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In this paper an automatic procedure aimed at preliminary designing an oleo-pneumatic landing gear strut for a light unmanned aircraft is presented. The whole work is motivated by the necessity to design the landing gear of the unmanned aircraft X-MALE, currently in development at the Italian Aerospace Research Center (CIRA SCpA), according to the Airworthiness Requirements NATO STANAG 4671 (USAR). The landing gear preliminary design is usually carried-out by responding to requirements of maximum overall dimensions, maximum weight and maximum attainable load factor. While the oleo-pneumatic mechanism depends essentially on the maximum vertical load factor and on the strut length, thus on the oleo-pneumatic efficiency, the structure is generally sized by combining the design vertical loads with the maximum expected horizontal loads.