General Question

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

Can airplaines use tank like treads unstead of wheels?

Asked by RedDeerGuy1 (24945points) September 29th, 2017

When landing and taking off. Or computer like mice , before lasers, with spheres?

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6 Answers

kritiper's avatar

No. Too much rolling resistance.

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

Or thousands of mini wheels on the base.

zenvelo's avatar

You need to be able to brake the wheels, one could not do efficiently that with hundreds of small roller balls. And it does not make takeoff any easier to have to force all the little balls up to take off speed.

kritiper's avatar

Also, not enough air cushioning. (Tire inflation.)

Zaku's avatar

Actually, yes! They’ve existed since the 1940’s (and have improved considerably since then). The idea is to be able to land on terrain that would damage wheels or where wheels would sink in soft ground or, for very heavy aircraft (e.g. B-36 ), be unable to use even most paved airstrips (because tracks disperse the weight).

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