: How do they change the tires off an airplane? Do they have airplane sized car jack to help lift up the plane?

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: How do they change the tires off an airplane? Do they have airplane sized car jack to help lift up the plane?

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8 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Used to work on jacks specifically for aircrafts, I believe there are 12, 25, 30 & 50 ton jacks we used to work on. Plane has jack points in which one of the gse jacks is placed and they do their business. I’ve also had 2 separate load testers blow up in my face while testing a jack

Anonymous 0 Comments

Yes, there are Jack stands for aircraft. The process is a little different from plane to plane though. I remember a coworker once told me that when he worked on the C-5, it could simply raise up a couple tires at a time with no need for jacks (though I’m sure this doesnt apply to nose gear). Other planes simply get jacked into the air entirely, or are supported on one side.

Anonymous 0 Comments

I thought they jacked up the plane near the landing gear needing replacement and just replaced part of the arm and the entire wheel/axle assembly at the same time. Making it a task possible within a day. Edit: sorry yes they have airplane sized jack. Those planes are balanced so perfectly it doesn’t take much to lift one side enough to replace components.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Basically yes. The main wheels (big wheels under the wings) jacks are about the size of one of those pallet jacks you see in warehouses/big shopping outlets except they are a single leg instead of two. The nose wheel(front wheels) jack is about the size as a 3 tonne car jack. It is better made and more powerful but basically the same (a320/737).

Often they are hand pumped just like a car jack but most can take plugged in compressed air to make it easier. To change a wheel you don’t have to lift the whole plane just thet tilt it. There is special jacks to lift the whole plane (eg to test all the wheels retracting) but they are much bigger.

Anonymous 0 Comments

There are lots of videos of aeroplane tyres getting changed on YouTube, you can watch them do it. They lift the landing gear off the ground with a jack- remember that the landing gear goes up into the plane after takeoff, it is designed to rise up without lifting the whole plane up. While they’re lifting up one wheel the plane is still steady on the rest of the landing gear.

Anonymous 0 Comments

They have jacking points on the aircraft and use any number of different types of Jack’s to lift it (depending on what aircraft you’re lifting). Aircraft also have to be weighed regularly (depending on what flight rules they’re operating under the intervals of weighing will vary). Mechanics typically use a jacking system to weigh the aircraft i.e. Jack’s that also give weight reading.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Special aircraft service facilities have stands that can support the entire airplane off the ground, in order to test the landing gear going up and down, particularly after the landing gear has been repaired or serviced. The same technique *could* also be used to change the tires, however it’s usually easier to just use a lift on the bogey [like this](https://live.staticflickr.com/5492/14345979489_3c29e6427c_b.jpg) (it’s the silver metal thing that says KLM on it).

Anonymous 0 Comments

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