Gulfstream has filed a patent application for a new nose gear design that is claimed to reduce overflight noise when the landing gear is extended. According to the patent application, Noise generated by an aircraft as it approaches a runway while landing can be a nuisance to surrounding communities. The noise generated by an aircraft on approach to a runway includes primarily two components. The first component is the noise generated by the engines of the aircraft. The second component is airframe noise, a large part of which includes the noise generated by the aircraft’s landing gear passage through the air. Efforts to make jet engines quieter have been so successful, according to Gulfstream, that the next step in noise reduction is to reduce the noise made by the extended landing gear passing through the air.
The design Gulfstream seeks to patent places the torque arm used to turn the nose gear assembly for ground steering ahead of the nose gear shock strut (it had previously been mounted aft), so it is in undisturbed air, which greatly reduces noise generated by the nose gear assembly. Measured decibel reduction numbers are not set out in the application. Gulfstream is also installing a curved shield under the central hub of paired nosewheels to further smooth airflow around the nose gear.
