Retracts....... I thought about that but thought the airfoil was to thin? do you know what kind or retract they used. When was finishing mine I took some of the covering off and placed a couple of hardwood blocks by the wheels to keep them in place. And yes, this plane can take some abuse. I've have had a few dead stick landings 2 of which where pretty hard - coming in low and banking hard right the engine just quit and had to try adn get it level for a bouncy landing but nothing came loose. I also lost the entire muffler on one flight which one a Supertigre is quite a lot of weight and that made it quite tail heavy and had to come in pretty fast to keep it from getting out of control and again - no damage. This plane is fun to fly and fast, I've seen people hear talk about putting lasrger engines in them and they were not very fast? I'm not sure how that can be mine only has a .45 and it's fast enough, I'm not trying to break the sound barrier and I'd hate to ask them what they consider fast?