One for the aircraft designers..

I'll bite.. I'm guessing for simplicity.. less weight, less stuff to go wrong (motors, wiring, when deployed and by what, and if it fails will it do something bad) and cost of rubber vs all that consideration.

Planes have been brought down by many things over the years.. even some wiring in the entertainment system..

 

Short answer: If it was cost-effective airlines would do it. It isn't.

There are so many threads about this on the internet, with a lot of them getting to why this isn't done.

 

It's all been tried in the past and it isn't cost effective, weight smart, etc.

 

Probably would have better luck getting aircraft to take off and land from a giant treadmill.

 

Some WWII bombers (some B-17's, I think), had motors that spun the wheels prior to landing. Or maybe Wellingtons...

Rubber was scarce during the war.

Deemed a waste and not continued.

Anyway, it's a lot less wear than a trip to the 7-11 by the typical mulleted Mustang driver.

 

The big problem is when they do not stop spinning once you take off, at least in some aircraft. Makes a really loud noise when they come up against the snubbers.

 

lol

 

Don't give Airbus any ideas........

 

I guess you could do something like that and it would help, but aircraft tires are pretty soft, and they still wear pretty fast even if you did address the landing issue..

I was always taught to apply the brakes once in the air and just before I actuated the landing gear to stop the mains from turning before retraction.... The idea being that you didn't want the wheels spinning when they went into the wells.. You could stop the wheels with the brakes on retraction and that would still work, you'd just have to hold the brakes until retraction was complete.

 

No treadmill needed and wheel rotators not needed either. No wear on these tires...
http://youtu.be/82ixxBOxZjE

 

Checklist for my old Mooney included touch brakes prior to retracting gear. No snubber in the wheel well so it really didn't matter, but simple procedure to implement in a coordinated cockpit environment.

 

I was always amazed at the main gear tires of the B-24 on landing. The strut jerked back about 6 to 8 inches on impact and the tires grew in height for a couple of inches. Lots of smoke and noise that was easy to hear from an open waist position.

 

I was told a long time ago in A&P school you don't want them spinning in flight due to the gyroscopic effect adversely affecting the airplane.

 

They do have that, usually as a mod. You want it for gravel runways. If the wheel is already spinning, it won't throw up as much gravel against the airframe. I believe the gravel runway mod for Learjets had it for the nosewheel.

On pavement, I don't think it makes that much of a difference.

 

Now that's a viable reason I hadn't thought of. Getting all the mains spinning on a large plane would have an effect.

Here's a Citation gravel runway kit.
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The Ruskies just use fenders.

 

Brian- They look like mudguards on some of the Russian aircraft.

 

I have seen a few. I was told at some point they design aircraft for lesser quality airfields and debris exposure. As I recall a few had air inlets ducted to over the wings for taxiing to avoid FOD.

 

The MiG-29 in its original version, notably...
Yes, they do have to take care of debris exposure, some of their aerodromes being in very remote places; they also have a water/snow/mud problem with the violent snow melting during the infamous "raspoutitsa", which is the week or ten days during which almost everything thaw in one go in Russia, which means mud, etc, almost everywhere, including on tarmacs...

Rgds

 

I once saw an Alaska Airlines 737-200 Combi unloading at Sea-Tac airport. The passengers were deplaning from the aft side airstair while a forklift was removing cargo through the forward side cargo door. You could not help seeing a very large mudguard attached to the nose landing gear.

 

Was it because Alaska was a former russian territory?
More seriously: yes I think that the main reason for the mudguards on russian/soviet airplanes is in fact snow / mud.

Rgds