3 ms·

Add fins to catch the wind on the sides of airplane wheels so that the wheels automatically begin to spin on landing approaches. This should help by reducing t

Add fins to catch the wind on the sides of airplane wheels so that the wheels automatically begin to spin on landing approaches. This should help by reducing the amount of rubber that is lost on landing and increase the useful lifespan of airplane tires.

run4yourlives 17y ago
Sounds cool until you consider that there is usually a crosswind component to every landing. (i.e. the rubber is being lost perpendicular to the tire rotation as well, and even if they were rotating this would still occur) I wonder if the benefit would be enough regardless?
jacquesm 17y ago
A friend of mine (PaulJ, co-founder of xs4all) came up with that long long ago, and had it researched. It turned out that the increase in weight because of the fins and the increased drag during landing would offset any savings. Nice though, to see another example of people coming up with the same 'good' idea, one more reason to abolish patents.
hedgehog 17y ago
Good idea, already been done. My "Idea Graveyard.rtf" has an old link for that, if you're curious you can hunt down what happened to the content: http://www.edwards.af.mil/archive/2002/2002-archive-new_invention.html http://www.edwards.af.mil/archive/2002/2002-archive-new_inve... I think the 747 actually has motors that spin the wheels up. The lateral slide is actually not a big issue, the landing gear on most larger aircraft are steerable to allow for that ("crab landing" I think it's called). Another idea in the file right after that one was to put vacuum flasks into car engines to keep the fluids hot after the engine is turned off. In theory this would reduce emissions & engine wear by reducing the number of cold starts. Turns out the Prius has that already. On the other hand a Boeing engineer came up with the idea of the little winglets you see on airliners now, Boeing passed on the idea so he took it outside and worked with a guy named Joe Clark. Their company (Aviation Partners) has done very well. I think the takeaway is that as an outsider to one of these mature industries you may come up with new ideas but you're also at a significant disadvantage compared to insiders.
- RobGR 17y ago
  The link to your idea graveyard seems broken, but I would be very interested in seeing it.
  - hedgehog 17y ago
    For the record my recollections of how aircraft landing gear works seem to be inaccurate (I just looked, could only find a reference for steerable gear on the B-52). For the spin-up idea I did find this though: http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/17808/Pre-Spin-Airplane-Wheels http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/17808/Pre-Spin-Airplane-Whe...
RobGR 17y ago
I knew someone who applied for a patent on that idea in the 1993-1995 time frame ( I can't place the year exactly ). I have no idea if they succeeded in getting a patent or getting it manufactured, but the guy had done enough research to find out it would not be useful to general aviation planes, because the tires on those planes are usually tossed due to UV sidewall damage before wearing out.

run4yourlives 17y ago

Sounds cool until you consider that there is usually a crosswind component to every landing. (i.e. the rubber is being lost perpendicular to the tire rotation as well, and even if they were rotating this would still occur) I wonder if the benefit would be enough regardless?

jacquesm 17y ago

A friend of mine (PaulJ, co-founder of xs4all) came up with that long long ago, and had it researched. It turned out that the increase in weight because of the fins and the increased drag during landing would offset any savings. Nice though, to see another example of people coming up with the same 'good' idea, one more reason to abolish patents.

hedgehog 17y ago

Good idea, already been done. My "Idea Graveyard.rtf" has an old link for that, if you're curious you can hunt down what happened to the content: http://www.edwards.af.mil/archive/2002/2002-archive-new_invention.html http://www.edwards.af.mil/archive/2002/2002-archive-new_inve... I think the 747 actually has motors that spin the wheels up. The lateral slide is actually not a big issue, the landing gear on most larger aircraft are steerable to allow for that ("crab landing" I think it's called). Another idea in the file right after that one was to put vacuum flasks into car engines to keep the fluids hot after the engine is turned off. In theory this would reduce emissions & engine wear by reducing the number of cold starts. Turns out the Prius has that already. On the other hand a Boeing engineer came up with the idea of the little winglets you see on airliners now, Boeing passed on the idea so he took it outside and worked with a guy named Joe Clark. Their company (Aviation Partners) has done very well. I think the takeaway is that as an outsider to one of these mature industries you may come up with new ideas but you're also at a significant disadvantage compared to insiders.

RobGR 17y ago
The link to your idea graveyard seems broken, but I would be very interested in seeing it.
- hedgehog 17y ago
  For the record my recollections of how aircraft landing gear works seem to be inaccurate (I just looked, could only find a reference for steerable gear on the B-52). For the spin-up idea I did find this though: http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/17808/Pre-Spin-Airplane-Wheels http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/17808/Pre-Spin-Airplane-Whe...

RobGR 17y ago

I knew someone who applied for a patent on that idea in the 1993-1995 time frame ( I can't place the year exactly ). I have no idea if they succeeded in getting a patent or getting it manufactured, but the guy had done enough research to find out it would not be useful to general aviation planes, because the tires on those planes are usually tossed due to UV sidewall damage before wearing out.