Originally Posted by
Tengah Type
TTN #12
[...]
Nosewheel tyre speed limits could also have been a problem. Certainly with the Canberra, but could also be limiting with the VC10 at high elevation places like Nairobi. IIRC the limit was 200 MPH!
You'd hardly fit 200 MPH tyres on the nose-wheels with 225 MPH ones on the mains! Yes, at Nairobi, with a typical OAT of +25C, the Type 1103 VC10 (standard, but with "super" wing) was limited to a TOW of 140T with 200 MPH tyres, which would reduce the RTOW by a tonne or so. By the early 1970s, all BCAL VC10s were fitted with 225 MPH tyres for that reason, as we were operating NBO/LGW direct.
Sleeve Wing,
Instead of your DC-9's water deflector on the nose gear, the VC10 and BAC 1-11 nose-wheel tyres had integral chines to deflect water downwards. That reduced water ingestion into the engines, but obviously did not protect them from burst-tyre debris...
H Peacock,
Love your description of aggressive rotation and aircraft being "hauled off" the runways nowadays! In fact, a steady rotation rate of about 3 degrees per second is typical, to avoid tail-scrape on long-body types.