Lonelygirl15

There's a difference between taking off and maintaining flight.

My two cents:

It would eventually get to a speed where the forward thrust from the engines would exceed the friction from the wheels and air and it would begin to take flight. The problem would arise at that moment, wherein it would have lost the forces of friction from the wheels and subsequently crash back to the ground.

It all boils down to forces acting on the plane, which the picture that I posted explains

Ziola wrote:Poor Acid...we've destroyed yet another thread.

And Les, if we fill it with fireworks, won't that make it very difficult for us to toast marshmallows for the s'mores?

ummmm..... *stumped* no fireworks then

Forward thrust will overcome friction. But there are four forces acting upon the plane. The picture only explains two.

And Lester, I think "The problem would arise at that moment" means fireworks

'mute

edit: missed your picture. Original picture only explains two. Doh!

'mute

wintermute wrote:Forward thrust will overcome friction.

Hee!

"The problem would arise at that moment"

'mute

Double hee!

Mirage

*blush*

What?

Oh snap, Mirage pulled a Sheikh! [/impressed]

AutoPilate wrote:Oh snap, Mirage pulled a Sheikh! [/impressed]

And he enjoyed it too.

Doh! I want to change my answer! I was assuming that the treadmill was running backwards to push the plane forwards. If it's running in the correct direction to keep the plane in the same spot relative to the unmoving ground then no, it won't take off. An airfoil needs air moving across it to generate lift. This air movement is generated by the engine thrust moving the plane (well the wing part of it anyway) through the air mass. If the airplane is standing still relative to the surrounding air mass then it will stay firmly planted on the belt no matter how much thrust it generates ... assuming the belt is capable of moving fast enough to match the forward thrust generated by the engines ... and assuming that there's not a hurricane in the area ... or a really, really big fan at the front of the treadmill.

I've been saying this all along.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm yum.

uh Z could I uh? have some?

Of course

Eric wrote:Doh! I want to change my answer! I was assuming that the treadmill was running backwards to push the plane forwards.

You know what they say about assumptions

Now, if the treadmill were to come to a sudden dead-stop, even if the thrust stopped too...

'mute

well now i just want to see this done!