How are tires on carrier based aircraft made?

They must have many steel belts or something to withstand the force of a carrier landing...I think they are filled with nitrogen instead of air?|||To answer your question about what aircraft tires are made of you have to understand a little about aircraft tires and yes they are filled with nitrogen to reduce water that plain air has.





Aircraft tires are total different that automotive tires. There really isn鈥檛 any comparison at all other than they both hold air.





An aircraft tire must withstand a wide range of operational conditions. When on the ground, it must support the weight of the aircraft. During taxi, it must provide a stable, cushioned ride while resisting heat generation, abrasion and wear. At take-off, the tire structure must be able to endure not only the aircraft load but also the forces generated at high angular velocities. Landing requires the tire to absorb impact shocks while also transmitting high dynamic braking loads to the ground. All of this must be accomplished while providing a long, dependable, reliable, service life. These extreme demands require a tire, which is highly engineered and precisely manufactured.





While many of the components of bias and radial tires have the same terminology, the carcass ply angles are not the only difference between a bias constructed tire and a radial constructed tire. The technologies utilized are quite different involving different design parameters, compounds, and materials.





The tread refers to the crown area of the tire in contact with the ground. Most tires are designed with circumferential grooves molded into the tread area. These provide a mechanism to channel water from between the tire and runway surface, which helps to improve ground adhesion.





The tread compound is formulated to resist wear, abrasion, cutting, cracking and heat buildup. It prolongs the life of the casing by protecting the underlying carcass plies.





The under tread is a layer of specially formulated rubber designed to enhance the bonding between the tread reinforcement/protector plies and the carcass body. For those tires designed to be retreaded, this rubber layer will be of sufficient thickness to act as the interface for buffing the old tread assembly, as well as the liaison





A carcass ply consists of fabric cords sandwiched between two layers of rubber. Today, the most common fabric cord is nylon. The carcass body itself is made from multiple layers of carcass plies, each one adding to the strength and load bearing capability of the tire. The carcass plies are anchored by wrapping them around bead wires, thus forming the PLY TURN-UPS.





FOR BIAS constructed tires, the carcass plies are laid at angles between 30掳 and 60掳 to the centerline or direction of rotation of the tire. Succeeding plies are laid with cord angles opposite to each other, to provide balanced carcass strength.





FOR RADIAL constructed tires, each carcass ply is laid at an angle approximately 90掳 to the centerline or direction of rotation of the tire. Each successive layer is laid at a similar angle. Radial constructed tires of the same size have a fewer number of plies than do tires of a bias construction, because the radial cord direction is aligned with the burst pressure radial force allowing for optimized construction.





The beads or bead wires anchor the tire to the wheel. They are fabricated from steel wires layered together and can be embedded with rubber to form a bundle. The bundle is then wrapped with rubber-coated fabric for reinforcement. Depending on the size and design application, BIAS tires are constructed with 2 to 6 bead bundles (1 to 3 per side). By contrast, RADIAL constructed tires have 2 bead bundles (1 on each side) regardless of tire size.





Chafer strips are strips of protective fabric or rubber laid over the outer carcass plies in the bead area of the tire. Their purpose is to protect the carcass plies from damage when mounting or demounting and to reduce the effects of wear and chafing between the wheel and the tire bead.





The liner in tubeless tires is a layer of rubber specially compounded to resist the permeation of nitrogen and moisture through to the carcass. It is vulcanized to the inside of the tire and extends from bead to bead. It replaces the inner tube common to tube-type tires. In tube-type tires, a different, thinner liner material is used to protect the carcass plies from moisture and tube chafing, but is generally insufficient to maintain air retention.





The sidewall is a layer of rubber covering the outside of the carcass plies. Its purpose is to protect the cord plies. In addition, the sidewall rubber contains anti-oxidants. They are slowly released over time to protect the tire from ultraviolet and ozone attack, which cause rubber cracking.





The tread-reinforcing ply consists of single or multiple layers of a special nylon fabric and rubber laid midway beneath the tread grooves and top carcass ply. These plies help to strengthen and stabilize the crown area, by reducing tread distortion under load, and to increase high-speed stability. They also o|||The actual construction techniques on tires on Naval aircraft are the same for both runway use and carrier ops. The difference is that during carrier ops is that the air pressure in the tires is considerably higher than for land-based ops. Before the birds are sent out to the boat from the Naval Air base for ops the tire pressure is set for carrier ops. The tires stay pumped up even for the return to land ops. As pilots we were reminded prior to launch that the bird would roll faster and be more difficult to get stopped on the runway.


I do not know about Nitrogen being used in the tires. Unlike balloon pilots, I did not have to assemble the airplane before and after I flew it.|||Yes, they are filled with nitrogen, less leaking, no moisture to cause corrosion.





Many of the wheels are two piece, and are put together around the tire.





The US armed forces have many of their carcasses retreaded, since about 1968 when the DOD made it a policy. I don't know about the civilian world.





The C130 uses 26 ply tires on the mains, and 12 on the nose.





The F-4 uses 24 or 26 plies on the mains, and 18 on the nose gear.|||Mr. AUDU, I feel, is more correct. I've worked on both carrier-based Naval aircraft and corporate aircarft and that is close to the same information I would have given. The only thing I would add is that the biggest reason Nitrogen is used is because Nitrogen is less effected by temperature. Normal compressed air looses pressure as it gets colder.