I am not that serious
It sounded more serious than I meant. As far as food cart wheels it is a good analogy, but the wheel axial on the food cart is lower relative to the castor pivot and it has more relative ground clearance than our RV's have. The bad part of having the wheel axial dropped down too far tends to make it shimmy or flutter.
I am interested in these these flips from an engineering standpoint. I was an engineer for Boeing on landing gear and support structure, of all things, many years ago, so I am interested in the subject and hate that this happens from time to time. What is not important is tail draggers. They are not the issue. That was my point.
The picture of the RV-7A with the Subaru that folded a few months back during taxi, looked identical to this one. It was at taxi speed and did not go over all the way but the nose gear was bent the same. Van wrote about this and showed the "Free Body" diagram (balanced force picture) in the RVator. Van wrote the article after one folded on takeoff on a hard surface runway. The wheel pant was thought to have grabbed the tire. Van also suggested that the wheel pants have a large tire to fairing gap and the tire pressure be correct. Also someone mentioned the pivot friction be correct. These are all good ideas.
What is the fix? If the nose gear was much stronger (stiffer: less deflection for a given load), it would solve the thing from bending back, but you may just move the problem back to the firewall. Van knows the loads on the gear and has made it strong enough for "normal loads", but the loads are not normal to bend it back. STATIC loads and DYNAMIC loads are diffent. Clearly this is a dynamic loading and stability issue.
Anyone who has followed this suspect, including Van, the bottom of the nose gear leg and wheel fork is digging. As long as the tire ROLLS you should not have large drag loads to bend the gear. Also someone mentioned side loads. Clearly as it bends back it tends to deflect to the side. Once it gets so far, with enough energy (speed), it fails. I am not 100% on what is going on, but sonething is going on. Till then, keep the nose gear light (stick back), tire pressure proper.
One MODIFICATION I think could be made to make a difference, without a re-design, is a steel SKID bar welded on the front of the nose-wheel fork, on the front of the pivot tube. The steel "plow" or ramp would keep the gear from digging in but ride up and over any ground obstacles too high for the wheel. When these nose gear failures occure the fiberglass wheel pant is shattered, may be for soft field work the fairing should be left off.
Another MOD is a structural gear leg fairing. Wrapped around the gear leg, the integral fairing would be made of foam and fiberglass or carbon fiber. The nose gear with a stiff structural fairing will bend less for little loads, especially to the side. This may reduce the combined effect of side deflections, which may be getting things started, leading to the gear severely digging. It can't hurt and would only add a little weight and installation time.
Every time I see these pictures, the gear is bent in the middle, back and to one side. It is clear there is too much drag load and the darn thing, and undisputedly it has deflected too far. Why does Van not just put a new gear on it? Some mention liability. That may be it, or they may not think it is the planes fault. Also anything bigger and heavier will affect performance and cost. Also the thought of having to offer new gears to customer's would be more than Van's aircraft can afford.
Van did added a little more ground to gear clearance by making the pivot height shorter and cutting the gear leg about and inch. Another MOD or next step would be another wheel fork redesign, so you can put a bigger tire on. The current "LAMB" tire is about 2 inches smaller in diameter than the 5X5's on the mains. This would of course cost speed and affect the looks.
As far as the bird strike and the RV-6 flipping, looking at the field it landed in. The weeds where up to the belt buckle of the people standing next to the plane. What was the surface of the ground like? I don't think it rolled very far after touch down, but I guess you are right and I am wrong, however I would never land in a field with 3-foot tall grass intentionally. Again Tail Draggers will give you no insight to what is going on with the Trikes.
George