better visibility over the nose than later model tricycle gear Cessna 172's due to the increased size of the instrument panel in the later model 172's. Cessna 170. ... The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is a four-seat, single-engine, high-wing airplane. ...

Taildragger versions of the same aircraft often have higher useful loads and cruise speeds due to the elimination of the nose gear and its associated drag and weight.

There are experienced tailwheel pilots who insist that the added challenges of a tailwheel aircraft arise largely from a lack of skill that results from poor training when transitioning from a tricycle landing gear aircraft. Most pilots now learn to fly in tricycle gear aircraft (e.g., Cessna 152 and Cessna 172) and only later transition to taildraggers. Since the number of factory-built general aviation aircraft with a tailwheel is fairly low, the numbers of instructors experienced in this type of aircraft are also limited. The Cessna 152 is a two-seat, fixed tricycle gear general aviation airplane, primarily used for flight training. ... The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is a four-seat, single-engine, high-wing airplane. ... General aviation (GA) encompasses all aviation other than scheduled airline flights and military aviation. ...