Kumho magnetic levitation UAM tyre wins 2022 Red Dot Design Award

Kumho has won a Red Dot Design Award for its ‘Air­borne Tire’ aimed at the urban air mobil­i­ty (UAM) sec­tor

It is reck­oned that by 2030 some 60 per­cent of the world’s pop­u­la­tion will be urban and with many major cities already close to grid­lock on the ground, pres­sure is mount­ing to opti­mise the air­space above them.

To that end a new gen­er­a­tion of safe, sus­tain­able and con­ve­nient air­craft, such as elec­tri­cal­ly-pow­ered VTOL machines, are in devel­op­ment, and it is with these in mind that Kumho has evolved the ‘Air­borne Tire’.

Employ­ing tech­nol­o­gy proven in mag­net­ic lev­i­ta­tion train sys­tems, a com­bi­na­tion of mag­net­ic field sus­pen­sion and rotat­ing wheel devices allows it to gen­er­ate suf­fi­cient elec­tric­i­ty to manoeu­vre an air­craft on the ground with­out the need for fur­ther propul­sion.

Once in the air the tyre wheels float by the force of the mag­net­ic field alone, while the air­less con­struc­tion min­imis­es impact on land­ing to the ben­e­fit of the pas­sen­gers. Kumho pro­posed advanced elec­tro­mag­net­ic tech­nol­o­gy for the Epoch eco-friend­ly rac­ing car con­cept devel­oped in 2007.

Kumho’s lat­est Red Dot Design Award was in the ‘Design Con­cept’ cat­e­go­ry. Organ­ised by the Design Zen­trum Nor­drhein West­falen of Ger­many since 1955, Red Dot is the old­est design com­pe­ti­tion in the world and among the three most pres­ti­gious. This year’s award cer­e­mo­ny will take place in Sin­ga­pore and the win­ning prod­ucts will be dis­played at the Red Dot Design Muse­um.