The Return of the most infamous HB thread of all time... :D

[Tishimself]

I give you....the Airplane on a treadmill thread.

Question: If you put an airplane on a treadmill, and start the treadmill up, so that the wheels under the plane are turning, and then gun the engine(s) will it take off???

[SBS933]

Only if it gained more airspeed than the speed of the treadmill.

[Tishimself]

Only if it gained more airspeed than the speed of the treadmill.

Only if the power to weight ratio is off the charts....

[SnoC653]

Of course it will take off. But it better be one very long treadmill. The only thing the plane has to over come is the drag of the wheel bearings and tires from the weight of the plane with no lift on the wings. This is a very minute portion of the engine's capabilities but it would still increase the distance required to travel in order to take off. Once the plane started to move forward and generate lift, it would accelerate faster and faster until it generated enough lift to fly. It takes airspeed to generate lift, not tire speed. So if it takes 68 knots to generate enough lift to fly normally, it would still take 68 knots of forward airspeed, not tire speed to generate the lift required to fly regardless of how fast the tires were spinning.

[SBS933]

Of course it will take off. But it better be one very long treadmill. The only thing the plane has to over come is the drag of the wheel bearings and tires from the weight of the plane with no lift on the wings. This is a very minute portion of the engine's capabilities but it would still increase the distance required to travel in order to take off. Once the plane started to move forward and generate lift, it would accelerate faster and faster until it generated enough lift to fly. It takes airspeed to generate lift, not tire speed. So if it takes 68 knots to generate enough lift to fly normally, it would still take 68 knots of forward airspeed, not tire speed to generate the lift required to fly regardless of how fast the tires were spinning.

What he said.

[Tishimself]

What he said.

But heres the deal. The speed of the plane is a product of the wheels. So if you take the ability of the wheels to turn power into speed, I.e. you negate any ability of the plane to achieve any kind of forward motion, you will never ever take off. Unless you have a jet engine attached to a glider.

[Ziggy]

With Mythbusters proving its possible the question is mute....beside the fact that the wheels on a plane have nothing to do with the speed or motion of it, like the speed of a skateboard has everything to do with how hard you push it .

From my POS T-mobile thingie

[Wheeler]

I considered Bre's box one of the most infamous threads of all time. Might have been before your time though.

[Tishimself]

With Mythbusters proving its possible the question is mute....beside the fact that the wheels on a plane have nothing to do with the speed or motion of it, like the speed of a skateboard has everything to do with how hard you push it .

From my POS T-mobile thingie

Myth busters did it with a piper cub. Barely an airplane. All engine, paper and wood. The power to weight ratio was off the charts. The original thread dealt with the idea of a 747 on a treadmill. So lets keep this conversation limited to a real plane. Not toys that are one step above an RC plane.....

[Wheeler]

But heres the deal. The speed of the plane is a product of the wheels.

The wheels are not powered, the propeller is. What if we take the wheels off and use floats in their place and point the plane up river