Classic Chevrolet Cadillac

Airless Tires Were Designed in the 1930s

Airless tires have been getting a ton of media attention recently with Michelin’s “Tweel” being praised as the most amazing bit of tire technology since the invention of the radial tire. People think this is some new-fangled invention, but in actuality airless tires have been under development since the 1930s and 1940s.

Airless tires is an idea all of us at Classic Chevrolet Cadillac, would embrace, as long as they can handle the roads in Beaumont and all over the State of TX. At least you don't have to worry about blowouts, right?

James Vernon Martin was a well-known aircraft and automobile innovator in the early 20th Century, inventing things like airless elastic tires. He named them initially the Lightweight Resilient Tire, then the East Biding Tire, and finally the Elastic Tire.

Martin's goal with all of the versions of the airless tire was to create a lightweight, easy-to-make, “easy riding” tire that would not puncture, could conform to tough road conditions, and provide a vehicle with better control at high speeds over different terrain.

The concept behind Martin’s Elastic Spoke tires is relatively complex. Rubber is adhered to a series of parallel bendable metal hoops to make up the outer tread portion of the tire. Martin claimed in his Elastic Tire patent that utilizing multiple small-diameter spring-steel tubes as hoops to strengthen the tread of the tire is preferable to using just one big metal hoop.

To create the required strength in one hoop or tread section to produce sufficient stiffness and rigidity, some of the metal tends to knock itself to pieces and eventually crystallizes.

In other words, Martin's airless tire design utilizes a rigid tread hoop to carry the axle’s load in tension through a bunch of elastic spokes. If this sounds a little familiar, it’s because Michelin’s hot “new” Tweel design utilizes a very similar design. With the “spring steel” hoops that stiffen the tread portion of Martin’s tire, Michelin also uses a similar design concept with its "Tweel" wheel.

So, the next time you read about the innovative and cutting-edge nature of the  airless, elastic-spoke tire concept, now you know it's nothing even remotely new. It shows that retro things often come back, because they're practical and work. The big question with the newer designs is will carmakers incorporate airless tires into their new car designs? Only time will tell.

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Sources: Wikipedia, Forbes and AOL