Aeroplane Landing Tricks

[ewand]

Apologies in advance for the bizarre question, but when I was on a plane the other day when I had a thought about landings.  Is it possible for a plane to land on its front wheel and then go along the runway for a bit before taking off again?  Sort of like a reverse "wheelie"?  If it is possible with a little plane, would it be possible with a Jumbo??

[KebabMeister]

I would say it's impossible because the nose would have to be pointing down to do the wheelie and this would mean that the wings are also in a downward direction and therefore forcing the aircraft down onto its rear wheels (like Angle of Attack). 

It would be possible with a Harrier or similar VSTOL/STOVL aircraft though but that's because they have variable nozzles from the jet engine.

[Quizmonster]

Apart from anything else, the weight on the front wheel - especially in the case of a Jumbo - would cause its structure to crumple. In a normal Jumbo landing, the initial landing weight is taken on several separate multi-wheel bogies, before the front wheels finally touch the ground. I cannot conceive of any Jumbo pilot being sufficiently stupid as to even contemplate a nose-wheel touchdown!

[ewand]

Excellent answers folks!  Though I must admit, I was thinking more about the skill, QM, not thinking that a fully laden commercial jumbo pilot would actually do it!!!!

[Clanad]

It doesn't actually take a lot of skill in smaller aircraft.  In teaching new students to land, the skill to be learned is a transition from relatively level flight to an attitude of slightly nose up to bleed off excess speed. This is a continuing process; as the speed decreases, more nose up control pressure is required. Often times, the instructor has to be cautious of the student not raising the nose of the aircraft sufficiently to achieve the proper attitude with the results being touching down on the nose gear wheel first.  The term for this is wheelbarrowing for obvious reasons.  As Quizmonster states, to allow this condition to continue for any length of time will result in damage to the structure, even on smaller training type airplanes...

[ewand]

Excellent answer Clanad..........!

[Noweia]

I've seen a video of a Boeing 707 do it - the pilot messed up the landing and the aircraft approached the runway nose-down.  The nose wheel touched down then the plane rolled a bit, and the pilot pulled up to go around.