The heart of the Airtangent 2002 tonearm is the air-bearing system.
The air-bearing used in the Airtangent 2002 tonearm uses a highly pressurized film of air in conjunction with a closed-circle symmetrical array of pressure-control elements result in an air-bearing with extremely high stiffness and intrinsically stable behavior. The arm is floating on a thin film of pressurized air surrounding an air-beam. The only force moving the tonearm is the gentle force of the stylus. Owing to the air-bearing, the friction between the arm and the air-beam on which it is mounted is zero.

Extremely tight manufacturing tolerances
 
It is a low-airflow, high pressure, extremely tight tolerance critically damped ultra high precision, air-bearing system. The air-beam with 132 laser cut micro-perforations is the source for the tiny air-streams used to create the air-bearing for the sleeve assembly. Constant high pressure and low airflow are maintained in the bearing sleeve/beam interface as the bearing sleeve travels along the beam via an extremely tight tolerance film of air just 25 micron thick (47.Cross section of the air-bearing system). The air pressurizes the entire bearing surface, escaping at the interface of the sleeve and beam.
 
The air-bearing is remarkably light and rigid. Many pivoted arms have less rigid bearings than this, and even with the air supply turned off the arm appears to have negligible play with respect to the beam. All parts are in superbly engineered metal (except the arm-tube) with the particular metal used chosen for this special role in each case.
 
The air beam is machined from titanium in order to maintain the required accuracy and stability.

The air-bearing sleeve is manufactured from aluminium for exceptional rigidity and reduced effective moving mass of the air-bearing assembly.