Can A Plane Take Off From A Treadmill

Say that a plane is on a conveyor belt as long and as wide as a runway that is matching the speed of the plane, but in the opposite direction. Will it take off?

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A man's got to know his limitations.

You just changed the world forever.

This is a classic science conundrum that I wanted to share with the site, and see what the MoFos think.

My guess is no. Don't know anything about aerodynamics, but I've heard enough times that a plane needs a certain distance of runway to build up enough speed in order to become airborne. With the treadmill scenario, the plane is never building speed as long as the treadmill matches the speed of the plane's wheels. It's essentially standing still with it's wheels moving - just as if you put it up on jacks and accelerated the wheels to their maximum.

But would the prop propel the plane, so that it still had thrust even on the treadmill?

Myth Busters...I'm sure they tested this myth. Sorry I don't remember the results.

They did, but they didn't have the treadmill going the same speed as the plane. It was slower, so the plane wasn't standing still and took off.

I wouldn't know. I don't usually mess with treadmills. Exercise is gross.

It's not about the speed of the wheels, it's the airspeed on the wings that makes a plane fly.
Anything, plane or not, can technically be going a million miles a second on a treadmill and never take off because the air pressure on the wings is nothing.

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If you had a plane in an air-tunnel, sitting still, no treadmill... just the air-tunnel firing air at the plane at 150mph... then the plane would appear to hover.

Yeah the planes need to be going a certain speed because that's the wind building up giving them lift..

If it's just sitting there going 250mph on the treadmill but the planes not actually moving it's not getting that lift from the forward motion.

Kind of like when you're driving down the road with your hand out the window and turn it you can feel the pressure of the wind on your hand forcing it up or down, that's the same pressure that lifts the plane.

Like you could put wings on a car, and if it gets up to speed it COULD get airborne, but only for a few seconds at a time as there's no propeller to keep pulling it through the air keeping the speed up for the wings to get the needed lift. as it left the ground and lost traction and forward momentum it would immediately start slowing and touch back down over and over.

Ok. So I've sat here a solid 3 minutes trying to figure out how a thread in which the most recent post made in 2017 is sitting on my forums list.

Then I remembered. I searched for it. Ugh.

=/

Free bump to share my embarrassment!

I'm so glad you were let out again yin wootf
I shall show this 'gladitude' by not only bumping it for you but also quoting ya for posterity

*curtsies*

What's funny is I read the opening question - thought about it and came up with "yes" and reasons for my answer.
Then I scrolled down and saw my avatar giving the answer "no" and reasons why!

I'm in disagreement with myself!