nose gear door

[WebMaster]

That door, behind the nose gear, gets fully retracted when the gear goes up.

On the ground, while you are taking off, it acts as a fender, reducing the amount of debris that would get slung onto your lower fuselage, and by extension, into the rear prop.

Also, in flight, it smooths the airflow behind the gear doors. Without it, you would have a large hole.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDTDgLZ1mJE

[birddog]

Great footage on how the nose gear retracts! I had not thought about the debri factor. I took a rear blade nick and do not want to go through that again! Operators on Swerringen/ Merlins were removing the door panel on the mains and it made a big difference on drag at take off. We did beef up the aft wheel well panel to prevent oil caning at cruise. Thanks for the good info.
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