Happy Landing: Cleveland Pneumatic makes aircraft safer with computerised, integrated manufacturing controls

Few manufactured products ever undergo the amount of machining, refining and testing that aircraft landing gear do. The reason is clear: landing gear must be absolutely fail‐safe; even one failure is unacceptable. The hundreds of landing gear components found on a single commercial or military aeroplane all must be both strong and durable, with the ability to withstand enormous pressures, stresses, and temperature ranges. Equipment must respond correctly throughout the lifetime of the aircraft in countless takeoffs and landings. Manufacturing and assembly processes rival those of any space vehicle, requiring special materials and a complex series of forging, machining and testing stages overseen by computers to produce a reliable final product.