Weight distibution

[Elwyn]

Don't know why things like this pop into my head, but I am curious as to the weight distribution on tail wheel versus nose gear arrangements. In other words how much of the aircraft weight is supported by a nose gear verses a tail wheel?

[Kyleb]

Depends on the airplane, its loading, and its gear geometry.

My RV-6 (which isn't a warbird) has about 70 lbs on the tailwheel and 950 lbs split between the mains when it has zero fuel, and no baggage or passengers.

My Champ has about 700 on the mains and 70 on the tailwheel when it is empty.

[John Dupre]

What Kyleb said is true. The nose wheel or tail wheel is sometimes considered the "auxiliary" landing gear. Most of the weight is taken by the mains and the nose or tail wheel supports a relatively minor amount, considering of course a typical three landing gear configuration.

[tacoope]

As noted it depends on the plane. A Spitfire has very little weight on it's tail, something like 100lbs, hence it has a tendency to want to nose over (the always wonderful pneumatic brake system doesn't help this). The Mustang on the other hand has several times that weight on the tail. It is all in the placement of the main gear in relation to the c of g. Nose draggers tend to have more weight on the nose, but still it is a small fraction of the total weight.

The key difference between the two configurations is where the main gear is vs the c of g. In tail draggers the mains are in front of the c of g on a tricycle they are behind it. What that does for you is that is makes a tail dragger want to swap ends on landing (ground loop) vs a nose gear plane tending to stay straight. Again these tendencies vary between aircraft.

Terry