Aircraft are generally directionally stable and have a tendency to point into the wind direction. In situations where a crosswind is present, the aircraft will adopt a yaw orientation with respect to the runway and will drift laterally as it approaches the runway. These pose significant safety issues when safe operation of the undercarriage requires the body and the velocity of the aircraft to be aligned with the runway at touch down. The landing gear on the B-52 included an unusual feature to counteract the problem: all landing gear bogies could be steered, allowing the aircraft to land with the wheels facing the direction of travel even if the nose was not pointed in the same direction.
crosswind landing is a landing maneuver in which a significant component of the prevailing wind is perpendicular to the runway centerline.
