Boeing 747-8 "Intercontinental" project:

The inboard main landing gear:

The outboard main landing gear has some parts that can be shared with the inboard gear... for example the basic wheel trucks. Aside from that, it's a separate model. The struts are obviously shorter, the gear retracts/extends forward/aft, rather than inboard/outboard, and there is a steering mechanism, so that, on the ground, the inboard main wheels can turn, avoiding "tire scrub". This steering is locked out during takeoff and landing.

Sparing you all the intermediary modeling, I've finished the inboard main gear and nose gear, at least to the level that's necessary for the next step, which is to cut out and rig all the gear doors. After that's done, I'll have a look and see what's going to be visible, and add whatever is necessary.

Below, front and rear of the inboard main gear

Below, two renders of the main gear, one showing the door cutters I'm working on

Below, front and rear of the nose gear, and one close-up, showing some details

Below, front and rear renders of all of the landing gear at once. (The nose gear is slightly off the ground, because my reference drawing shows the aircraft level… It actually sits slightly nose-down when on the ground, which I'll adjust after everything else is done.)


Overall Airframe:

A friend from the The Foundry forum is helping me find some better documentation on the gear doors. So, while I'm waiting to see what happens with that, I've been adjusting the general exterior airframe. Here's where it stands now.


Rigging the landing gear for retraction:

Some parts of the landing gear hierarchy have to be adjusted, to rig it for animation. So, while waiting for more documentation on the landing gear doors, I've made those adjustments, and started testing the rig. This had to be done anyway, to verify the fit through the doors, so it's a good time to do it. (The nose gear is quite simple, since it just rotates around the X axis.)

View from the rear:

View from the front:

View from the front, with the plane:


Here's the first test with the linkages rigged.

As the plane comes off the ground, the oleos (shock absorbers) extend, and the landing gear trucks rotate. The outboard gear truck rotates quite a bit, and the inboard truck rotates only a few degrees. Then, both units retract.


Onward, to the gear doors!


Click the "Page 08" link below, to continue.

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NOTE: I am not at liberty to redistribute any of the documentation used to build any of the 3D models on this site.