Quote:
Originally Posted by SaQSoN
As someone here has already said, gear dropping is a result of landing gear leg upper lock damage (which was holding the leg in retracted position). It has nothing to do with hydraulic system damage (or damage to any other system, used to operate the gear).
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Damage to the gear lock could also explain a gear dropping, as could excessive G-loads or severed cables, but I still hold that the main reason that gears, flaps and other plane parts dropped when damaged was due to hydraulic failure. Obviously, though, it depends on the plane and in the heat of combat the exact cause was often impossible to figure out.
In some cases, however, damage to the hydraulic system is so obvious it has to be the cause for gear drop.
Example: Starting at 0:32 in this video, you can see a fire on the oleo struts of the Hurricane as the hydraulic fluid burns away. Fire is localized and burns out quickly once the fluid is gone. (Actual damage to the hydraulic lines/pump was probably earlier, since smoke from the area becomes visible at around 0:30.)
More examples of shot-up planes dropping landing gear in a fashion consistent with hydraulic failure (and video of the mod I mentioned):