Aircraft Tyre Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- 82.2% of all 1,307 records sit with just five assignees, and 92.3% sit with ten — this is a field with almost no long tail left to claim into.
- Filings fell 54% from a 2021 peak of 76 to 35 in 2024, the last year the dataset treats as complete.
- B60C pneumatic tyre claims dominate at 83.4% of records, while adjacent classes like D07B ropes/cables (2.2%) and C09J adhesives (2.6%) stay thin.
Filing growth compares 2021 (76 records) with 2024 (35) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 1,307 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent activity at the intersection of aircraft tyre construction and wheel-related mechanisms — carcass ply architecture, tread groove design, bead seating, fusible plugs, inflation pressure monitoring, and retreading. The search string pairs aircraft-specific tyre terms with construction and safety-feature terms, so the scope excludes generic automotive tyre filings that do not touch aircraft-rated structures.
Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cut-off, with 1,307 published records in scope. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 counts in any trend chart understate real filing activity for those years.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,307-record corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
A 2021 peak followed by a real pullback
Filings rose from 29 in 2017 to a peak of 76 in 2021, then declined to 35 by 2024 — a 54% drop over that three-year span. That is the most recent year the dataset can treat as complete; 2025 and 2026 figures will fill in as publications catch up with filing dates, so the decline should not be read as still accelerating.
Claim space concentrated in tyre construction, thin at the edges
B60C (pneumatic tyres) touches 83.4% of records, far ahead of polymer-composition classes C08L (15.4%) and C08K (11.2%). Structural adjacents like B29D (10.4%) and B64C (4.7%) see meaningfully less activity, and reinforcement-material classes D02G, C09J and D07B each sit under 5% — these are the pockets where claim space is least occupied.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,307 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Aircraft Tyre and Wheel Technology with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about aircraft tyre and wheel technology and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited filings
US20190135039A1 — Airplane tire having a casing reinforcement with improved endurance
A radial aircraft tire defined across circumferential, axial and radial directions, comprising a crown with tread, two sidewalls, two beads, a carcass reinforcement anchored at bead wires and extending through the sidewalls to the crown, and a crown reinforcement or belt situated radially between the carcass reinforcement and the tread.Filed by Compagnie Generale des Etablissements Michelin, published 2019-05-09.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4893665A | Cables for reinforcing deformable articles and articles reinforced by said cables | 127 |
| 2 | US6571847B1 | Light weight alloy bead core | 84 |
| 3 | US20100154948A1 | Tire tread with groove reinforcement | 76 |
| 4 | WO2002048257A2 | Elastomeric composition | 67 |
| 5 | GB1487426A | Reinforcement of vehicle tyres | 67 |
| 6 | EP1477333A1 | Pneumatic radial tire, and method of producing the same | 63 |
| 7 | US4832102A | Pneumatic tires | 63 |
| 8 | WO1997007380A2 | Automated system for vehicle condition evaluation | 61 |
| 9 | EP1518666A2 | A method of manufacturing a tyre belt structure and a tyre incorporating the same | 59 |
| 10 | US20050194081A1 | Pneumatic radial tire, and method of producing the same | 58 |
Citation counts reflect influence within this searched corpus and favour older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the data means for filing strategy
Three read-outs from the concentration, trend and citation figures above, framed for a team deciding where to file or challenge.
This field has almost no open middle
With five assignees holding 82.2% of all records and ten holding 92.3%, a new entrant is not competing against a diffuse field — it is competing directly against a small set of incumbents whose portfolios overlap heavily in carcass and bead-seating claims.
Volume is down from peak, not from a stall
The 2021 peak of 76 filings followed several years of growth from 29 in 2017; the pullback to 35 by 2024 reads as a post-peak correction across the leading assignees rather than a field that never took off.
Pneumatic tyre claims crowd out adjacent structure
B60C's dominance at 83.4% of records means most competitive activity is happening inside tyre construction itself, while wheel-adjacent classes such as B64C aeroplane structures (4.7%) and rope/cable reinforcement D07B (2.2%) see far less filing pressure.
The most influential prior art predates the current wave
The most-cited record in this corpus is a cable-reinforcement patent from the late 1980s, a reminder that citation counts here reward age and foundational structure claims over recent filings, which have not had time to accumulate citations.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to aircraft tyre and wheel technology, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranking covers 100 companies, counted in records, with a leader well clear of the field and a fast drop-off after the top few.
