Because of the number of flight cycles carried out by commercial airlines, they need to remove and replace a plane's landing gear every ten years or after 18,000 flight cycles, depending on the aircraft model and regulations in the country it operates from. Today we are going to look at how Dubai-based Emirates became the first airline to change the landing gear on the world's largest passenger aircraft, the Airbus A380.

For many years Boeing had dominated the high-capacity widebody aircraft market with its popular Boeing 747 and European plane maker Airbus decided that it wanted a slice of the pie. Designated as the A3XX, Airbus unveiled the prototype aircraft in Toulouse on January 18, 2005. After numerous delays, the first double-decker Airbus A380 entered service with Singapore Airlines on October 25, 2007. Emirates was the second airline to receive the A380, with it entering service in August 2008.

Emirates first replaced the landing gear on an A380 in 2018

On May 29, 2018, Emirates Engineering successfully replaced the landing gear on an Airbus A380 with the registration A6-EDF. Having taken delivery of the aircraft in December 2009, now that it was nearing ten years old, Emirates decided that it was time to replace the plane's landing gear.

Photo: Emirates

The landing gear on an Airbus A380 consists of five sets, of which two are under the wings, two under the body of the aircraft, and one under the plane's nose.

The work was carried out at Emirates state-of-the-art aircraft hangars located on the north side of Dubai International Airport (DXB). Built in 2006 the fully air-conditioned buildings are large enough to accommodate the Airbus A380 and are the largest aircraft maintenance facility in the Middle East.

The Airbus A380 has 22 wheels

The landing gear system on an Airbus A380 has a total of 22 landing wheels. In addition to the wheels, there is also the landing gear mechanism which includes the gear extension and retraction systems, brakes, and steering controls.

Built for the largest passenger plane in the world, the landing gear is robust enough to handle a weight of 590 tons on takeoff and over 390 tons when landing. When aircraft take off, they are always heavier because of the fuel on board; when they land most of it would have been burnt off.

While clocking in thousands of hours, the team at Emirates Engineering accomplished the task in 14 days. For the duration of all the work, the plane had to be lifted on jacks, as seen in the Emirates video below.

When speaking about the job, Emirates Senior Vice President, of Engineering Maintenance Jaffar Nasser said:

“The first complete replacement of landing gears on our Airbus A380 aircraft is an important milestone for us. This and other similar achievements by the Emirates Engineering team reflect the degree of planning, preparation, and expertise that go behind the successful execution of complex projects such as this one. (...) By extending our services to third-party airlines, we share our expertise and enhance engineering procedures globally.”

Photo: Emirates

Following the successful changing of the A380's landing gear, several more Emirates A380s were due to undergo the same process as the airline's fleet of Airbus A380s ages.