The Anglo-French amalgam Messier-Dowty celebrates its Farnborough debut with a display which showcases six decades of aeronautical history.
The joint venture between TI Group of the UK and Snecma of France is now the world leader in the design, development and production of aircraft landing gear, with more than 14,000 aircraft in service equipped with its equipment.
The stand theme reflects the technological innovation of the respective joint venture entities over the past 60 years.
The first Messier landing gear was fitted into the Farman 190 in the 1920s and within a few years the company had developed the first landing gear with high pressure hydraulically actuated retraction.
Across the Channel in England, George Dowty had designed and manufactured the first patented shock-absorbing struts, which were initially fitted into the Cierva Autogiro and the Airspeed Ferry aircraft.
An example of his unique internally-sprung wheel, which established Dowty as a specialist aircraft supplier, is on the stand.
It is presented alongside some of the most significant innovative landing gear developments from the 1930s right through to current products.
These include the main landing gear from both Britain's first operational jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor, and the Avro Vulcan, the world's largest delta-wing jet bomber from 1957 until the early 80s; the nose landing gear from Concorde; the main landing gear from the Bombardier Global Express long range business jet, and the main landing gear from the Airbus A340, among others.
Source: Flight Daily News
