Skyraider tailwheel

[Ken]

With all this discussion on Mustang tail tires - I see that the traditional A-1 tailwheel appears to be a solid roller type wheel yet some airplanes have an inflatable.

Did the military ever fit an inflatable tailwheel to the A-1?
How hard are the solid ones to come by from a Warbird operator's perspective?
Can anyone with A-1 experience speak to the traction properties of the smooth, solid tailwheel on runways or PSP vs a carrier deck?

[51fixer]

With all this discussion on Mustang tail tires - I see that the traditional A-1 tailwheel appears to be a solid roller type wheel yet some airplanes have an inflatable.

Did the military ever fit an inflatable tailwheel to the A-1?
How hard are the solid ones to come by from a Warbird operator's perspective?
Can anyone with A-1 experience speak to the traction properties of the smooth, solid tailwheel on runways or PSP vs a carrier deck?

Navy A/C had solid tailwheels because of the loads imposed on landing on the carriers.
That is also why Navy Carrier A/C mostly had locking tailwheels and used brakes for steering. The carrier deck's size meant tight turns and travel of short distances. Army aircraft had tail wheel steering.
Rich

[ZRX61]

Bearcats also have a solid tailwheel tire

[Glenn Wegman]

Navy A/C had solid tailwheels because of the loads imposed on landing on the carriers.
Rich

The Corsair, for one, used the solid wheel /tire for arrested operations and a pneumatic tire for land based operations...........at 110 psi.

Last edited by Glenn Wegman on Fri Aug 21, 2009 6:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Chris]

Grumman Guardian had two solid tailwheel tires.

[sdennison]

Anyone ever try a foam filled tire?

[Elwyn]

Solid tailwhels can be hard on asphalt.

[Obergrafeter]

What size are they? Pretty sure I got one, anybody need it?

[Sabremech]

Hi Ober,
I'll check on the size for you. I could use it if it fits our Skyraider!

David
WHF Maint

[Hal B]

With all this discussion on Mustang tail tires - I see that the traditional A-1 tailwheel appears to be a solid roller type wheel yet some airplanes have an inflatable.

Did the military ever fit an inflatable tailwheel to the A-1?
How hard are the solid ones to come by from a Warbird operator's perspective?
Can anyone with A-1 experience speak to the traction properties of the smooth, solid tailwheel on runways or PSP vs a carrier deck?

To the best of my knowledge, Skyraiders always used the solid tarilwheel, and I've never heard any of our pilots mention anything about the ground handling of the HFM's airplane. I'll ask...

Also, we've had a couple of our spare units "retreaded" in the last couple of years...

[SpadGuy]

I can shed some light on this topic. I flew USAF Skyraiders in Thailand with the 1st SOS from 1971-1972. All our Skyraiders had pneumatic tires on the tailwheels. When the USAF got their Skyraiders from the Navy, they had solid rubber, slightly smaller (I believe) tires on the tailwheels. Here's what I do not yet know, what were the different sizes of tires, and were they mounted on the same size wheel. I have access to some documents relating to the test of Skyraiders by the USAF in 1963. That document states, "Tail Wheel: Provided a low pressure tail wheel is required and an assembly cannot be procured to replace the presently installed hard rubber wheel, the fuselage should be reworked to accommodate a low pressure tire."

This leads me to believe that the pneumatic tail wheel and tire is indeed larger than the hard rubber wheel and tire.

I am in the midst of research on this topic and will update this post if anyone is interested.

SpadGuy