Oleo Strut Basics

An oleo strut is a pneumatic air–oil hydraulic

shock absorber. The primary pur-
pose of the oleo strut, as you are probably already aware, is to ab-
sorb the landing loads on an aircraft. The force, which the aircraft
structure is subject to, can be expressed in Newton’s 2nd law of
physics F = M A or Force = Mass X Acceleration. Acceleration is
simply the change in velocity over time. If we can double the time
interval for deceleration of the aircraft through the landing gear by
lengthening the shock strut, you can see that we can reduce the
total force exerted on the structure by half. This is the basis for
incorporating the long struts on STOL (Short Takeoff and Land-
ing) aircraft like the Just Aircraft SuperSTOL and the Fieseler
Storch. Watching these aircraft performing short field operations,
you can see what appears to be near vertical approaches, cul-
minating in a very impressive squat of the aircraft as the long
stroke landing gear struts absorb the landing loads.
Although there’s been many variations upon the oleo strut,
there is some particular genius in its design. The basic phys-
ics incorporated in the
operation of the oleo “It is the fluid and only the fluid
strut is what has made that is responsible for the struts’
it so popular in so many amazing ability to absorb these
different designs from landing loads. A strut that has
lost its fluid is virtually useless.”
the smallest aircraft to
the largest. This ba-
sic design concept (Figure: 1) is so efficient that even the
most modern of aircraft use the same basic principles that
adorned aircraft landing gear designed and built as far back
as the 1930s.
Let’s look at the basic operation of the oleo strut. (Fig-
ure: 2) Inside the strut we likely have a combination of
Mill-H-5606 hydraulic fluid and dry air or nitrogen. The prima-
ry job of the air located in the upper chamber of the strut is
to act as a spring. And the primary job of the hydraulic fluid,
which is located in the lower chamber of the strut, is to reg-
ulate and transfer the loads from the lower half to the upper
half of the strut and subsequently into the airframe. Located in
between the upper and lower sections, but attached to the up-
per portion of the strut, is an orifice (Shown in Green). This ori-
fice restricts the flow of hydraulic fluid from the lower half
Figure: 1 Oleo Strut to the upper half of the strut. This basically lengthens
the time interval during the compression stroke created by the landing gears impact
with the ground. Many early strut designs simply stopped at this point using a fixed
orifice to control the fluid transfer from the lower to the upper half of the strut. Later
designs improved upon this concept by incorporating one more component called the
metering pin (Shown in Pink) which takes the design to an entirely new
level. This metering pin is attached to the lower portion of the strut
and is tapered starting at the top getting wider as it approaches the
bottom section of the strut. This metering pin is co-located within
the center of the orifice essentially creating a variable sized orifice.
When the strut is fully extended, the gap between the orifice and
the metering pin is relatively large allowing fluid to flow rapidly. Ac-
cording to Newton’s 2nd law the greatest amount of force imposed
onto the landing gear structure will be at the point where we have
the highest amount of deceleration (initial impact). As the rate of
strut compression decreases, so does the force. This design allows
the restriction between the orifice and metering pin to progressive-
ly get smaller and smaller essentially maintaining a constant force
onto the structure while exponentially decreasing the rate of strut
collapse. (Figure: 3) This allows the entire length of the lower sec-
tion of strut to progressively collapse absorbing the landing loads
over the longest time interval possible. It’s really quite a brilliant
concept. A properly serviced strut is virtually impossible to bottom
out because of this increasing restriction. Landing forces that could
cause the strut to bottom out would likely result in ripping the
strut from the aircraft structure. Recognize that it is the flu-
id and only the fluid that is responsible for the struts’
amazing ability to absorb these landing loads. A
strut that has lost its fluid is virtually useless. A
strut without fluid is the equivalent of welding the
bottom half of the strut to the upper portion strut
in the collapsed position. The time interval for decel-
eration, in this case, drop off dramatically. This, in turn,
increases the loads imposed into the structure to also
increase proportionally. We often wonder how many of the
accidents, where we see a collapsed nose strut, are a direct
result of improper servicing or simply loss of fluid.
This brings us to the topic of proper servicing of the strut.
The standard caveat certainly applies here: “You should always
use the proper and current service manuals for your particular aircraft
when servicing the struts.” With this being said, let’s consider some basic
principles associated with servicing a strut. Keep in mind that during the
compression stroke of the landing gear the hy-
Figure: 2 Oleo Strut Cut-A-Way draulic fluid is non-compressible. This essentially
means that over servicing the strut with hydrau-
