biggest airplane tire?

[Nathan]

Ok here is a question......

What was the biggest airplane tire ever made and what was it used on?

[bdk]

My uneducated guess is the B-19.

[b29flteng]

XB-36. It's sitting in the US Air Force Museum at Dayton Ohio.

[Nathan]

I was wondering about the early B-36 with the huge single wheels.

But other then that any others?

[Canso42]

The XC-99, the double-bubble cargo job kinda sorta based on the B-36 also initially used the humongous singlemain tire. A real runway crusher there, folks.

Canso42

[b29flteng]

The question reminds me of a comic I saw in a YANK magazine my father brought home from WWII. It had a drawing of a huge tire, about the size of the XB-36s', with a Drill Sgt. telling a Pvt. holding a bicycle hand pump, "Your first week of basic training is going to be spent right here filling this tire".

[Paul Patist]

Short Stirling ?

[dhfan]

I have feeling it was either the Tarrant Tabor or the Beardmore Inflexible that had an 8 foot diameter tyre.

[JDK]

I have feeling it was either the Tarrant Tabor or the Beardmore Inflexible that had an 8 foot diameter tyre.

A really hard question is what's the biggest, oldest surviving tyre? The Science Museum in London has one from that era.

[dhfan]

James, is that the 8 foot one I'm thinking of?

[famvburg]

I think the XC-99 was built from the XB-36, so they both used it.

The XC-99, the double-bubble cargo job kinda sorta based on the B-36 also initially used the humongous singlemain tire. A real runway crusher there, folks.

Canso42

[CAPFlyer]

The single main tire on the YB-36 & XC-99 was 9 feet in diameter.

This tire restricted the YB-36 and XC-99 to operations from 3 runways in the United States - Carswell AFB (where it was built), Fairfield-Suisun (now Travis AFB), and Eglin AFB due to the weight loading on the concrete runways. As this was obviously unacceptable for the service aircraft, the 4-wheel bogie was developed and installed, the first such installation on an aircraft.

[airnutz]

I have feeling it was either the Tarrant Tabor or the Beardmore Inflexible that had an 8 foot diameter tyre.

A really hard question is what's the biggest, oldest surviving tyre? The Science Museum in London has one from that era.

I believe the XB-36 has that topped at 9feet 2inches,(110 inches)...

Edit

Last edited by airnutz on Sun Mar 09, 2008 1:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Wheels up]

That single wheel B36 is big....

(click to expand)

[rwdfresno]

I always thought this was a pretty unique idea to try and distribute the B-36 gtound pressure. As far as I know it was the only Aircraft half-track. Anyone know of any others?