Free Republic

PARIS -- Edouard Michelin, the co-managing partner of France's Michelin, the world's leading tire maker, was killed in a boating accident, the company said Friday. A short statement from the company gave no details about his death or the accident. It said that another managing partner, Michel Rollier, would take over direction of the company. A company official told Dow Jones Newswires that Mr. Michelin, 42 years old, died in a boating accident. The accident took place near Ile de Sein, off Brittany's coast. Mr. Michelin took over the company's reins from his father, Francois Michelin, in 1999. Michelin is...

GREENVILLE, S.C.--The first automobile to use air-filled tires was a racecar built by André and Édouard Michelin in the early 1890's. More than a century later, the French company founded by the Michelin brothers is so identified with pneumatic tires that its mascot, Bibendum, is a man made of little else. Now, after decades spent persuading the world to ride on air, the company has begun work on an innovation that could render the pneumatic tire obsolete. Engineers at Michelin's American technology center here envision a future in which vehicles would ride on what they call the Tweel, a combined...

DeMint Announces $1.88 Million Defense Authorization for Michelin Upstate FacilityWASHINGTON - U.S Representative Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) today announced that the House Defense Authorization bill contains nearly $2 million for a Michelin facility in the upstate area to assemble tires for the Marine Corps' Land Attack Vehicles.The House is scheduled to pass the annual Defense Authorization bill later this week and the funding is expected to be formally appropriated later this year.

Michelin Man's my carrot By MARTYN SHARPE HUNDREDS of people have been flocking to gawp at a carrot — shaped just like the Michelin Man. Retired steelworker George Woodhall, 68, dug up the wacky eight-inch veg in his back garden. It boasts a roly-poly body and even chubby little arms and legs. Amazed George, of Barnsley, South Yorks, said yesterday: “It’s an exact replica of the famous Michelin Man made out of tyres. “Complete strangers have been coming from miles around to look.” Wife Annie, 59, said: “We always eat all the veg George grows — but the Man is...