Quote:
Originally Posted by PAR_WIG1350
Another exception would be the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress Which has a quadracycle undercarriage and 4-'module' crab steering to facilitate landing the behemoth of an aircraft in high crosswinds conditions. Most aircraft have to approach flying sideways and straighten out after they land to roll down the runway instead of off it, the B-52 simply rolls sideways  . |
To be fair, the B-52 only has ±20° of strafing ability.
Actually, the reason for those steerable gear is the use of ridiculously-small control surfaces on the B-52. The engineers designing it in the
late 1940s were not confident in the reliability of early hydraulic flight controls, and therefore adopted all sorts of unusual compromises. Instead of using a large hydraulic rudder to control the plane in a crosswind, they just added steerable gear, and stuck with a very narrow (though still about 20 ft tall) spring-tab-assisted rudder.
It seems to have worked, because the early-1960s-built B-52Hs are likely to be in service for at least 30 more years....