Remember the Plane on a Treadmill discussion?

[DevinB]

It was still a good episode. I laughed when the dummy they pushed out of the airplane bounced in the field. To think, people have survived that, even walked away.

:ninja edit: it will take off!

 

[JeeperG]

Is this airing next week?

 

[Rusted]

Jan 30, Wednesday night

 

[Brett]

I bet they ef it up

 

[Meat_]

I bet they ef it up

Yeah, but I bet that Kari is hot.

 

[Herzog]

BUSTED!

The plane takes off.

 

[RockMonkey]

BUSTED!

The plane takes off.

Did they do a good job with the myth though? I've got it DVR'd but wont be able to watch it until later.

 

[Herzog]

Did they do a good job with the myth though? I've got it DVR'd but wont be able to watch it until later.

As best as they could, I think. It's a pretty straight forward test.

 

[spencurai]

It was one of the best tests they have done...simple, to the point, and with nothing left to question.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

About time... I am so sick of the "it won't fly" crowds feeble attempts to deny physics.

 

[Jeremy]

i cant believe that the pilot of the plane thought he would just sit on the runway.

 

[DevinB]

Surprisingly, there are a bunch of pilots that think it wouldn't take off.

 

[timpanogos]

They did do it with the speed of the belt matching the take off air speed, not matching the speed of the wheels. I believe our little local thread about the issue stated that the belt would match the speed of the wheels

 

[Spork]

They did do it with the speed of the belt matching the take off air speed, not matching the speed of the wheels. I believe our little local thread about the issue stated that the belt would match the speed of the wheels

Which brings us back to the wheels are not providing any propulsion. Here's how I think the internet discussion should have been taken care of. Remove wheels from plane and place them on treadmill, replace with skis/skids/floats/or whatever you want just not wheels, Get in plane and take off.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

They did do it with the speed of the belt matching the take off air speed, not matching the speed of the wheels. I believe our little local thread about the issue stated that the belt would match the speed of the wheels

No, the topic said the treadmill matched the planes speed in an opposite direction. The speed of a plan is rarely indicated by its wheel speed

 

[Cody]

A plane is standing on a runway that can move (some sort of band conveyer). The plane moves in one direction, while the conveyer moves in the opposite direction. This conveyer has a control system that tracks the plane speed and tunes the speed of the conveyer to be exactly the same (but in opposite direction).

I think the way the question was written, the speed of the wheels matched the planes speed--only in the opposite direction. So technically that would mean the plane was standing still--not because the treadmill was preventing it from moving, but because at that particular moment, the plane wasn't trying to move so the wheels were going the same speed.

But the treadmill would not prevent the plane from taking off.....obviously.

I think Brett just mis-quoted the question so it ended up being a little different than the purpose of the original question.

 

[Herzog]

They did do it with the speed of the belt matching the take off air speed, not matching the speed of the wheels. I believe our little local thread about the issue stated that the belt would match the speed of the wheels

Initially they tested the plane to find out the maximum speed needed for take-off, which was 25mph for the ~400lbs airplane. Knowing this they could discard the idea of speed matching and shoot for maximum speed of greater than or equal to 25mph on the conveyor.

If you think about it, there is no need to replicate the 'speed' of the plane if you shoot for maximum take-off speed because you know that it has to reach at-least 25mph. And obviously the conveyor has no effect on the plane because it is not powered via the wheels.

 

[Badger]

for those that are lost here is the actual question

"On a day with absolutely calm wind, a plane is standing on a runway that can move (some sort of band conveyor). The plane moves in one direction, while the conveyor moves in the opposite direction. The conveyor has a control system that tracks the plane speed and tunes the speed of the conveyor to be exactly the same (but in the opposite direction). Can the airplane ever take off?"

notice no mention of wheels or the plane staying stationary on the belt.A plane speed is tracked by air speed.so for the belt to track this speed the plane most be moving .read the question as much as you want but it tells you the plane moves.......................

 

[Cody]

that question removes any of the semantic debate from it. the plane flies.