Celebrating 100 Plus Sponsors and Honoring Dr. Dunlop, The Inventor Of Air Filled Rubber Tires

We have made an important first milestone in now having over 100 sponsors for the Ikeler4000 Round The World Record Setting Flight! Our own estimates show that it will take over a thousand sponsors to complete the mission, but where there's a will, there's a way, and we're on a roll! We also want to take a moment to honor a fellow veterinarian, Dr. John Dunlop, who invented air-filled rubber tires, the likes of which we all drive on, and land airplanes on, today.

Dunlop tires, a brand name I'm sure you recognize, was a tire making company started by a veterinarian in 1888. Dr. Dunlop thought the cobblestone streets of Scotland were too rough for his son to ride his tricycle on, so he dreamed up a solution that benefits all mankind still today. Cobblestones were put into streets to keep them from becoming muddy and unusable during the colder and wetter seasons of the year. A cobblestone is actually about a foot long, and if you have seen them and walked on them in Europe, you have only touched on one end of the entire stone. They are set vertically to sit deeply into the ground.
Having fashioned a set of nifty tires for his son's trike, Dr. Dunlop went on to develop air-filled rubber tires for automobiles too. Other inventors at the time included Michelin, who's tire company is still going strong, and even Dr. Porsche, who's sports car brand everyone has heard of. The late 1800's were a time of great prosperity and invention, and apparently medical professionals had the free time to join in on the fun.

Veterinary Medicine is a demanding field, and my personal mentor, Dr. Ian Coster, said vets are some of the most intelligent people around, and that a lot of ancillary knowledge goes into becoming a veterinarian. Vets have to solve a truly diverse set of problems every day, so I guess they have to be smart. I'm glad to be one of them! Dunlop tires was bought by Goodyear Tire Company in 1999, but the brand continues. So the next time you are putting air in your tires, remember that it was a veterinarian that came up with the idea first!

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.ikeler4000.com/

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