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.
Remember that the tires on the car are used to make it go and stop, and to keep it on the road while going through corners. That’s a lot of stress in all directions. The basic function of an aircraft tire is to keep the plane’s body from having to touch the ground, and they do some moderate braking (but the heavy braking is done by reversing thrust on the engines).
Same reason the wheels on a shopping cart are small; they’re there solely for the purpose of rolling. The wheels on a car are what moves the car. An airplane uses it’s propeller/turbofan/jet to push it along the ground, so the weels just need to be there so it can roll.
There are exceptions to this, of course. Airplanes designed to land on dirt and in fields have much larger wheels, and take a look at the back wheels on the landing gear of a Naval aircraft designed to land on an aircraft carrier. They’re much more . . . robust. They need to be to handle the impact and/or the rough terrain. Most airplanes, however, are designed to roll across asphalt, concrete, etc.
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