[logicallee]

This doesn't pass the smell test for me. The vertical velocity when it lands it not very great - if landing gear has no trouble supporting the plane during taxi off under full weight, I find it preposterous (and reckless) that it would be insufficient for landing. The idea that planes routinely dump fuel if they have to circle around and land immediately after take-off is absolutely ridiculous to me: if there is nothing wrong with a plane, highly combustible fuel is far safer inside than outside of it.

I found your suggestion so ridiculous I Googled "do planes dump fuel" and got this top answer

http://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/29232/do-airplan...

"Do airplanes dump fuel before landing?"

For which Google picked the summary: "There have been many explanations given but ultimately the answer to your question is "No, aircraft do not dump fuel prior to landing unless it is absolutely necessary.""

Reading that page: as a rule fuel is not dumped!

[nradov]

You're not seeing the whole picture. Airliners don't routinely dump fuel during normal operations. However, if there's an emergency and the pilots decide to divert they will often dump fuel (if possible) or simply fly in circles to burn off enough to bring the airplane down to a safe landing weight. Safety isn't just a matter of preventing the landing gear from collapsing. A higher weight means a higher landing speed due to stall limits and thus a longer stopping distance and greater risk of brake failure or runway overrun.

[logicallee]

But we're not actually talking about emergencies here at all, but rather "by-design" in which nothing is wrong. And a future design at that!

I hope you can see why I am skeptical that a future landing gear for electric airplanes would not be able to support the fully loaded landing weight, which is not reduced as the batteries are depleted.

The idea that landing gears just "can't" support all that weight seems silly to me. The solution can be as simple as having twelve wheels instead of six, or another set of shock absorbers, or something short of "well sorry, you'll never build a landing gear that lands safely at that weight. Can't be done."

Note that I focused on just the weight the landing gears support - your other observations can remain on-point. I just don't buy that particular argument, just about the landing gears.

[dexterdog]

I was specifically talking about an emergency situation. Planes don't do early landings when nothing is wrong.