Jacobs provides operations and maintenance services for the Landing Gear Test Facility, which is utilized by the Department of Defense, US Government, and commercial clients for landing gear component testing in compliance with customer supplied specifications. Equipment in the facility can simulate real-world operating conditions for aircraft wheels, tires, brakes, struts, and entire landing gear assemblies. Engineers and technicians provide support in all aspects of testing from planning stages to report generation to provide the customer with accurate, reliable, and impartial data. We have in-house capabilities for instrumentation, design and fabrications, and complete data reduction and reporting. Jacobs provides complete support for all test operations and equipment maintenance, upgrades, and repairs. We are an ISO 9001:2000 certified facility with the scope of aircraft tire, wheel, brake, and landing gear testing and facility support.

One-of-a-kind facility provides unique capabilities including four external drum dynamometers, one internal drum dynamometer, four drop towers, a tire force machine, and a fatigue test machine. Tests are performed for developmental landing gear programs, equipment flight certification tests, as well as in the performance of field failure investigations.

Material Strength Analysis – Jacobs conducts various types of tests on tires, wheels, brakes, and landing gear. Specifically, tire testing includes the following tests: dynamic and static, tread wear, pressure footprint, slip, physical properties, non-destructive, and hydrostatic burst. We take swaths of tire material and stretch to measure elasticity and strength. Wheel and brake testing includes the following tests: brake dynamic and static torque, brake qualification and wear, rejected take-off (RTO), wheel roll, and wheel combined and static load. Landing gear testing includes: landing impact (drop), load stroke, durability, fatigue, stability, stiffness, shimmy, shock, and vibration. We use a wide variety of equipment including tensile test machines to test materials to failure.

Non-Destructive Testing – Jacobs performs a variety of non-destructive tests on the tires utilizing L-Ray. We also use several techniques to check wheels and land gear struts for stress and fractures by applying stress coatings which harden and crack where there is stress, use photo-elastic material which changes color where there is stress, and use dye penetrants.

Vibration Testing – Jacobs utilizes ED and hydraulic shakers to replicate rough runways to perform shimmy, shock, and vibration tests on landing gears.

Equipment Calibration and Testing – Jacobs performs in-situ system/sub-system level calibrations on thermocouples, meters, position transducers, pressure transducers, and load and torque arm calibrations on the dynamometer carriages.

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