• @[email protected]
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    1 month ago

    Hmm. I guess that sounds lighter than springs. Do other aircraft have air-based shock absorbers?

    Edit:

    Intended to be operated by inexperienced pilots with a minimum of 20 minutes of instruction

    Lol, so that guy isn’t even a pilot, either. RIP

    • @marcos
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      51 month ago

      Maybe even during a war they weren’t able to find any pilots wanting to use those things.

      • @[email protected]
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        1 month ago

        According the the article linked it didn’t even pass the testing phase, because surprise-surprise guys kept crashing. That was the 50’s in peacetime, and the whole thing probably started because helicopters were the hype of the era and there was a lot of funding.

    • @Death_Equity
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      21 month ago

      Depends on the aircraft if it has gas or hydraulic shock absorbers. Some lightweight aircraft just have torsion based shock absorption.

      • @[email protected]
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        21 month ago

        How would hydraulic ones work? The entire concept there is that liquids are almost incompressible.

        • @Death_Equity
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          21 month ago

          It is done by allowing fluid to flow through passages between chambers separated with a piston. Your car’s shocks and struts work the same way. There are also ones with external reservoir that may allow for more travel or that can be pressurized to alter resistance.

          • @[email protected]
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            21 month ago

            You’d still need some kind of restoring force. Visibly, some cars use metal springs for at least part of that.

            • @Death_Equity
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              21 month ago

              The fluid pushes on a reservoir of nitrogen that keeps the plane from bottoming out. It is a progressive pressure system, so it gets harder to move the more force is applied.

              • @[email protected]
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                1 month ago

                Ah! Yes, you didn’t mention the pneumatic component. I thought you just meant between two bodies of oil, which would only provide damping and some added moment.