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Old 1st Aug 2000, 14:54
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keendog
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Exclamation exploding tyres

This is just an idea so if its rubbish or been tried before let me down gently.

What with Concorde etc a lot of focus has been brought to bear on tyre wear and tyre failure.
Presumably, tyres undergo the greatest stress and fatigue in the cycle on landing when they are:-
(i)skidded along the runway for a short while before
(ii)accelerating very quickly to landing speed and
(iii)simultaneously heating up very quickly as they go from being somewhere near freezing to very hot as the rubber deformation caused by their rotation causes large amounts of heat to be generated.

If stress/fatigue factors on landing could be reduced presumably it would contribute to the life span etc. of the tyre/wheel.

Could there not be a practical system for rotating the wheels up to somewhere approaching landing speed before touchdown and/or heating the rubber? This might avoid quite a lot of stress.

A fair amount of energy would be required for such a system and I expect that the weight penalties imposed by electric motors and the associated mechanics would be too great.
What about using bleed air venting on appropriately designed vanes mounted on the undercarriage hubs during approach? Or routing some alternative hydrauic system fluid through an impeller pump. I prefer the former solution as there would be obvious safety advantages in having no mechanical link between the rotating wheels and the rest of the gear.

As I say just an idea. If it works I'll take 10%!