The MythBusters tackled this exact question in Season 6, Episode 3, which originally aired on January 30, 2008. They performed a small-scale test with a model airplane and a small conveyor belt but were not able to get the model plane to take off from the belt. However, when they tested a remote-controlled model plane on a moving length of paper, it moved forward from its starting position and took off. Finally, they tested with a real manned plane and a runway-sized tarp acting as a makeshift conveyor belt. Like in the small-scale test, the plane moved forward and was able to take off. The MythBusters concluded that this was possible because the airplane’s propulsion comes from its engines, not the wheels, so the conveyor belt does not impede its forward movement through the air. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBuste…
@engineers_feed No, because aside from the wheels the plane is stationary, thus insufficient air is moving past the wings to generate lift.
@engineers_feed No. There's no moving air over the wings.
@engineers_feed People who are saying "no" are thinking that the plane is accelerating the same way a car is. It is not. Car moves forward by pushing on the ground, so pulling the ground will cancel that motion. A jet moves forward by pushing on the air. Moving the ground has no impact.
Yes. The engines will still produce thrust, thus pushing the plane forward from its original position. The wheels could spin either forwards or backwards depending on the directioj of the belt. It doesn’t matter as long as they spin freely. Once the plane is moving forward fast enough, the wings will generate lift, and the plane will rise off of the belt.
Stupid question. It relies on a little vagueness to imply that the answer might be unexpected, but it's not. In the exact conditions set up by the text, and making whatever other assumptions I want because the author was too lazy to specify, no the plane will not take off.
If the conveyor belt is designed to exactly match the speed of wheels, That simply means, Speed of wheels = speed of Conveyor Belt in Opposite direction. No matter how much thrust, jet fire, engine igntion, push from backwards happen, the plane wont move ahead. Because as much as plane tries to move ahead, the wheels in turn rotate the conveyor belt faster matching the speed. Thus resulting in no movement forward or both wheels and conveyor belt reaching the limit of their speed and breaking apart. Its like, assume, changing the wheels of aeroplane to roller gear and change the conveyor belt to also roller gear (pic). Now the more thrust aeroplane applies, the more it tries to move forward, the more its wheels rotate, resulting in rotating the wheels of conveyor belt at same speed. And yes, its not the wheels that moves the plane forward, its the propellers, wheels are free and blah blah. But in this specific question, its the wheels that are rotating the conveyor belt in backward direction. In this specific question, its the wheels that are matching the speed of conveyor belt. In this specific question, the wheels has a thing to do which is to rotate the belt. Thanks
@engineers_feed @MrJamesMay wanna have another heated debate? 😅