Pintle assemblies

Abstract

A pintle mounting assembly has a pintle fitting 105, for mounting an aircraft landing gear. A sensor 300 is located to directly sense from the mount a characteristic relating to rotation of the landing gear, such as rotational position, speed, and / or acceleration. The mount may include a lug 105 and a pin 106 which rotate together, the sensor may sense the characteristic directly from the pin or the lug. The sensor may be mounted to the pintle fitting and perform sensing at one or more points in a range of travel of the landing gear between two limit positions, with a target 302 mounted to, and moving with, the mount; the sensor may include hall effect, inductive rotary, and / or rotary potentiometer sensors, and provide an output. A method of controlling aircraft landing gear is also claimed which may involve repeatedly sensing the characteristic, outputting values to a landing gear controller.

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