"We have had this happen a lot of times especially on the front wheel."
Wow!. Maybe we just don't have enough miles (~10k on the tandem) but we've never had a blowout. Teamcompi - you must be an expert at handling a tandem at high speed with a front blowout. It will be just fine with me to never experience this. We often descend steep hills with tight switchbacks (which tends to cause rim heating) and our highest ever speed is 58 mph.
It gives me the heebie-jeebies when I think about it.