posted 09-10-2011 03:53 PM               

These were given out to VIPs who attended an open house at Johnson Space Center and I purchased these from the family of the VIP.

The only other cut up flown shuttle tire I've seen is the famous display by Goodrich, who made 100 glass globes on a wood plaque, that held a 2.5 by 2.5 inch section of STS-1 tire. I have a few of the Goodrich STS-1 flown tire displays, the only differences between the two tires is the STS-1 segment is a little thinner and it has white fabric cords, where this STS-70 section has black fabric.

On the Michelin website it says that they made the tires for every shuttle mission, but I know that Goodrich made the tires for STS-1, so how can Michelin say this? Any idea how many missions Goodrich vs. Michelin tires were flown?

posted 09-10-2011 04:50 PM               

If you look at Michelin's timeline, you will find the following entries:

1981 Space shuttle Columbia lands on BFGoodrich tires, wheels and brakes.

1989 The Michelin Group purchases the BFGoodrich aircraft tire division to establish a full-service supplier tending to the needs of the military, airline, regional and general aviation segments of the aviation industry.

That said, it was not simply a matter of Michelin replacing their logo for Goodrich's on the shuttle tires. Michelin continued to improve upon the tire, redesigning it, and, according to the company, in 1995 the first set of Michelin Air tires were used on the space shuttle.

As to your other questions...

I also have a segment of STS-70 tire and a BF Goodrich STS-1 tire display.

If you look again at the BF Goodrich plaque that serves as the base for the glass globe and pewter shuttle model, you'll notice that while it references STS-1 and the globe containing a "section of an actual space shuttle tire" it never makes the connection that the segment is from an STS-1 flown tire.

In discussions with other owners of the same presentation over the years, there is the sense that the tire section is just a sample and was not flown on Columbia.

With regards to the STS-70 tire segment, a number of years ago, I had the chance to discuss tire segments with an educational outreach representative from Michelin who worked with NASA. She told me that for many years, NASA would return tires to Michelin after they were flown, which the company would then cut into segments and distribute to educators.

That was consistent with my own piece, which had been prepared as a sample of what could be made available for educator workshops.

posted 09-10-2011 05:40 PM               

I like to slice these flown tires into very, very thin sections (in order to get the most out of each chunk) and mount the sections onto a photo or litho of the space shuttle and give them away to kids when I do school presentations.

posted 09-10-2011 07:10 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
The handouts continued until Michelin found teachers selling the tire segments on eBay.

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posted 09-10-2011 10:15 PM               

Personally, I think it's a wonderful idea, as it gets the public to interact with an artifact in an unexpected way, leading to greater interest. I have watched the public in situations where they are presented with a flown tire on display and where they've been able to sign the tire. Guess which one holds their attention longer?

Keep in mind, every shuttle mission was outfitted with four main landing gear tires and they were one-use only. That's over 500 tires. Even if half were painted/cut apart, that still leaves many more tires that there are museums to display them.

posted 09-11-2011 07:25 AM               

After cutting out two sections on a bandsaw we gave up. The rubber melted, smelled awful, and coated the blade ruining it. We each kept a section and returned the tire to her.

posted 09-11-2011 07:27 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
That's over 500 tires. Even if half were painted/cut apart, that still leaves many more tires that there are museums to display them.

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posted 09-11-2011 11:07 AM               

When I cut up a tire segment into thin cross sections, the paper cutting machine shaves off 1 mm slices. I can get hundreds of pieces from one chunk. Then I'll cut those thin sections into a third or quarter and mount them onto photos or lithos or even old calendar pictures (whatever I can find cheap) and give them out at school presentations with a COA on the back.

They're virtually worthless as a collectible, but you should see the kids light up when they're given a piece from the space shuttle that's flown in space. I've had dozens of parents call and write thanking me for the piece of space shuttle, but in reality, it's no big deal.

