Quote:
Originally Posted by TheGrundle
Got ya. Cause the title of the thread says SITTING on a treadmill. 2 ways of interperting the question. The litteral nerd way, well of course a plane just sitting there won't take off. And the logical way, what I explained a few posts ago.
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Well frankly, I don't mean sitting & not running. I simply mean that I can concieve of a treadmill that will keep the plane motionless -- In fact, unwittingly, the person on the video with the remote controlled airplane on the conveyor belt showed us, quite clearly, that he was able to keep the plane motionless by the conveyor belt (he simply, afterward, increased the thrust on the plane to make it overtake the treadmill and take-off).
What if that remote plane didn't have any more room left in the throttle? It would have sat on that treadmill, struggling to take off until the batteries ran down. Yet, it easily could have had enough juice to allow it to take off on a normal runway (we'll never really know the answer to that).
Since I see that a plane can indeed be made to hold still on a conveyor belt, the thrust behind it isn't what makes it take off. Its the point where it overcomes the treadmill & moves forward (creating lift) where it actually takes off.