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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 1177.PDF
23 APRIL 1954 FLIGHT 21 Taking-off, Touching-down, Taxying NEW TYRE-TESTING MACHINE REPRODUCES HIGH-SPEED JET OPERATING CONDITIONS Controlling the progress of an actual test run. The machine can be seen through the double wall of safety glass, beyond the protective steel torpedo netting PERMITS CLOSE, ACCURATE STUDY OF AERO TYRE BEHAVIOUR The startling progress of aeronautical design in recent years, so greatly influenced by the development of the jet engine, has confronted the tyre designer with complex problems. Thinner wing sections, which reduce retraction space, create a need for smaller-section tyres. But they also indicate higher performance — and a correspondingly bigger strain on wheel equipment. Just how successfully Dunlop has overcome these The test plant, showing the Merlin engine, the test-tyre and, on the far side, the ' slave' tyre and pneumatic ram. problems may be judged by the wheel equipment now fitted to the "Comet," the "Viscount" and many other advanced Civil, Military and Naval aircraft. An indispensable aid in all this work is test equipment capable of simu lating actual operating conditions—both as they are now and as they are likely to be in the future. Here Dunlop has a unique advantage—a test machine that reproduces, for close and accurate study, the complete life- cycle of a high-speed jet aircraft's tyre. Mounted in a specially-con structed, well-protected building, the new plant is powered by a Rolls- Royce Merlin aero engine developing 1,725 b.h.p. at 3,000 r.p.m.— equivalent, with some tyres, to a surface speed of 300 m.p.h. Sudden Strains and Stresses To reproduce the effect of a loaded tyre travelling over a flat surface, the test tyre is driven against a freely-rotating tyre "spring-loaded" by means of a compressed air cylinder. To imitate a take-off the driven tyre is rapidly accelerated under a gradually-reducing load. For landing, the tyre is rotated at high speed and the 'slave' tyre is pressed suddenly against it under a load of up to 7i tons. This load is then momentarily withdrawn, to simulate landing 'bounce', and then re-applied for a longer period in imitation of the taxying run. The whole sequence of operations is automatically timed and controlled. This new machine is undoubtedly a complete step forward in aero tyre testing. Already it has yielded information which is readily translatable into terms of safer, more economical aircraft operation. This valuable data is now being applied in Danlop designs. By anticipating the needs of the future in this and many other ways Dunlop offers a complete service to the Aircraft Industry. DUNLOP RESEARCH SERVES THE AIRCRAFT INDUSTRY—Manufacturer, Operator, User •N&M
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