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The Ho 229's front wheel is visibly bigger than the main landing gear; during landing, did it touch down on all wheels simultaneously, on the front wheel first, or in the normal manner?

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  • $\begingroup$ Trying to read deeper into your question, are you asking this because the lack of elevators will make bringing the nose down a bit more difficult? I dont have the answer but I would imagine the Ho-229 would have a pretty flat attitude on landing. $\endgroup$
    – Anilv
    Sep 26, 2019 at 2:02
  • $\begingroup$ No , but front wheel is more bigger than that the two from behind. $\endgroup$
    – George Geo
    Sep 26, 2019 at 6:41

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The term "3 point landing" is derived from old taildragger (3rd wheel in back) designs.

In reality a 3 pointer is not desirable, as the wheel, front or back, being away from the center of gravity, can produce a nasty pitch if it bounces. At landing speeds this can be uncontrollable. The term "3 pointer" does imply good landing speed management, as the plane, slightly nose up, has been flared properly, and will "settle" gently to the ground. Most of the time the pilot will strive to land on the main gear, bleed off more speed, then allow the 3rd wheel down before taxiing off the runway.

The Horton Ho229, if it ever flew, was designed to land under wartime conditions. Even jets were very vulnerable when slowing to land, and many times paved smooth runways simply were not available (survivable) options.

So the huge front wheel was basically overdesigned for less than perfect landings. However, landing technique, even for this fantastically futuristic aircraft, would be similar to other planes.

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