Yes.

Thanks...Goes back to running on treadmill, and roasting my noodle thinking about all of this.

Maybe this will help: just imagine what would happen if, while running in place on your treadmill, you strapped a jet pack to your back and turned it on.

Well why don't airports have big rollers then instead of making massive runways?

Because the jets would push the plane off the rollers before it had enough airspeed to take off.

Well I don't understand why that would happen if the bearings are loose enough or however you engineer those sorts of things. I guess that's why I'm not an engineer.

Because the treadmill effect is irrelevant to the takeoff. The plane still needs just as much runway, whether it's a treadmill or not. All the rollers would do is make the massive runway more expensive, and prevent planes from using their brakes on it when landing or taxiing.

The treadmill does not stop the plane from moving forward.

If you were standing in a position such that you could see the plane, but not the runway, you wouldn't be able to tell from the plane's movement whether there was a treadmill. It still moves forward the same distance, relative to the air, before lifting off.

Hmmmm...I didn't think about landing.

Thanks for the explanation too HM. I understand now.

Well they never told you that it was a Harrier. So the wheels never move and the treadmill never moves.




http://people.bath.ac.uk/cjc25/year1...s/image019.jpg

Geez - ok. I was wrong! Lighten up Clod.






I still don't get it though.

Do you get how a water plane takes off, classic?

no I'm not a freakin pilot - I don't get the concept at all - I'm just too stupid I guess - kthxbye.

Back in the 80's, Letterman did a stunt in the hallway of NBC studios where he sat in a wheeled office chair and discharged a fire extinguisher. He was doing races down the hall with another guy. This problem reminded me a bit of that.

oh. so what you are saying is that the plane won't take off?

Wait... are we assuming that the treadmill is in a horizontal position?