A front landing gear module for an aircraft is disclosed including an open box provided with at least one door and containing a deployable front landing gear. The module may be a one-piece module and also including an attachment system intended to attach it on the aircraft, which allows the module to be manufactured in advance, before it is integrated as an individual assembly into the structure of the fuselage of the aircraft.

An aircraft having a systems cabinet positioned in an avionics bay to the rear of a landing gear compartment and connected to the fuselage by at least one lower connecting system. The systems cabinet and/or the lower connecting system comprises at least one longitudinal beam, which has a front end connected by a front connection to a wall separating the avionics bay and the landing gear compartment, the front connection comprising a sliding connection sliding in a direction substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis.

Systems, methods, and aircraft for managing center of gravity (CG) while transporting large cargo are described. Management of CG is achieved in many ways. In some instances, the aircraft itself is designed to assist in managing CG by providing fuel tanks that minimize the impact of fuel on the net CG of the aircraft. The fuel tanks utilize only a small amount of available volume in the wings for fuel. Disclosures related to properly managing CG while loading wind turbines onto cargo aircraft are also provided. The CG management techniques provided for herein allow for the transportation of wind turbine blades via aircraft, running counter to the typical rail or truck transportation of the same. One such management technique includes accounting for how a rotation of the blades when loading impacts the CG of the blades, and thus taking this into account when placing the blades in the aircraft.

A hypersonic aircraft includes one or more leading edge assemblies that are designed to manage thermal loads experienced at the leading edges during high speed or hypersonic operation. Specifically, the leading edge assemblies may include an outer wall tapered to a leading edge or stagnation point. The outer wall may define a vapor chamber and a capillary structure within the vapor chamber for circulating a working fluid in either liquid or vapor form to cool the leading edge. In addition, a thermal enhancement feature can enhance a heat transfer from the outer wall at the leading edge to the outer wall within the condenser section of the vapor chamber.

Systems, methods, and aircraft for managing center of gravity (CG) while transporting large cargo are described. Management of CG is achieved in many ways. In some instances, the aircraft itself is designed to assist in managing CG by providing fuel tanks that minimize the impact of fuel on the net CG of the aircraft. The fuel tanks utilize only a small amount of available volume in the wings for fuel. Disclosures related to properly managing CG while loading wind turbines onto cargo aircraft are also provided. The CG management techniques provided for herein allow for the transportation of wind turbine blades via aircraft, running counter to the typical rail or truck transportation of the same. One such management technique includes accounting for how a rotation of the blades when loading impacts the CG of the blades, and thus taking this into account when placing the blades in the aircraft.

A system that optimizes the shape or configuration of an aircraft to minimize ground overpressure shock strength while in supersonic flight over speed restricted terrain and to morph to an optimized configuration for drag minimization while over unrestricted terrain.

Systems and methods for loading a cargo aircraft are described. The system includes at least one rail disposed in an interior cargo bay of a cargo aircraft that extends at an angle relative to an interior bottom contact surface of a forward portion of the interior cargo bay, through a kinked portion and an aft portion of the interior cargo bay. Payload-receiving fixtures are described that can be used in conjunction with the rail system, allowing for large cargo, such as wind turbine blades, to be transported by aircraft. Methods of loading a cargo aircraft can include advancing the large payload into the interior cargo bay of the aircraft such that at least one of the payload-receiving fixtures rises relative to a plane defined by the interior bottom contact surface of the forward portion of the interior cargo bay. Various systems, methods, components, and related tooling are also provided.

Systems, methods, and aircraft for managing center of gravity (CG) while transporting large cargo are described. Management of CG is achieved in many ways. In some instances, the aircraft itself is designed to assist in managing CG by providing fuel tanks that minimize the impact of fuel on the net CG of the aircraft. The fuel tanks utilize only a small amount of available volume in the wings for fuel. Disclosures related to properly managing CG while loading wind turbines onto cargo aircraft are also provided. The CG management techniques provided for herein allow for the transportation of wind turbine blades via aircraft, running counter to the typical rail or truck transportation of the same. One such management technique includes accounting for how a rotation of the blades when loading impacts the CG of the blades, and thus taking this into account when placing the blades in the aircraft.

A nose structure of an aircraft includes an airframe. A wheel well assembly is coupled to the airframe and forms a portion of a nose landing gear bay. The wheel well assembly includes a pressure deck that extends from a right side of the airframe to a left side of the airframe and that forms a portion of a pressure boundary delimiting a pressurized space and a non-pressurized space. A floor-panel support is supported by the pressure deck in the pressurized space. The pressure deck and the floor-panel support form a portion of a flight deck floor of a flight deck of the aircraft. A plurality of transport elements is located between the floor-panel support and the pressure deck. The plurality of transport elements is associated with at least one high-level system of the aircraft.

An electrically powered STOL aircraft having dedicated motors energized to deploy movable landing gear driven to propel short takeoffs and to actively rotate downwardly to engage the runway surface as the aircraft approaches touchdown on landing. The front and rear landing gear, or both, may be powered and actuated in the landing process with braking to shorten the landing distance, each driven landing gear wheel having a dedicated electric motor and coaxial brake.