Airplanes are modern means of transportation known for their extremely high safety standards, so all components on an aircraft must be precisely manufactured to ensure the aircraft’s safety.
Aircraft operate in the air, thus requiring meticulous precision in the manufacturing, operation, and maintenance of all parts to ensure safety and durability, particularly vital components like engines, fuselage, and tires.
An average airplane tire can run on a runway at speeds of 274 km/h and withstand a load equivalent to that of an office building. Each aircraft tire lasts for about 300 landings (the surface in contact with the runway).
When an aircraft starts to land, during the initial touchdown moment, the airplane tires skid instead of rolling, resulting in the tires dragging along the runway until their rotation speed matches the aircraft’s speed. Therefore, airplane tires often emit smoke upon landing.
Currently, Michelin is the sole company capable of producing aircraft tires to stringent technical standards. To ensure the safety of the crew and passengers, aircraft tires must be replaced after around 300 landings. Hence, the cost per tire is not cheap, as producing an aircraft tire to support the entire weight of an aircraft, which can reach hundreds of tons, requires extremely stringent material requirements.
Depending on the type of aircraft, manufacturer, and specifications, the price of aircraft tires can vary from tens to hundreds or even thousands of USD per tire, excluding the extremely high maintenance costs. Thus, each replacement or maintenance of aircraft tires can cost hundreds of thousands of USD, leading many to believe that in terms of value, aircraft tires are more expensive than gold.
How are aircraft tires constructed?
Aircraft tires are made up of four basic materials such as rubber, nylon, special cords, and steel. Natural rubber is used because it offers better heat dispersion characteristics. Aircraft tires are formed through a process called vulcanization, involving multiple layers stacked together, like nylon, Kevlar, along with stringent technical standards for hardness, durability, and abrasion resistance, more rigorous than those for typical tires.
To minimize pressure fluctuations due to high temperatures during landing, tires are inflated with inert gas like nitrogen. This prevents water vapor from combining with high-pressure heat, which, if present inside the tire, could lead to automatic bursting upon landing when it reaches the limit.
