An air-filled or pneumatic tire consists of an inner core that is sealed airtight and filled with pressurized air. Usually, a tread made with reinforced steel belting or other kind of materials, provides the contact area with the road and seals this inner core.
Since the pressure of the air inside the tire is more than atmospheric air pressure, the tire remains inflated even with a vehicles' weight resting on it. The pressure of the air inside the tire provides resistance against forces which attempt to deform the tire. This gives the tire a slight degree of a cushioning effect when the tire hits bumps in the road. If you have experienced taking a ride in an old-fashioned carriage that had wooden wheels, you understand precisely how big of a difference a set of pneumatic tires could make.
Pneumatic tires also come with disadvantages. Highly dangerous applications or high-performance situations for instance, these tires could suffer a puncture and this will result in a complete failure. The consequence of a blowout at high speeds can lead to a dangerous car accident. Military planners need to consider tires getting blown out by explosion shrapnel or gunfire. A vehicle crew's worst nightmare is becoming trapped within a fire zone because of all of their tires becoming flat. Airless tires obviously don't suffer from these issues and therefore, could be more suitable in some applications.
The pneumatic tire may have issues as well with the variation in tire performance and air pressure. The lower pressure inside a tire could increase the comfort level and the traction. This is because of the fact that tires flatten slightly and more tread is touching the road. The air pressure inside of the tire works to maintain the lateral stiffness of the tire as well as maintain the "up and down" stiffness. Hence, reduced air pressure enables the tires' sidewalls to flex. This leads to poor handling unfortunately. Within an airless tire, the stiffness in those two dimensions is independent.
Air pressure factors into other problems too. With regards to to maintaining correct air pressure, customers are notoriously undependable. Wrong air pressure inside tires could result in very unsafe situations. It is important to note that pneumatic tires are also susceptible to temperature changes, that can be responsible for changing the internal tire pressure. It is very vital to consider the kind of environments you will be requiring your machinery to function in so that you could regularly check the tires and keep the machinery as safe as possible.