Commercial airplane tires are inflated with nitrogen gas to incredibly high pressures, usually around two hundred pounds per square inch, which is roughly six times the pressure of a standard car tire.

A closer look

Commercial airplane tires are inflated with nitrogen gas to incredibly high pressures, usually around two hundred pounds per square inch, which is roughly six times the pressure of a standard car tire. Nitrogen is used because it is an inert gas that does not expand or contract as violently as normal air during the extreme temperature fluctuations between the freezing stratosphere and the scorching friction of a runway touchdown. These tires are so incredibly durable they can hit the tarmac at one hundred and seventy miles per hour while supporting hundreds of tons of aluminum, passengers, and cheap luggage. So while your car tire will inevitably get a catastrophic blowout because you accidentally drove over a moderately pointy pebble, a commercial aircraft tire can literally slam into concrete from the sky and barely even register the impact