I was watching videos of aircraft landings and noticed how disproportionately small the wheels were on just about every aircraft. Wouldn’t it be better to have larger tires (like in cars) to provide better traction for take off/landing?
In: Physics
Cars use their wheels to push them around and stop themselves quickly to avoid crashing. So they are big and attached to gears and an engine.
Airplanes wheels are not powered, the jet engine pushes the plane around and even though the wheels do help brake the plane most of the force comes from airbrakes on the wing and they often have almost 2 miles to stop!
Also there isn’t much space on an airplane so they are made as small as possible so more luggage can fit in the belly.
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