Since Tesla's collapse continues, it's worth taking a second look at the time a Model X pulled one of Qantas's Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners a distance of 987 feet. You might remember that story making the rounds back in May of 2018 because it was a world first. As Qantas put it then, "Never has a passenger airliner been hitched to an electric passenger vehicle for towing. Well at least until today."
Hey, Qantas, it's cool and all, but let's put this in perspective. What if we told you that pulling a massive jet airliner on level ground isn't that hard? Not only has it been done by vehicles powered by internal combustion engines with less torque than the Tesla, but by normal, flesh-and-blood people, not the Six Million Dollar Man.
"B-but the Tesla Model X has a towing capacity of 4,960 pounds," I can hear someone sputtering, "and the Dreamliner weighs hundreds of thousands of pounds! It did the impossible!" No, it didn't. The Model X's tow rating is essentially meaningless in this context, because the mass of the plane is almost the least important factor in this scenario.
The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner is indeed gargantuan, weighing 286,600 pounds. That's a lot of pounds to move, but the real question is how much strength it takes to get and keep the jet rolling. We can figure out the frictional force, aka. the actual pounds the Tesla feels on its bumper, with this equation: Rolling Tire Resistance x Weight of the Plane.
In a 2003 NASA document called A Study of the Mechanical Properties of Modern Radial Aircraft Tires, the researchers estimate tire resistance on commercial jets to be approximately 0.015 (spoiler: that's not much resistance). With the weight and tire resistance, we can calculate the pound force (lbf) required to get the plane rolling using this equation: 0.015 x 286,600 = 4299 lbf, which means the Tesla has to pull the equivalent of 4,299 pounds, well within its tow rating. This is assuming Tesla didn't use higher tire pressures to reduce rolling resistance on the jet.
Automakers love this kind of "test" because it looks cool. Volkswagen proudly touted that the now cheap (but never affordable) Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI could tow a 747, and Chevy ran a commercial in 1972 where one of its pickup trucks also towed a 747. You know what else can tow a commercial jet? A group of people, like when the Diplomatic Security Service Team did it in 2019 with a 757. Even just one dude can do it. In 2009, Canadian pastor Kevin Fast pulled a 416,299-pound CC-177 Globemaster III over 28 feet.
The real problem with the plane-pulling stunts car manufacturers arrange is that they don't take into account all the meaningful intricacies of a tow rating. Ever since 2013, the Society of Automotive Engineers' J2807 standard has governed how tow ratings are calculated. The tests include towing up steep grades, through high ambient temperatures, and accelerating with heavy loads — you know, real-world towing stuff that actual people have to do. You need to care about things like gear ratios, transmission cooling, and GVWR in your RV or truck, but nowhere in the SAE J2807 documents is there a test involving a 747 on a flat runway.
It makes sense that a Tesla Model X can pull a commercial airliner a little less than a thousand feet. EVs have insane torque that they make from zero rpm, and the Model X is no exception. Even a Standard Range Model X (the least powerful one) has 556 lb-ft between its two motors. The VW Touareg V10 had 553 lb-ft, and, no surprise, also towed a big ol' jet airliner just fine. Kevin Fast has less torque than that, and he pulled a plane, too.
Yes, the Tesla/Dreamliner stunt was the first time an all-electric passenger vehicle towed a plane. But there are lots of things that can be "first" and still not be that impressive. Maybe you'll be the first person to eat 20 champagne-soaked pancakes while listening to Metallica's "Master of Puppets" in the back seat of a plaid-painted 1989 Bentley Turbo R driving backward. It still probably won't make it into Guinness.