Definition
An airplane with a landing gear arrangement consisting of two main wheels forward of the center of gravity and a small wheel or skid at the tail. Also known as a taildragger.
Plain English
An airplane that sits on two big wheels at the front and a tiny wheel under the tail, so its nose points up while it is on the ground.
Context Anchor
You will see this term in taxi, takeoff, landing, and after-landing roll discussions, especially when the handbook is explaining directional control in a crosswind.
Derivation
Called 'conventional' because this layout was the standard, or conventional, design for most airplanes from the early days of aviation through World War II. The name stuck even though tricycle gear (nose wheel forward, two main wheels behind) is now far more common.
Why Pilots Care
The tailwheel configuration demands specific crosswind handling to prevent ground loops once weight settles on the main wheels.
Intuition Check
Conventional does not mean “most common today.” Here it means the traditional tailwheel landing-gear arrangement. Gear does not mean engine gears here; it means the airplane’s landing wheels and supports.
Example Sentence 1
The instructor explained that crosswind technique on a conventional-gear airplane requires holding the controls correctly all the way through the rollout to prevent a ground loop.
Example Sentence 2
Directional control became easier once the tailwheel contacted the runway on the conventional-gear airplane.