Goodyear Receives Military Aircraft Tire Development Grant

AKRON, Ohio, Aug. 2, 2004 -- The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company will receive $2.25 million under the defense appropriations bill, passed last week by the U.S. Congress. The grant will fund research and development on the next generation of aircraft tires to be used on the nation's new Navy and Air Force joint strike fighter jets.

The R&D efforts will be directed by Goodyear's Akron Technical Center.

Goodyear is the world's largest supplier of tires for commercial, military and general aviation aircraft. The company's aircraft tires are manufactured in Danville, Va.; Bangkok, Thailand, and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

"This grant underscores Goodyear's history of aircraft tire innovation and we are proud to have earned the confidence of the U.S. military and the aviation industry to produce the tire," said Joe Gingo, executive vice president quality systems & chief technical officer.

Goodyear has been producing new and innovative products for the U.S. military for 85 years. The company works closely with aircraft manufacturers to develop and qualify radial and bias-ply tires for new aircraft.

Today, Goodyear is the only remaining U.S.-owned tire company manufacturing aviation tires for the nation's military.

Through its 106-year history, Goodyear has been at the forefront of rubber product research, design and development and has a number of aviation "firsts" to its credit. Among them:

   - 1909 - The first pneumatic rubber tire designed exclusively for
     aircraft.
   - 1911 - The design and manufacture of the tires used on the first
     airmail flight and later that year the first U.S. transcontinental
     flight from California to New York.
   - 1919 - Goodyear develops first rubberized, bulletproof gasoline tanks
     for military aircraft.  By 1940 they are adopted as standard equipment
     for all U.S. military combat aircraft.
   - 1942 - Goodyear awarded U.S. military contract to build Corsair
     military fighter planes.
   - 1950 - The company introduces life saving electrically heated rubber
     de-icing equipment for aircraft wings.
   - 1954 - Goodyear designs and develops the first tubeless aircraft tire.
   - 1971 - Goodyear develops the first tires to go to the moon.