Why nitrogen?

"Viperdoc" wrote in
:

The thread on brakes raised a question from the past- why nitrogen in
the tires of big jets and heavies? Air is around 78% nitrogen anyway,
and the coefficient of expansion of the remaining 20% that's oxygen
can't make that much difference in volume.

Why not just use dry air? I couldn't imagine that dry air or dry
nitrogen could make that much difference in corrosion, either.

I seem to recall someone giving me the rationale for this a long time
ago, but also seem to remember thinking it didn't make that much sense
at the time.




Well, the greasemonkies say it preserves the rubber. Having said that we go
through them pretty quick and even considering retreads there wouldn't
be years of exposure or anything..
Wheel fires may be another good reason...


bertie