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Old 17th January 2012 | 10:14
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Genghis the Engineer
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Not, in my opinion, a good idea - but nonetheless would be interesting to have a play with and find out.

I can't see why a ball nosewheel will skip over runway bumps and holes any better than a tyre of the same diameter, but what I think it probably will do is offer much poorer natural directional stabilisation (that is of-course what the ballbarrow is designed to do).

I have seen a very experienced tailwheel pilot enter an uncontrollable groundloop with a tundra tyre NOSEWHEEL aeroplane (with a castoring nosewheel), the ball just strikes me as making it more likely.

That said, as a flight tester an an eternally curious aviation researcher, I'd enjoy running a test programme to find out if I'm right or not.

Incidentally, the ballbarrow was also invented by James Dyson.

G
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