It's a question I came across recently and apparently it's been quite a debated topic for some while now.
-Yes the conveyor matches the speed of the plane's tires
Me personally, I think the plane won't go anywhere as long as the conveyor can keep up, unless the air is also on a conveyor or the plane in question is a Harrier or anything VTOL.
But what do you think?
@ToeTips
The conveyor belt causes a very small acceleration of the plane in the direction of the conveyor belt due to rolling frictional force, assuming the brakes are off. This is true for either direction.
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Thrust is the main factor of acceleration and will easily overcome this friction, just like it does on a plane on a normal runway.
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Tip: draw a free body diagram
@ToeTips wait the edit changes things.
I assumed you meant that the plane had its engines off, and was just sitting there on the conveyor belt. This is different. functionally speaking, if the engines are producing thrust, the plane will start moving in the opposite direction of the treadmill. The wheels will basically act as bearings, making it so the treadmill is in essence a frictionless surface. The plane is free to go in that direction relative to the ground, so if the belt is long enough it should take off.
Broo
I was legit getting bullied on Facebook cause of this
Edit
The conveyor belt is running against the direction of the plane trying to take off.
@CaptainNoble The conveyor belt is pulling the plane towards its tail, so the plane is experiencing relative tailwind. If the conveyor would be moving in the opposite direction, then aircraft will be experiencing relative wind in the opposite direction also. In both cases its just takeoff with some wind - which is definetily possible
@Quercon the conveyor belt is going in the opposite direction in this case, not in the same. I personally feel like a lot more should be added to the question to give a more definitive answer
@crazyplaness As all motion is relative, saying that a plane couldnt take off from conveyor belt is like saying that it cannot take off with a tailwind (not true)
The engines provide thrust not lift. The wings provide lift when air flows over them. So if the plane is staying in the same spot due to the conveyer belt pulling it back the wings won’t get any airflow over them to generate lift. Therefore it can’t take off.
@ToeTips as far as I know, yes
@ToeTips no the plane can’t fly
@crazyplaness
No need for that, I was wrong, I guess the plane can actually fly?
@MrSilverWolf
Man I miss mythbusters.
@32 @hpgbproductions
Okay so basically no matter how fast the conveyor goes, the plane will fly regardless?
I think CaptainJoe explained this pretty well
No way we got testing planes on the dyno before gta 6
0_0
Remember the engines provide thrust that move the plane not wheels, it will still take off, myth busters actually did this with a LSA and found that you can indeed take off on a oversized conveyor belt
@ToeTips Can I see this facebook post? I would like to see why the wrong people think they are right
@ToeTips in that case, it will remain static
@hpgbproductions
Is this with the Conveyor going against it or for it? Because in this scenario the conveyor is running against the plane trying to take off.
@CaptainNoble
The issue is, the conveyor matches the speed of the tires and whatever thrust the engines produce to accelerate the plane will be reflected on the tires cause the tires will spin faster and the moment the the tires spin faster, the conveyor will speed up to counter. So my guess is that the Aircraft will remain static.
Funny how I was just thinking about this while taking off from the USS tiny. I think if the plane moves in the opposite direction as the belt at the same speed, it won't go anywhere, assuming the air that the plane is contained in is not somehow magically attached to the belt. So yeah, if the air somehow managed to "follow" the conveyor as it moved while the plane moved at that same speed in the opposite direction, it would probably takeoff, but like overlord said, the engines are what push the plane and not the wheels so if they can produce enough thrust to counter (provided the speed of the plane must not match the conveyor belt) then why not?.
There's no airflow over the wings. Like hpgbproductions said, the plane might roll forward a little bit, but nowhere near fast enough to take off.
I assume that the rolling resistance between the plane and conveyor belt is constant and small compared to thrust. The conveyor belt will have almost no effect.
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If you can put a car in neutral at low speeds, where drag is very small, the acceleration will mostly be from rolling resistance.
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If you put a plane with brakes off on a conveyor belt and gradually start the conveyor belt from rest, the plane should accelerate very slowly from rolling resistance. The acceleration is in the direction that the conveyor belt is moving.
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If the conveyor belt is moving forwards, you can apply the brake to reach the same speed as the conveyor belt without using the engine.
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If the conveyor belt is fast enough, you can approach takeoff speed, but rolling resistance (and friction during braking) are proportional to normal reaction force of the belt on the plane, which is equal and opposite to weight of the plane on the belt. The normal force will be zero somewhere around takeoff speed, so speed is asymptomatic at the takeoff speed (if drag is ignored). You cannot exceed the takeoff speed unless you do something that reduces lift first, like pitching down or retracting flaps.
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The above paragraphs assume that air is static. If you want to consider it, there should be a small effect from the no-slip property of fluids, where the air touching the belt moves at the same speed of the belt. This will affect the takeoff speed if the conveyor belt is fast enough, and the wings are low enough.
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Conclusion: You can still take off if you have thrust, but not if you have no thrust
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tl;dr 👆🤓, i am bored rn
@TheMouse Sounds about rite
Belt running with the plane? Provided it's fast enough, yes. Like an aircraft carrier catapult, and the gears don't snap off.
Belt running against the plane? No. Since there's no proper airflow going on to generate lift with the wings even if there's thrust happening with the engines. The plane itself would just run endlessly on the conveyor belt unless it stops and it (the plane) moves on a static surface to allow lift to happen with the air moving around the wings again.
This could just be a shortened response from what @TheMouse wrote.