She needs to stick with teaching, not doing. There are just a few 'minor' details to deal with:
1) Tires don't hold air until they're on a wheel.
2) Wheels rust.
3) How do you get them in the well, past the partially sealed BOP with 10,000 psi oil gushing the other way?
4)How do you get the air in them, once they're in place (the local friendly BP service station doesn't fill tires)?
5) What's the coefficient of friction between the pipe and the tire?
6) in a three foot diameter pipe with 10,000 psi oil in it, the up force is about 10 million pounds (pi r squared p). What air pressure in the tire is required to resist this?
Like I said, she should stick with her class room.
While I don't think it will work either, I'd use a liquid like mineral oil to inflate the tires. Liquids are non-compressable, and it's just a question of the delta between the inside and the outside of the tire.
Example: at 5280 feet depth, the pressure is 2352 psi. if you inflate the tire to 2382 psi, when it's on the bottom, the tire has the same pressure it would, relative, or delta, to it being on your car, 30 psi. If you didn't have the wreckage of an oil rig platform, a mile of crumpled 21(?) inch pipe and 50+ tons of damaged valving and Blow Out Preventer sitting on top of were the oil is leaking out of the well, it might be easier to cap.
These people have seen the Hellfighters too many times. (Did you ever see cleaner burned and blown up well heads where all you had to do was lower a christmas tree onto the neat flange?)