Chongqing Aircraft Tires Break Through in China’s Aviation Field

Chongqing- The Western (Chongqing) Science City reported that an aircraft tire high acceleration test bench, one of the first sets of large aircraft tire dynamics devices in China, has entered the final installation and debugging stage, with tests to begin before 1st February.

The focus of this "made-in-Chongqing" large aircraft tire dynamics device is to test on aviation tires.

The aircraft tire high acceleration test bench was made in Chongqing. (Photo/ Chongqing University)

Development and manufacturing of the tires

In people's daily lives, automobiles are the most common means of transportation, and the defects in the quality of automobiles' tires can easily cause major accidents. While in aircraft safety accidents, most of the causes of major accidents are due to tires.

Specifically, the safe take-off and landing of aircraft depend on various unique functions of tires. Therefore, the tires' development and manufacturing are considered focal research to be tackled in China.

The high acceleration electric towing system, co-developed by the Industrial Technology Research Institute of Chongqing University, serves as the core equipment for developing the large aircraft tire dynamics device.

The system is located in the key area of the Western (Chongqing) Science City and is mainly used to simulate the take-off, landing, and taxiing conditions of the carrier aircraft and the large passenger aircraft, etc., and to test the dynamic characteristics of aircraft tires under large loads and high acceleration. 

Performance tests of aircraft tires

The newly developed large aviation tire dynamics device will cover all kinds of performance tests of aircraft tires for civil aircraft, catering to the experimental requirements of various aviation components such as aircraft tires, aircraft wheel rims, braking systems, and landing gear systems.

Under extreme conditions, dynamic simulation equipment such as high acceleration dynamics test benches, friction and wear dynamics test benches, pendulum vibration mechanics test benches, and drop shock dynamics test benches of aircraft tires will be developed, and a large basic research and testing device suitable for the comprehensive performance evaluation and verification of professional aviation tires will be established.

Independent airworthiness standards

"At present, China's aviation industry needs to break through two keys," said Yu Jin, an associate professor at the Industrial Technology Research Institute of Chongqing University. "The first is the basic materials for aircraft tires, while the second is that China's civil aircraft tires do not have independent airworthiness standards so far."

Professor Yu continued, once completed, the large aircraft tire dynamics device that can master the instantaneous situation of aircraft tires' touchdown in just a few seconds to evaluate the reliability of aircraft tires and establish the premise and technical guarantee for China to obtain independent airworthiness standards.

Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport. (iChongqing file photo)

(Shi Jiaqi, as an intern, also contributed to this report.)