I used to watch a lot of airplane landings and take-off. My favourite moment is when airplane tyres touch the ground. Friction produces a lot of heat and hence, smoke.
But i wonder, why not pilot start rotating wheels before landing and match the speed of wheels such that it doesn’t cause any friction.
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There is no engine attached to the wheels. There is generally no need for additional complexity of an engine to drive the wheels. The landing gear’s main purposes are to absorb the shock of the landing (to mitigate stress on the body of the plane) and to help slow the plane down (using brakes).
The landing gear isn’t used a lot so avoiding friction to the ground and wear on the tires is not a big issue. It would be far more complex, costly and problem causing to try to drive the landing gear wheels than to just replace the tires more often.
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