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Are there any aircraft with a 4-wheel nose landing gear and a 16-wheel main landing gear? I need this to answer my review of an aircraft design project.

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    $\begingroup$ I'm curious. How will finding such an aircraft help with a review of some other design? $\endgroup$
    – CatchAsCatchCan
    Apr 25, 2020 at 10:27
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    $\begingroup$ @CatchAsCatchCan "If they did it so can we!" :) $\endgroup$
    – DeepSpace
    Apr 25, 2020 at 21:28

3 Answers 3

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The Il-76:

enter image description here

4 main bogies with 4 wheels each, nose gear with 4 wheels.

this one has a better view of the wheels, but it's a CGI:

enter image description here

4-wheel nose gear is rare, 16-wheel mains are more common: Boeing 747 (4 trucks with 4 wheels each in 2x2 config), Avro Vulcan (main trucks with 2 axles with 4 wheels each), HP Victor (same as Vulcan), Shorts Belfast (same as Vulcan).

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The Antonov AN-124 has 4 nose wheels and 20 mains which is close to that configuration.

The Antonov AN-225 is also close to being configured this way. It has 4 nose wheels but has 32 mains.

enter image description here

(source)

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    $\begingroup$ That is one MASSIVE #@$§¥& airplane! Just, dang! $\endgroup$
    – Ralph J ♦
    Apr 24, 2020 at 23:02
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    $\begingroup$ Not to mention a beautiful one! $\endgroup$
    – Super
    Apr 25, 2020 at 0:40
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    $\begingroup$ C-5 has 4 front and 24 mains, but can be misconstrued as 16 from some angles. $\endgroup$
    – Moo
    Apr 25, 2020 at 6:48
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    $\begingroup$ I can only count 28 main wheels for AN-225 on that picture. $\endgroup$
    – Alex
    Apr 25, 2020 at 7:03
  • $\begingroup$ Can't find a good picture of the landing gear, but the Stratolaunch looks like it has either 24 or 48 main wheels, and 4 or 8 nose wheels. $\endgroup$
    – jamesqf
    Apr 25, 2020 at 16:19
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I'd like to mention the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, which has 4 nose wheels and 24 mains. C-5[source]

The large Antonovs use two two-wheel bogies for their nose gear, whereas the C-5 uses one four-wheel bogey. For the mains, the Antonovs have multiple inline two-wheel bogies, whereas the C-5 has four six-wheel bogies. As Moo commented while I was writing this, those distinctive six-wheel bogies can be deceptive from some angles and give the appearance of 16 main wheels.

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    $\begingroup$ A tricycle undercarriage, where the main gear comprises four tricycle undercarriages... $\endgroup$
    – Level River St
    Apr 26, 2020 at 11:43
  • $\begingroup$ Lockheed know how to triforce. $\endgroup$
    – hobbs
    Apr 28, 2020 at 1:12

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