Why The Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s Main Landing Gear Only Needs 8 Tires

Thanks to the cutting-edge technology of its carbon fiber airframe and enormous composite wing, even the largest and heaviest Boeing 787 Dreamliner needs just eight wheels on its main landing gear. If that doesn’t sound impressive at first, it is a third less than the Boeing 777 that came before it, which uses 12 main tires. For a more dramatic comparison, the 787 has half the number of wheels as the legacy 747, with its four sets of four-wheel bogies for a total of 16 wheels.