nitrogen in tires was: aluminum wheels

[Brett Dikeman]

At 12:27 AM -0500 3/14/02, Frederick Smith wrote:
>Aircraft tires are inflated with "dry" nitrogen. Stable at temp, you wouldn't
>want blocks of ice forming in the wheels at 35k feet and then trying to land
>the thing an hour later.
>
>Not to mention trying to abort a takeoff with a less than stable gas in the
>tires and a TO weight of 375TONS!!

Ever seen the footage of the 777(or was it 767?) certification tests?

One involved bringing the plane to a halt, from takeoff speed, with
engines at full throttle until the plane comes to a stop.

A telescope camera showed the carbon-fibre rotors glowing
white-orange.  The question wasn't whether the plane would stop(it
did, quite nicely)...but rather "will the tires explode and/or catch
fire before the maximum FAA-specified time it takes fire crews to
arrive on scene"(4 minutes I think.)

I -believe-, but I'm not certain, that FAA regs said the tires
couldn't catch fire; Boeing was more concerned that one might
explode, because they cost $1M apiece.

"Hello, Tire Rack?  Yes, I need a 100000x3000x96 SP8000, overnight it
if you can..."

"I'm sorry sir, we don't show that tire as being suitable for your vehicle."

"Um, I don't care, its a new plane, you wouldn't have it listed."

"I'M SORRY SIR, -our- engineers know what they're doing..."

"Yeah, well our #$%! engineers built the damn thing..."

(anyone who has actually dealt with Tire Rack knows exactly what I
mean; they're the biggest snobs in the whole #$%@! world, and the
only people I know who are stupid enough to actually refuse to sell
you something based on their product "guide.")

B
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