Curious about tailskids.

[Paul Anderson]

See airplanes of about the same time period, some have a tailskid and others have a tailwheel.
Was the tailskid an effort to combat torque during taxiing or just cheaper/lighter depending on the airfield at hand where developed?

 

[normb]

See airplanes of about the same time period, some have a tailskid and others have a tailwheel.
Was the tailskid an effort to combat torque during taxiing or just cheaper/lighter depending on the airfield at hand where developed?

Tail skids were light weight method of holding tail up. Early birds usually didn't have brakes so skid helped in that way as well. No paved airfields either so skid could dig in and provide some directional stability. Some skids were shock absorbing (bungee cords) and steerable. Once aircraft got fancier, had increased usefull load, and paved runways/cross wind operations evolved then steerable and lockable tail wheels came in.

Norm

 

[Paul Anderson]

Thanks Norm.