Emirates Engineering has successfully accomplished the first complete replacement of landing gear on A6-EDF, the first Emirates Airbus A380 aircraft to have its entire landing gear system replaced at one time.
Comprising five sets of landing gear - two under the wings, two under the body, and one nose landing gear, the work was planned and executed in-house, at the Emirates Engineering hangars in Dubai.
Every Emirates Airbus A380 aircraft has a landing gear system with a total of 22 landing wheels. In addition to the wheels, the landing gear mechanism of the aircraft includes the gear extension and retraction systems, braking and steering controls, and other monitoring systems. The landing gear of the world’s largest commercial aircraft can support a weight of close to 570 tonnes on take-off and over 390 tonnes on landing.
The process of changing all the landing gears was completed in 14 days with the Emirates Engineering team clocking thousands of man hours during this period. For the duration of the work, the entire aircraft was lifted on jacks to support the body of the aircraft.