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
A few reasons… They have a very small space to fit when retracted. The small size also reduces drag, which is crucial during take off. The landing gear will sometimes have multiple wheels stacked together for heavier loads like cargo planes, but they are still relatively small. The larger car tires (scale to size, aircraft wheels are actually much larger than car or truck tires) support much more weight when compare to an airplane of any size.
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