Editing Arado Ar 234 Blitz (section)

====Landing gear design ====

The projected weight for the aircraft was approximately {{convert|8|t}}. To reduce weight and maximize the internal fuel, Arado did not use retractable [[landing gear]].<ref name = "bauduin 47"/> Instead, the aircraft was to take off from a jettisonable [[Tricycle landing gear|tricycle gear]]-style trolley,<ref>[http://aerostories.free.fr/events/juvin/ar234-01.JPG "Aerostories: Arado 234, July - August 1944: no ordinary missions."] ''Aerostories''. Retrieved: 16 March 2016.</ref><ref name = "forsythbeal 6"/> referred to as a nosewheel takeoff-carriage in English, as described in an Ar 234A Typenblatt factory drawing for the V8 prototype, and land on three retractable skids, one under the central section of the fuselage and one under each engine nacelle. The main skid, beneath the fuselage, was originally intended to fully retract, and was originally shown in a 1942-dated engineering drawing, under the E 370 airframe factory development designation, as intended to be made from a three-sided channel-section component, featuring a set of nine triple-[[Bead (woodworking)|beaded]] wooden rollers within the channel-section main skid.<ref>{{cite book |last = Sengfelder |first = Günther |date = 1993 |title = German Aircraft Landing Gear |location = Atglen, PA USA |publisher = Schiffer Publishing |pages = 44–45 |isbn = 0-88740-470-7 |quote = ''Skizze - Längschnitt E 370 - Fahrwerk'' - captioned "The preliminary design of the Ar 234 featured a very unique landing gear arrangement".}}</ref> However, this landing gear did not allow aircraft to move after the landing run, which would have left aircraft scattered over an airfield, unable to taxi off the runway. Erich Sommer said that landing the skid-equipped prototypes on a wet grass airstrip "was like greased lightning" and "like [landing on] soap", due to the complete lack of braking capability.<ref>{{cite AV media|title = Wings of the Luftwaffe – Arado Ar-234 |time = 17:10 }}</ref><ref name = "bauduin 54">Bauduin 2014, p. 54.</ref>