It's our job to inspire, teach and promote today's generations to continue space exploration, advances in technology and allow them to dream, we're not doing our job as stewards on which we all enjoyed.

posted 09-11-2011 11:28 AM               

Some of these tires were used, as described, to have the public sign at NASA-supported events. Some were offered directly to museums and others were offered for loan to educational and nontraditional organizations.

posted 08-27-2013 07:36 PM               

At one time there were around 30 shuttle tires put on displays and sent around the world to most major airports for display. At this time I only know of two of the tires still around and one for sure. The rest may still be in place or have gotten tossed out or taken home by someone. We had several Ford Van loads of these and it neat to see.

As for the globe that BFGoodrich gave away. We had assembled these for BFGoodrich. The reason there is so few is they were just being given out at the time of the Challenger disaster and BFGoodrich pulled the plug on them.

I am not sure how many were given out but many of them first went to Japan. I am sure some at the headquarters had some and gave them to NASA people, too. They were given out before I started and I was given one later. When I left they still had several boxes of them and I would assume they may have been tossed out as the owner had no sense of history.

Note too on the globes I never saw any used chunks as we had many cut up tires including a large box of squares for these globes. The base said it is a piece of shuttle tire not used or flown. So if you have one I do not believe it is or ever was used. I saw where they came from and unless someone changed them they should all be unflown.

Same on some wedges as BFGoodrich has many wedges cut and used for shows and displays all were new tires.

I also have a neighbor who did the test on the shuttle tires for BFGoodrich in Brecksville Ohio. BFGoodrich owned Cleveland Pneumatics and BFGoodrich Tire so they sold the landing gear as a package.

He told me that as we all know the shuttle was well overweight and the gear and brakes were inadequate from the start. The shuttle used tractor braking to steer and often the brakes would over heat and lock up. There were more blown tires than the public was ever told.

Until they added a steering nose gear the shuttle was not permitted to land at Kennedy Space Center. They feared that if a tire failed it could send the shuttle to the swamps on the side of the runway. Note after the new nose gear after the Challenger explosion they moved the landings back with the new nose gear.

Many of the damaged tires came back to BFGoodrich and I am not sure all returned to NASA. Many may have bend destroyed.

Also my neighbor told me of how the computer would take the air speed and put the gear down automatically. With all they sorted out no one figured on a tail wind and in one of the early flights they had too much air speed and came with in I believe three seconds of a belly landing. I just confirmed this in the book "Forever Young" as John Young stated just what I was told.

I have a few things that were tossed out by BFGoodrich left. I have a large air brushed painting of the shuttle landing and flying that was used in one of their displays. It is about 10 to 12 feet tall.

Michelin really had little to do with the tire other than buying BFGoodrich. This was a BFGoodrich project and all done here in Ohio.

I even used one of the tires for a while for weight in the back of my truck in the winter time. It did not slide around and help me get through the snow.

As of now I am sure there is a lot of things still around from BFGoodrich but finding it would be difficult as many people may just have it stashed away and really may not even remember what it was. Many families will just toss it out as the guys who worked on these projects pass on. I have seen it often here in town with many of the older tire company workers. Parts of airships and racing tires have found their way to land fills because people did not know or care.

I hope this helps some to fill in gaps. Just to note while you may not be able to get a tire from NASA there were many non-flight tires that were from BFGoodrich sent out and could still be lurking in a odd place. Keep in mind when you make them you can make as many as you need over what NASA wanted. I think many people over look the sidewall where it said 6 landings and just think its just another airliner tire.

posted 08-27-2013 08:49 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by hyperv6:
I worked for a company that did most of the display work for BFG and Michelin in the 80's.

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posted 08-28-2013 06:47 PM               

BFGoodrich used the tires often at events and shows but then as the shuttle flights became more common and BFGoodrich was split into BFGoodrich Tire and BFGoodrich Aerospace we saw much less on the shuttle being uses.

Not sure but we had a lot of coverage here of the Challenger since Judith Resnik's family was still living here in town. I can still remember the missing man fly over of the NASA jets.