A pneumatic tire for use on aircraft has a tread, a crown reinforcement, and a radial carcass reinforcement having at least one axially inner ply of textile cords wound around a pair of bead cores, at least one axially inner ply being wound around the bead core in each bead from inside to the outside forming outside turn-ups and at least one axially outer ply of textile cords extending from bead to bead along the turn-ups of the at least one axially inner ply. The at least one axially inner ply or at least one axially outer ply has merged cords having a percent elongation at break of 12% to less than 20% and a break strength greater than 1050 N with a linear density of greater than 9,000 dtex. Merged cord reinforcement is preferably used in the ply layers or strips of the crown reinforcement as well.