Industry The new landing gear of the 737 MAX 10 explained

As longest member of the 737 MAX family, the MAX 10´s fuselage is extended by 167cm compared to the other MAX aircraft. Boeing listened to customer feedback, which suggested the need for more capacity and additional seats. With its 43,8 meter long fuselage, the MAX 10 can accommodate up to 230 passengers.

But with the added length of the fuselage, a longer landing gear is needed to provide safety during take-off. Because if the landing gear of the MAX 10 would be as long as the landing gear of the MAX 8 or 9, then the aircraft would likely to experience a tail strike during rotation, especially when pilots choose the same angle for rotation as they would on other MAX models.

Boeing therefore came up with a solution. To preserve the same take-off characteristics in the MAX family, Boeing added nine inches or 24 centimetres of capability to the gear. This allows the wheels to be in the same unchanged wheel well as in the MAX 8 and 9.

When the aircraft rotates, a new lever will extend down 9.5 inches as the aircraft is starting to leave the ground. This lever provides same rotations as for the other MAX aircraft.

To ensure, that the gear is being able to retract similarly, Boeing introduced a shrink link to the front gear. This mechanism will pull up an inner cylinder during the retraction process. This will then compensate the added nine inches (24 centimetres) of main landing-gear length. That means, that

According to Boeing, pilots will not experience any differences between the MAX 10´s landing-gear and the current landing-gears of the MAX family.

Boeings 737 MAX 10 aircraft has received 407 orders to date. Biggest customers are United Airlines and Lion Air with 100 ordered aircraft each. The MAX 10 is said to compete with the Airbus A321neo, however according to various reports, Airbus is still better positioned for this segment. In return, Boeing announced that it will reveal a new Middle-Of-Market (MOM) aircraft in 2019.