Luftwaffe's whitewall tires

[GrauGeist]

I noticed recently, that the tail tire of the Fw190A-3 recovered in Norway a while back had a whitewall tire.

I remember reading somewhere in the past that the Luftwaffe used whitewall tires in Africa in an attempt to preserve the tires from the elements, but never really found out if that was successful or not.

I also don't recall seeing (or perhaps hadn't noticed) many whitewall tires in any period photos, either of Africa or Europe.

Anybody out there have more info on the whitewalls?

Here's a photo of Yellow 16's tail wheel showing the whitewall tire:

[vikingBerserker]

I just flipped through my books, and I could not find a white wall tire on any aircraft.

[wheelsup_cavu]

I did a search using GG's heading and came up with the same description he had about it being for heat purposes.
My search even brought up a model with whitewalls.
Nothing more that I thought would be useful though.

The Model:
Carousel 1 7102 - Bf 109 Diecast Model, Luftwaffe 8./JG 27, "Black 8", Werner Schroer, Libya: The Flying Mule

The description:
"White wall tires shown on several 109s were not a decoration, but an attempt to protect rubber tires from desert heat."


Wheelsup

[vikingBerserker]

I'll be damed, nice find wheels.

(and it looks stylish!)

[beaupower32]

Nice, never seen that before. Great find.

[GrauGeist]

Now I'm going back through all my Afrika photos trying to see if there were whitewalls, and I'll be danged if the vast majority of the photos have thier tires obscured from view!

I did find one good one that definately shows whitewalls on the Bf109.

I'm thinking that this might be something that folks have been overlooking in thier North Africa Luftwaffe profiles and model finishes...

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Interesting question and answer GG. You've probably pissed the model builders off now.

[GrauGeist]

Originally Posted by Aaron Brooks Wolters

...You've probably pissed the model builders off now.

Oh yeah, leave it to me to eff up the system...

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

[Marcogrifo]

Hi, here are some little findings on my books:

Tail of a FW-190A:


The same tail wheel in detail:


This is said is from a Bf109K with retractable tail wheel:


Cheers

[GrauGeist]

Marcogrifo, those are great photos!

And if that indeed is a Bf109K tire, then the Luftwaffe usd them long after the Africa campaign. Interesting.

Thanks for posting those!

[ChrisMAg2]

Originally Posted by GrauGeist

...
Anybody out there have more info on the whitewalls?
...

Very simple: It's an indicator that the aircraft is electrically grounded by/ via the tire(s).
As you know, rubber is usually an insulator. In this case the tire is the "electric outlet to the ground. Otherwise a socket and wire would have to be installed into the plane to let this happen.

[vikingBerserker]

White walls do that?

[GrauGeist]

Originally Posted by ChrisMAg2

Very simple: It's an indicator that the aircraft is electrically grounded by/ via the tire(s).
As you know, rubber is usually an insulator. In this case the tire is the "electric outlet to the ground. Otherwise a socket and wire would have to be installed into the plane to let this happen.

Dude...seriously, what?

Grounding the aircraft? And once it's in the air, you run a long extension cord to it?

The aircraft has a propietary electrical system, just like your automobile. In a negative ground system, the positive portion of the circuit is insulated from the chassis to allow for circuit function, wether or not the machine is sitting on the ground or in the air. This same theory would apply to positive ground systems where the negative side of the circuit is insulated from the chassis. No matter if it's 6 volt, 12 volt, 24, 48 & 72 volt direct current (DC) systems...

At no point is the ground that the machine is sitting on influencing the onboard electrical circuit's function. And rubber tires do not nessecarily protect a vehicle/aircraft from lightning because the bolt will arc from the machine to earth regardless of the type, size or even color of the tires.

[beaupower32]

Originally Posted by ChrisMAg2

Very simple: It's an indicator that the aircraft is electrically grounded by/ via the tire(s).
As you know, rubber is usually an insulator. In this case the tire is the "electric outlet to the ground. Otherwise a socket and wire would have to be installed into the plane to let this happen.

Now that is funny. Probably the most off the wall answer I have seen for quite some time.