Tire inflation pressure

anon wrote:

(VideoFlyer) wrote:

45 lbs??? 55 lbs for the nose gear??? That seems awfully high. Those tires
will be hard as a rock. I guess I'd prefer a little softer tire to land on. I
rarely put in more than about 15 to 20 lbs. 5 lbs will "get the sidewall off
the ground."

You obviously don't have experience with 5.00-5 tires on a 2,250 lb
gross weight canard aircraft or you wouldn't be spewing such
ignorance. The pressures I gave are correct for the tires, weight,
and configuration. 15 to 20 psi 5.00-5 tires would be grossly under
inflated on that airplane. The nose tire inflation of 55 psi is also
correct. Think before you post, people.

Consider that a pneumatic tire supports the weight by the air pressure
that's in it - and that the contact patch of the tire is approximately
the weight on the tire in pounds divided by the pressure in psi. That
means on the hypothetical plane above (2,250 pounds, 15psi), the
contact patch (total) for the three tires would be around 150 square
inches. That's 50 square inches per tire, which on a 5.00 tire is
otherwise known as "a flat".

Mark Hickey

Mark Hickey wrote:


Consider that a pneumatic tire supports the weight by the air pressure
that's in it - and that the contact patch of the tire is approximately
the weight on the tire in pounds divided by the pressure in psi. That
means on the hypothetical plane above (2,250 pounds, 15psi), the
contact patch (total) for the three tires would be around 150 square
inches. That's 50 square inches per tire, which on a 5.00 tire is
otherwise known as "a flat".

Mark Hickey

Agreed. More accurately, however, for this airplane there would be
about 1000 lb on each main at gross weight which, as you note, would
result in very flat 5.00-5 tires at 15 psi. The 45 psi recommendation
is correct.

- anon