Size of tailwheels

[spicmart]

Does anybody know why the tailswheels of Luftwaffe aircraft seem to be much larger than those of other nation's airplanes thus adding more drag to the airframe?

[Airframes]

Hadn't noticed they were particularly larger. For example, the Bf109 tail wheel was more or less the same as the Spitfire's, and smaller than the Hurricane's.

[Wayne Little]

Late G-2's onwards used a slightly larger wheel than previous models but certainly doesnt seem all that much bigger than other aircraft.

[Siegfried]

You'll notice that Me 109G-1 and most Me 109G-2 had a retractable tailwheel. Weight growth and the resulting enlargement meant that aMe 109 lost its rtractable tailwhell as the airframe was not modified for production reasons. The retractable tail wheel did not come back in till the Me 109K4 in October 44.

As to why it was 'large' is hard to tell, did the 109 put more weight on the wheel.

[mikewint]

The non-aircraft guy puts his $.02 in: Like a car the size would depend on the stress the tire has to endure and if it is going to have to retract or not.

[Juha]

The non-aircraft guy puts his $.02 in: Like a car the size would depend on the stress the tire has to endure and if it is going to have to retract or not.

True Mike
one more reason was the surface of a/fs the plane was designed to use. Finns changed the very small and hard tailwheels of Brewster B-239s, optimized for carrier decks to bigger Finnish made wheels designed for wheelbarrow because of the soft airfields they had to operat from while servicing in FAF.

Juha