Aircraft

The Midlands Aerospace Alliance in the UK is funding modelling technology research to reduce the time and cost of aircraft tyre development with £120,000 ($196,900).

The team undertaking the work are the University of Birmingham's school of mechanical engineering and tyre manufacturer Dunlop, with support from Airbus. Airframe, landing gear and wheel and brake manufacturers are to use this project's results to improve modelling and simulation to help them reduce design time and cost.

The project is part of the alliance's aerospace technology exploitation programme, supported by European Union regional funding and local development agency Advantage West Midlands.

"This funding and the support of the University of Birmingham and Airbus gives us the opportunity to research new ways to use the very latest modelling technology to make advancements in aircraft tyre design," says Dunlop Aircraft Tyres' chairman Ian Edmondson.

The team is being led by Dunlop Aircraft Tyres' head of research, Wei Ding. Wei previously worked for Airbus as a project manager for tyre research and team leader for tyre, wheel and brake modelling and simulation.