One assignee dwarfs the rest of the ranking
The leading assignee holds 701 of the 1,307 records in scope — more than half the entire corpus on its own — with fifth place at 34 records and tenth place at 17, showing how sharply filing volume drops after the top handful.
Corporate-research pairings show up in the data
The dataset records 10 co-assignee pairs; the strongest links a leading tyre manufacturer with a research institute at 29 shared records, and a second pairing links a tyre maker with its own research and technology subsidiary at 20 — a sign of formalised R&D-arm filing rather than open collaboration.
The leading filers have gone quiet in the latest year
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum shows a sharp drop or a flat zero in the latest year, including a -90% year-on-year change for one major filer and -100% for another — consistent with the 18-month publication lag rather than a genuine stop in R&D.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd | 1 | -90% |
| The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co | 0 | -100% |
| Bridgestone Corp | 0 | — |
| Compagnie Generale des Etablissements Michelin | 0 | — |
| Michelin Recherche et Technique SA | 0 | — |
| Airbus Operations Ltd | 0 | — |
| ExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc | 0 | — |
| Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The figures above describe the field as it stands. Turning them into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means going deeper on specific claims and assignees.
Map claims against the leader's 701-record portfolio
Before filing in carcass reinforcement or bead-seating, check which specific claim language the leading assignee already holds across its 701 records — broad novelty searches will miss where its portfolio is actually thin.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTrack the under-claimed branches as they fill in
Fusible plug and inflation-monitoring claims sit well below the core B60C density today; set an alert on new filings in these subclasses to catch competitors moving early.
Set up monitoring in EurekaRe-run the trend once 2025 filings publish
The 2025-2026 counts in this dataset are still filling in under the publication lag; revisit the peak-to-latest comparison once those years are complete before concluding the field has cooled.
Track filing trends in EurekaCommon questions on aircraft tyre and wheel patents
One assignee leads the ranking with 701 of the 1,307 records in scope, far ahead of the rest of the field. Fifth place holds 34 records and tenth place holds 17, so the top five assignees combined account for 82.2% of all records and the top ten for 92.3%. This is a highly concentrated field: most new entrants will be competing directly against a small number of established portfolios rather than a diffuse set of smaller filers.
Filing rose from 29 records in 2017 to a peak of 76 in 2021, then fell to 35 by 2024, a 54% decline over that three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year the dataset treats as complete, since publication typically lags filing by around 18 months. The 2025 and 2026 figures will rise as more filings publish, so the current numbers should be read as a snapshot mid-catch-up rather than confirmation that the field is still cooling.
Pneumatic tyre construction, IPC class B60C, appears in 83.4% of the 1,307 records in scope, making it by far the most heavily claimed area. Polymer composition (C08L, 15.4%) and polymer additives (C08K, 11.2%) follow well behind, with plastic article manufacture (B29D, 10.4%) and aeroplane structures (B64C, 4.7%) further down. Reinforcement materials such as yarn texturing (D02G), adhesives (C09J) and rope/cable structures (D07B) each sit under 5%, marking them as comparatively open claim space.
The clearest gaps sit in classes with low record shares relative to core tyre construction: rope/cable reinforcement architectures (D07B, 2.2% of records), adhesive interfaces between belt and tread (C09J, 2.6%), and fusible plug or inflation-pressure-monitoring mechanisms, which do not carry their own dedicated IPC class in this dataset but sit within the broader B60C claim set. Retreading process claims specific to aircraft-rated carcasses are another under-filed area given the field's overall B60C density. These are not guarantees of patentability, but they are the branches furthest from the 83.4% density seen in core tyre construction.
With the top five assignees holding 82.2% of all 1,307 records and the top ten holding 92.3%, this field shows unusually tight concentration — most of the ranked 100 companies hold only a handful of records each. The steep drop from the leader's 701 records to 34 at fifth place and 17 at tenth place indicates a two-tier structure: a small set of incumbents with large, mature portfolios, and a long tail of occasional filers. Teams evaluating freedom-to-operate risk should focus diligence on the leading handful rather than spreading equally across the ranked list.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.