Self Sealing Tanks and Tires

• The self-sealing tire and fuel tank came about during the early to mid war years, primarily for use on war-bound aircraft and ground vehicles. Self-sealing tires and tanks contain a sort of viscous goo or soft rubber in the tank and tire lining, which flows into a hole to plug or slow any leaks that occur. The gold standard for any self-sealing fuel tank or tire was that it should be able to seal a hole of at least 3/8-inch diameter, slightly smaller than a .45 caliber bullet. Self-sealing technology lives on today in a number of tires, off-the-shelf Fix-a-Flat products and racing fuel cells.
  
  

Anti-lock Brakes

• Before they ever saw use in an automobile, and well before the first computers showed up to regulate them, mechanical anti-lock systems were helping aircraft to control wheel speed and braking while landing. Landing a bomber is very hard on the tires, especially when the pilot can't tell when the tires are locked, flat-spotting at 100-plus mph and catching fire. Those original anti-lock brakes used a flywheel and complex hydraulic system to sense relative wheel speed and apportion brake pressure accordingly. Granted, anti-lock brakes didn't make it to automobiles until 1958, but the concept came about during WWII.
  
  

Synthetic Rubber Tires

• Like most other materials of war, rubber was in very short supply during the war years. BF Goodrich scientist Waldo Semon began developing the patriotically named Ameripol in 1935 and finalized the formula in 1940. Ameripol drastically reduced the amount of rubber required to cast tires, making them cheaper to produce and quicker to deliver. This was especially pertinent considering that the Axis powers controlled most of the world's rubber supply, a fact which they believed would help to cripple us until Goodrich slapped them with some chemistry.
  
  

Electronic Fuel Injection

• Another technology imported from aircraft, mechanical fuel injection had actually been quite common in diesels and aircraft engines since the late 1920s. Carburetors simply weren't efficient at high altitude, especially in fighters that spent a great deal of time subjected to high G-forces. While mechanical systems worked well for aircraft, which tended to operate within a fairly limited rpm range, Alfa Romeo made it truly viable for automobiles with the electronic injection system used in their 6C2500. Mechanical injection systems saw some limited automotive use in the years to come, but Alfa's innovative electric injectors set the template for the integrated electronic fuel injection systems that we use today.