Who Invented the Landing Gear?

Who invented the landing gear?  To be honest I had never given it much of a thought.  It would be like asking, “Who invented the wheel and tire”?  Someone obviously did, but they are such a common part of life, I never stopped to ask who actually invented them?

I happened to stumble upon the answer this week, completely by surprise.  However, before I get to the answer, it is fair to ask, “What are landing gear”?  It may seem like an obvious question, but landing gear did not always exist.  For example, take a close look at the classic photo of Orville Wright making that first flight at Kitty Hawk.  We feature the photo in Session 1 of Doctor Aviation.  If you look closely, there are no landing gear, only skids.

At some point, someone figured out that an airplane rolling on takeoff and rolling on landing, beat having a rail propulsion system for takeoff (like the Wright Brothers used) and having skids for a landing.  Skids work ok on the sand and the grass, but are not ideal in wet dirt/mud conditions, nor on pavement.  Hence the idea of landing gear came of age.  By mounting tires on metal struts, the airplane could roll along the ground much easier and the landing gear was invented.  Additionally the gear were designed to be retractable, in some aircraft they can be moved and stored in the body of the aircraft, thus reducing drag, a concept we cover in Session 3 of Doctor Aviation.

So who was the inventor?  My wife and I decided to go for a three day getaway in a cabin near Cave Run Lake near Morehead, KY.  This is a special place for me as my Dad had a hand in building the dam that created Cave Run Lake for the US Corps of Engineers in the late 1960s.  From there, we made our way down to Carter Caves State Resort Park.  Upon the recommendation of an old friend, Colonel Shaw, hiked the Three Bridges Trail – very beautiful.  About 2/3rds of the way into the hike it was time for lunch and we stopped off at Caveland Lodge.  Over the Registration desk there was a beautiful painting of an early aircraft, a quadroplane (See below).

Being one to read plaques, I looked for one.  I found two.  They are pictured below.

So this is the answer: Matthew B. Sellers II.  Sellers invented the retractable landing gear in 1908.  I poked around the gift shop later and found a book that his granddaughter had written about Matthew, her name was Barbara L. Sellers and the book was entitled, “A Moment in Time”.  Upon my return to civilization (and my office computer) I found a website dedicated to the man, http://matthewbsellers.com/

Hmmm, lo and behold, a man linked to my state had invented the landing gear.  I also found out that he made the first powered flight in Kentucky in December of 1908, five years after the Wright Brothers first flight at Kitty Hawk.  The photo of the flight and the basis for the painting is below.

You never know what you will discover on a hike – about aviation – even if it is the answer to, “Who invented the landing gear”.  Aviation continues to amaze me.