Why don commercial airplanes have a backup landing gear?
It would cost too much. Commercial airplanes are designed to keep as little weight on board as possible, because this saves fuel, increases speed and profit margin. You may have noticed if you’ve flown that every single part of an airplane has been ergonomically designed to use the least space and is composed of the lightest-weight materials possible. Specs of the small Boeing 737 typical operating empty = 42,895kg The three-point landing gear on this unit is probably over 3500kg making it a major weight component. The landing gear is composed of high quality alloy and carbon fiber components and still takes up a significant portion of overall weight. Landing gear on commercial jets is very simple, operating on electric motors driving gears which raise or lower the three sets of wheels. If there is no power or a mechanical failure, they can easily be operated by hand by the crew from inside. It is one of the least likely systems to fail on a commercial airplane. In addition the fuselag
