The Dowty internally sprung wheel, the undercarriage aircraft wheel designed and built by Sir George Dowty in the 1930s, will be presented with an Engineering Heritage Award by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers at a ceremony on Thursday 8 March.
The device is being recognised for accelerating the evolution of aircraft of the time, increasing a plane’s ability to fly at higher speeds and transmit higher braking loads safely through a slender undercarriage.
Although Dowty did not design the first internally sprung wheel, previous designs by Curtiss of America and Breguet of France were not refined for practical application. Dowty saw potential in the sprung wheel, refined its design and set up his own business. He quickly received interest from Kawasaki, one of Japan’s first aircraft companies, which ordered six internally sprung wheels for the KDA5 type 92 aircraft. The internally sprung wheel was later used on such aircraft as the Hawker Fury, Westland Lysander and Gloster Gladiator.
Previous winners of Engineering Heritage Awards include Alan Turing’s Bombe at Bletchley Park, the E-Type Jaguar and Concorde, the fastest ever airliner. Other aircraft-related winners include the Short SC1 VTOL aircraft, a plane which provided data that influenced later designs of aeroplanes, the Rolls-Royce RB211 engine and the Vulcan Bomber XH558, the last airworthy representative of the RAF’s V-bomber fleet.
The Dowty internally sprung wheel will be the 115th recipient of the award.
