The retractable undercarriage comprises a steerable pair of nose-wheels underneath the air intake and two main gear wheels towards the rear of the fuselage.
32.
The retractable undercarriage consisted of single main legs in the fuselage pods aft of the engines and a tail-wheel in the base of the fin.
33.
Karl Schewyer and Ferdinand Schmetz both designed tandem seated competition variants, respectively with a high wing and demountable undercarriage and a low wing, retractable undercarriage.
34.
After failing to compete in the 1933 " Coupe Michelin ", Lorraine Hanriot developed the LH . 131 further by adding a retractable undercarriage.
35.
This had less benefit to the aircraft's performance than was expected, however, and only a few aircraft were built with the retractable undercarriage.
36.
There are several differences compared with HOTOL . Whereas HOTOL would have launched from a rocket sled, to save weight, Skylon uses a conventional retractable undercarriage.
37.
It first flew on 10 April 1933 and was the first British type with a retractable undercarriage to go into production, with a total of 16 built.
38.
Comper was an early adopter of retractable undercarriages for light aircraft at a time when the balance of advantage between drag loss and weight penalty was not obvious.
39.
Its mixed construction and fixed landing gear were its main shortcomings, when contemporary aircraft in the USA and Germany were of all-metal construction with retractable undercarriages.
40.
The "'Koolhoven F . K . 54 "'was a Dutch single-engine, three-seat touring aircraft with a retractable undercarriage.
