"Viperdoc" wrote in message
...


My hypothesis is that nitrogen or argon is in some way superior to dry air
is simply an old wive's tale, not substantiated by data. So far, I have
heard a lot of rationales, but not seen any data. In graduate school in
organic chemistry, we used dry nitrogen or argon to distill a variety of
compounds that were sensitive to water (nothing like distilling
tetrahydrofuran over sodium metal to remove even trace water). It was like
an explosion waiting to happen.

None of the posts I have read has offered a logical explanation as to why
nitrogen is superior in some way to dry air.

I am curious regarding the tire and strut pressures used on the Baron.

The treatise from several Ford Motor Company engineers, which was referenced
elsewhere in the thread, appeared to only be on the web for sale and as a
second hand source. Therefore, I am left with my partial pressure
model--which simply does not justify using inert gas in tires at 60 or 70
psi (roughly 4 to 5 ATM) nor in struts at roughly twice that
pressure--unless you just happen to have it in the shop.

OTOH, on a heavy with the struts presumably pressurized to 100 ATM or more,
the partial pressure would would dramatically exceed 20 ATM of pure oxygen
on full bounce--so inert gas makes good sense.

Based on my presumption of the pressures involved for a light aircraft, dry
inert gas is mainly justified by eliminating the need for a good quality
dryer. In anything like normal service, it sounds like hype to me as well.