Liebherr supplies first nose landing gear for commercial freighter aircraft

Liebherr-Aerospace reached a significant milestone with the delivery of its first nose landing gear for the Airbus A350F freighter aircraft, continuing a successful partnership with Airbus that began over 50 years ago. Liebherr-Aerospace has been a key program partner since the start of the A350 program, supplying essential flight control components and the nose landing gear. Over the years, the company has continuously advanced its landing gear technology to meet the evolving demands of new aircraft variants.

The latest A350F version, designed for cargo operations over long distances, required substantial adaptations to both the aircraft’s base model and its onboard systems. One of the challenges of such a large freighter is to ensure its stability on ground while loading the main deck through the cargo door, which is located at the rear of the aircraft, i.e. behind the landing gear which creates a potential risk of tail tipping if loaded improperly. As part of its Safety Beyond Standard principle, Airbus has developed an innovative tail tipping warning system that prevents such an event. The aircraft’s balance on ground is computed based on the load on the nose landing gear. To get this load, Liebherr has developed a new electronic pressure sensor - integrated into the change-over valve - that monitors the internal shock absorber pressure.

Liebherr-Aerospace supplies the A350 family with a range of components, including the flap differential gearbox, load sensing drive strut, lower deck cargo door actuator, moving damper, nose landing gear, and slat actuation systems. The nose landing gear for the A350F is developed, qualified, and manufactured in Lindenberg (Germany), with comprehensive MRO services available in the aftermarket.

Gerd Heinzelmann, Managing Director Customer Service of Liebherr-Aerospace Lindenberg GmbH commented: “We greatly appreciate Airbus’ continued trust in us. As a developer with more than six decades of experience and a long-standing supplier of nose landing gear for the Airbus A350, we are proud to contribute to the operational safety of the freighter version. The customer’s trust in the quality of our products and engineering marks another milestone in our cooperation and paves the way for future successes.”

With the integration of new components and systems tailored for the A350F, Liebherr-Aerospace continues to support Airbus in delivering safe and reliable solutions for the aviation industry – on the ground and in the air. This milestone underlines the close cooperation between both companies as they jointly advance aerospace technology for the next generation of widebody and freighter aircraft.