Will it fly?
 

The mythbusters on discovery tonight answer the question. Will a plane take off on a conveyor belt?

yup- little to no resistence on the wheels.

As long as it gets & keeps enough air movement over its wings...

Yes...as long as the treadmill is long enough.

Sure it will. I want to see the massive conveyor belt.

Some people have far too much time on their hands.

Does a carrier catapult ring any bells? Given enough airspeed, a brick will fly.

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All the plane needs to take off is sufficient forward airspeed.
As long as the prop is driving the plane forward the the airspeed will be just the same whether the ground is moving relative to the plane or not. If the plane had to get to take-off speed by driving throough it's wheels then that would be a different story.

Can someone please explain the physics of that video. That plane should be stalling and falling right out of the air. Is it defying bernulli's principle? Come on people why is that happening?

When is it on?

I say 'no fly'.
The engine will run fast enough to keep the plane standing still. No air will move over the wings.


KT

Headwind and a low stall speed...... Love it! If you get a fast enough headwind and a low enough stall speed you can actually land with zero groundspeed or while moving backwards over the ground. Did this with an r/c airplane, never did it with a real one though.

Yeah it looked like the video was shot in a valley with the mountain on the otherside. I guess thats exactly the reason why carriers launch into the wind? So the plane doesn't have to physically be moving? Just the air has to be moving fast enough over the wings to produce lift?

This is too cool.

I was actually dissapointed by the mythbusters. it is just too obvious that a plane still could fly, b/c the ground has nothing to do with lift.

The plane above can take off b/c there is a strong enough head wind. Thats why an aircraft carrier points into the wind when planes take off

Airspeed (speed of the air moving over the wings) is everything to the physics of flight, groundspeed (speed relative to a fixed position on the ground) is meaningless to the physics of flight.

You are correct. It is the reason carriers launch into the wind, also why they land into the wind.

So theroetically, yeah I gotta use that word atleast once when talking physics, if you had a constant headwind moving quickly enough to produce instant lift. The plane would just take off? I.e that video?

Don't want to ask the dad. He is the physicist and he will give me meaningless physics scenarios. I want lift speeds. Come on 450, you fly an Embraer, I fly on one once a month. At what speed Mph/knots do you get enough lift to sustain flight?

Sounds like I am talking gibberish.

The plane will take off with the wheels turning Zero mph!
Think rope theory :D

another reason why they have to tie the wings down when not in use.

Yes, but you will need the engine to keep the airplane moving relative to the wind. It would appear from a position on the ground that the airplane is rising vertically.

WIND!?!?! See those big Ballon wheels? they're filled with helium. ;)

Pretty cool video, eh?

This is really interesting stuff. Keep it coming guys