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WHY DOES THE BOEING 767'S MAIN LANDING GEAR TILT FORWARD? If you watch the Amazon Prime Air Boeing 767 coming in to land, you may notice something about its main landing gear: the bogies are tilted forward. This is part of the 767's landing gear design. The forward tilt means the front wheels of the main gear contact the runway first, followed by the rear wheels as the bogie levels out. This helps cushion the touchdown, distribute loads progressively, and reduce stress on the bogie structure. During development, the 767's touchdown behavior showed a tendency for forward pitching. The forward-tilted bogie helps counter this motion as the gear settles and the rear wheels come down. But the design is mostly used to fit in the gear bay to make the best use of the space. When retracted, the 767's landing gear geometry allows the bogie and wheels to fit efficiently inside the undercarriage bay, making the best possible use of limited space around the aircraft's keel beam and surrounding systems. The 767 is distinctive among Boeing aircraft in this respect, but forward-tilting main gear designs are not unique. The Airbus A350 and A380 also use forward-leaning bogies, while the A340-600 combines different orientations on its various landing gear assemblies. In a nutshell, that nose-down tilt you see on approach is exactly how the Boeing 767 was designed to land: front wheels first, bogie rotating level, then the rear wheels settling onto the runway. A video from PDX Aviation shows [N1997A], the same aircraft involved in yesterday's accident, landing at Portland Airport.