An airplane is a means of transportation that operates in the air, so to ensure safety and durability, every part in the manufacturing, operation, and maintenance is subject to very strict technical requirements, especially important parts of the airplane like engines, fuselage, tires…
Aircraft tires are very expensive. (Illustrative image)
A typical aircraft tire can run on the runway at a speed of 274km/h and bear a weight equivalent to an office building. Each aircraft tire has a durability of 300 times before needing to be replaced (the surface in contact with the road).
When the airplane starts landing, at the first moment of touching the ground, the aircraft tires will skid instead of roll, so the aircraft tires are dragged along the runway until the rotational speed of the tires matches the speed of the airplane. That’s why aircraft tires often emit smoke when landing.
Currently, Michelin is the only company that can produce tires for airplanes, with very strict technical standards. To ensure the safety of the crew and passengers, aircraft tires must be replaced after 300 landings. Therefore, the price of each tire is not cheap because to be able to support the entire weight of the airplane, which can be hundreds of tons, the requirements for the material to make an aircraft tire will be very harsh.
Depending on the type of aircraft, manufacturer and criteria, the price of aircraft tires can vary from a few tens of USD, a few hundred USD to several thousand USD per tire, not to mention the maintenance costs are also extremely high. So each time you replace them, the maintenance of aircraft tires can cost hundreds of thousands of USD. That’s why many people believe that in terms of value, gold cannot compare to aircraft tires.
How are aircraft tires constructed?
Aircraft tires are made up of four basic materials such as rubber, nylon, some special cords, and steel. Rubber must use natural rubber because they have better technical specifications in heat dissipation. Aircraft tires are formed by a process called vulcanization, with multiple layers stacked on top of each other, such as nylon, kevlar… along with technical standards, hardness, durability, wear resistance are also stricter and more rigorous than other types of ordinary tires.
To minimize the pressure fluctuations of the tires due to high temperature when the aircraft lands, the air pumped into the tire will be inert gas like nitrogen. Because if there is a lot of air inside the tire, combined with high pressure and temperature, when the aircraft lands, it will automatically explode when it reaches the limit.
According to VTC news
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