Due to the strong friction, the rubber of the aircraft wheels heats up (and up to 180-200 degrees Celsius), as a result, smoke appears. All this takes only a few seconds. In addition, stopping distance increases after landing and 400-700 g of burnt rubber remains on the asphalt at each landing. But then why don’t engineers use a pre-spin system? After all, it would be more profitable: at least it would be necessary to change the tires less often.

There were few airplanes in history where electric motors would be used to spin the wheels before landing. These are the Lockheed R6V Constitution and the Il-28R. The pilots of the first plane emphasized that it became more difficult to understand whether the plane touched the ground due to the new system.

In addition, modern passenger aircraft will need powerful electric motors, because an airplane usually has 20 wheels, each weighing about 60 kg. Also the motors will need to run on batteries and may not be safe due to possible design flaws. As a result, the mass of the aircraft will increase, which means it will need more fuel.

To incorporate the new technology into commercial flights, you will need to go through the certification process with regulatory agencies. This will prove the security and fault tolerance of the system. Moreover, in case of failure of even one electric motor, it will be especially difficult to get the latter, since the aircraft can simply go to the side. It should also be noted that the runway width is usually not more than 60 m.

Studies also show that using such a skid system can reduce tire wear by up to 50 percent. Also, replacing a tire will be much cheaper than replacing an engine.

Source: Ferra

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