There were threads showing, though it's not that obvious in the picture. A few people I showed it to (not plane engineers) said they probably wouldn't have boarded the plane if they saw the tyre looking like that.
As for seeing the air in the tyre, that's what I was hoping WOULDN'T happen during takeoff/landing!
It gave me a bit of a fright at the time but it seems that aircraft tyres are quite a different construction to the car/motorbike ones I am used to!
Thanks for the insight, guys we now return you to your normal techie discussions!