Definition
An elastic shock-absorbing cord made of bundles of small rubber strands encased in a braided cotton or synthetic fabric sleeve, used in some aircraft landing gear systems to cushion landing loads and absorb the energy of taxi and ground handling shocks.
Plain English
A thick stretchy rubber cord wrapped in a woven cover. It sits in the landing gear and squashes and stretches to soak up the bumps when the aircraft lands or rolls over rough ground.
Context Anchor
Seen in maintenance, preflight, and landing gear descriptions for aircraft that use bungee-type landing gear instead of oil-and-air struts.
Derivation
Bungee' comes from a 19th-century English word for a thick rubber eraser, later applied to any elastic rubber cord. 'Shock cord' simply names what it does: a cord that absorbs shock. Together the term tells you it is a stretchy rubber cord whose job is to cushion impacts.
Why Pilots Care
It protects the airframe from repeated landing stresses and allows operation on rough surfaces without hard-metal suspension.
Analogy
It works somewhat like a very strong rubber band built into the landing gear: when the gear is loaded, it stretches; when the load eases, it pulls back.
Intuition Check
Do not think of this as a cargo bungee used to tie something down. In this context, it is a structural elastic part of the landing gear shock-absorbing system.
Example Sentence 1
During the annual inspection, the technician found that the bungee shock cords on the main gear were frayed and had lost tension, so they were replaced before the aircraft was returned to service.
Example Sentence 2
After a rough landing on the grass strip, the mechanic replaced the worn bungee shock cord on the main gear leg.