lic fluid could lead to a “liquid lock,” thus reducing the overall length of compression,
compromising the struts ability to absorb the landing loads. Normal servicing of the
strut might require that after adding fluid that we completely collapse the strut ensur-
ing that any excess fluid is squeezed out before we add air or nitrogen. (Use of dry
air or nitrogen is to reduce the potential for moisture getting into the internal struc-
ture of the strut causing corrosion). With the strut in the collapsed configuration and
filled with fluid, the total volume available for air is really quite small. Once you have
applied enough pressure to bring the strut up to the proper servicing height (approx-
imately 25% of total stroke), the air simply acts as a spring to return the strut to a
height that will allow the fluid transitioning through the orifice and me-
tering pin to dampen shock loads associated with taxing. Because
of the small volume of air in the normally serviced position, as the
strut begins to extend, the pressure drops off dramati-
cally. If you’ve ever seen the nose of Cessna sitting
higher than normal, you would probably be able to
grab the prop and move the nose up and down
fairly easily. This simply means that
there is a larger volume of air
in the nose strut reducing the
amount of pressure change as
the strut moves up and down.
By default, the only way to get
a larger volume of air within the
strut is to reduce the volume of
fluid. The strut is low on fluid! Ad-
ditionally, there is too much air. If
you come out to the ramp and find
your strut has collapsed, you have
a problem not associated with the
amount of air in the strut. The
initial urge is simply
to service the strut
with more air. How-
ever, you probably
still have the proper
amount of air inside of
the strut. What has happened
is that the strut has lost a small vol-
ume of fluid increasing the total vol-
ume available for the air. Generally
speaking, the most probable source of
leaking are the O-rings where the low-
er strut goes into the upper strut
Figure: 3 The Air - Oil Interaction During Operation housing. All of the other seals
within the strut are static with a very low likelihood of failure. Because the air is on top
of the fluid, the first thing to go is always going to be the hydraulic fluid.
Although it’s purely anecdotal, we see a direct correlation with the aircraft owners
who wash the aircraft on a regular basis and a higher number of struts seal failures.
We hypothesize that the cause of the strut seal failure is due directly to the owner of
an aircraft, cleaning and washing, not only the aircraft, but the landing gear struts as
well. If you were to completely clean the chromed portion of the oleo strut, you will be
left with a very dry surface. As you confidently fly off for your “hundred dollar ham-
burger” and to show off your nice clean airplane to all of your buddies, you probably
don’t even realize that you have just set yourself up for a potential strut seal failure. If
you inadvertently make a harder than normal landing, you may exercise the landing
gear into the portion of the strut that has just been spotlessly cleaned. It is a com-
mon occurrence on dry struts, where the landing gear is exercised aggressively, that
the internal O-rings will grab onto the nice clean chromed surface causing them to
stick and roll. When the O-ring rolls, it normally does it in just one section causing the
round O-ring to now take a twist. This twist now becomes a pathway for the hydraulic
fluid and air to escape. The result, of course, is a collapsed landing gear strut. Once
the O-ring has become rolled or twisted, the only fix, typically, is to disassemble the
strut and install new O-rings. Ironically, the aircraft owner who never does any main-
tenance on his aircraft, and has oil puking out of the engine down onto the struts,
never ends up having to replace nose strut seals because of his (automatic strut lu-
bricating system) leaking engine. Of course, we jest, and do not recommend this as
your primary solution to preventing strut seal failures. Most aircraft maintenance man-
uals, and even flight manuals, recommend after washing the aircraft struts to re-lubri-
cate the chrome portion of the strut with a clean rag soaked sparingly in Mill-H-5606
hydraulic fluid. By maintaining a well lubricated strut, the O-rings will slide effortless-
ly along the chromed surface. It then becomes virtually impossible to roll an O-ring.
Many aircraft checklists even incorporate this procedure as a preflight item. This pro-
cedure not only re-lubricates the strut and protects it from corrosion, but gives us an
opportunity to remove any bugs, dirt, and old dried out hydraulic fluid which may have
accumulated. Although not as dramatic a failure as rolling an old ring, dirt and debris
that continuously get into the seals of the strut can cause the strut seals to become
worn out and eventually leak.
The landing gear struts, in our aircraft, are such an amazing piece of engineering,
however, all of that engineering won’t do you a “lick of good” unless you keep them
properly maintained and serviced.

© Rainbow Aviation 2017 Carol and Brian Carpenter

Carol and Brian Carpenter are owners of Rainbow Aviation Services in Corning,
California. For more Information visit www.rainbowaviation.com