Originally Posted by
MPH1980
Except - of course - the friction generated by the increased surface area of the wheels will be greater and the overall mass you have to move is still huge.
I'd guess the makers of this machine have two concerns:
1) can the lift actually lift the wheel
2) can the drive produce enough force to move the whole aircraft.
Both of which are problems which have already been overcome with the petrol driven tugs ... so presumably it's more a question of doing it in a compact, battery driven, situation.
To push these planes they have to have a loads of ballast to get traction. The ones BA uses are Douglas DC-12's which weigh 50 tonnes themselves (Older conventional tugs, which are probably kicking around in use), or towbarless TBL-400/600's which weigh 30/37 tonnes each, and all have some big diesel engine in them.
Fun fact, the Armored Personal Carrier in the 1986 movie Aliens, was an ex British Airways tug (Hunslet ATT77).