aircraft tires are designed to carry heavy loads at high speeds in the smallest and lightest configurations practical but this means they’re subjected to enormous pressures and friction they’re highly engineered structures they carry weight similar to the tires on the largest earth movers but at the speed of a Formula One car pound for pound they endure the harshest service life of any tire made on takeoff the load on aircraft tires makes them heat up to temperatures of between 130 and 150 degrees centigrade Dunlop aircraft tires in Birmingham has been designing and making aircraft tires since 1910 they hand make tires for all types of aircraft from Jumbo’s to Harrier Jump Jet they carry out rigorous tests that push aircraft tires to more than four times their operational safety limits to ensure they can withstand all the stresses they might undergo they’re tested on a dynamometer that simulates taxiing takeoff and landing conditions but the most impressive test is when tires are overinflated in the breast cell so Nate what’s the purpose of this test this is to check the strength of the casing this particular tire is off a Boeing 737 it’s the main oil tire it’s rated to 220 psi right Wow so what we need to do we need to get to 8-under nating psi and we’ll probably go beyond that we’ll probably gets around about a thousand and I see we’re putting air in here only no no we can’t use air we have to use water if we use their that the volume of air that would be generated in here would cause a tremendous bang probably destroy most of the surrounding buildings the last time an aircraft tire was over inflated with gas here at Dunlop was in the 1960s and here’s what happened it’s never been done since overinflating aircraft tires – more than four times their normal pressure is an extremely dangerous business Saint Richard and Johnny have to retire to a safe distance and watch the action on a monitor it takes nearly 10 minutes to fill the tire to just its normal operating pressure of 220 psi the anticipation is killing me slicing isn’t it yeah to over inflate the tire the water pressure is stepped up again and is pumped hydraulically into the casing I’m not missing this moment don’t look away because you know this is this a once in a lifetime opportunity to see this the pressure is building Nick how we doing on pressure where we’ve reached the minimum that we require done 880 are we have yet I think there probably about 900 we’re coming up to 9 [Laughter] well Richard may have missed it but you won’t we will we are we’re at 905 psi 904 going because what I turn around to do look at that destroyed yeah that’s a typical burst that happens on cross ply tires by reaching over four times its normal operating pressure before bursting and even then still retaining its basic form this type of aircraft tire has proved that it has the strength and integrity to cope with extreme situations very reassuring in the event of an emergency landing is that any way we can film on a custard Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TWAR1KtYJU
