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).

The question is:

Will the plane take off or not? Will it be able to run up and take off?

Sorry, found this on the RFL forum. Apperntly its also on the Mythbusters forum where 70% of people say the plane won't take off.

Have fun.

Is the planes velocity zero relative to the Earth?
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depends what type of plane it is.... if its a jet well then no because it wont have the air generated over the airfoil and therefore cannot fly.

HOWEVER if its a propellor aircraft with the propellor in front of the airfoil then i would say it COULD stand a good chance of getting in the air as the airflow generated by the propellor could generate enough lift over the airfoil to make the plane take off... i know the slepchev stroch airplane can basically take off in its own length in that way, ive seen it before and its really cool to see.

and if its a trick question after all that typing someones gunna die hehe
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How about the Helio Courier. Used by Air America in Loas during the Vietnam war, there were cases where the little two seater would take off vertically and hover while trying taxi in a head wind.

But thats not the point. How does a moving runway pull the aircraft back. The wheels are idlers, not powered like on a car. The wheels will just spin twice as fast. The engine will still push the air out behind it just like normal and the plane will take off.

ah indeed it would... neglecting friction if the belt would move backwards the plane would stay still and the wheels rotate...

they sure did a good job wording the question all tricky though , id love to see the experiment the mythbusters try for that one
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It just goes to show that 70% of the people viewing the Mythbusters site are uneducated fools. Even some smart sounding guys on the RFL forum didn't understand the problem and thought the plane would not take off.
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yeah id have to agree we seem to be forgeting the major problem with aircraft and statonary takeoff (harrier jet and simaler excluded) air over the wings is needed to generate life specificaly low air pressure is needed over the wing to generate lift this is created by the air craft powering up to speed and creating enought low pressure over the top of the wing to give it the ability to fly.

now if you were to stick propelers all over the wings mayby but unlikly and i don't see it happening.

but hey any willing to prove me wrongs welcome to take nice pictures please
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Yea i agree. If no lift is generated i can't see how the plane could fly...
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I think it's just a badly worded question.

The plane's still moving forward relative to the air, so it will take off.

What the ground does under the plane is irrelevant, as long as there's motion through the air.
Even if the plane was stationary compared to the ground it could take off if the air speed was high enough.
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big al / angus -

there will be air over the wings as the plane will still accelerate to take off speed as per normal, its just the wheels will be spinning much faster.... dont forget the wheels on a plane are just free-wheeling castors basically.
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Except for an aircraft carriers catapult system no aeroplane requires that the ground pushes the plane along for it to move. All planes use either propellers or jet engines (or flapping wings or..or..) to move them along not by power through the wheels. For a plane to fly it only needs to move relative to the air, how fast the ground moves doesn't matter. This is why aircraft take-off into the wind. An aircraft that is stationary on the ground while facing into the wind is aerodynamicly moving.
The example my brother gave of a Helio Courrier is actually a very common story about STOL aircraft (Short Take-Off and Landing, that is an aeroplane that is capable of flying at a very low airspeed at sealevel) bieng able to get airborne using nothing more than a strong headwind, the groundspeed doesn't matter. Infact, I have seen RC aeroplanes that are able to fly backwards relative the ground with a strong enough headwind.
For those who still can't understand: An aircrafts wheels are not driven, all the power comes from the engines pushing against the air not the ground.
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You should try flying a low altitude, low-speed (<100mph), totally open (high ground visibility) plane at high bank angles and high G turns in a bit of a wind with minimal instrumentation . Ie. a Gyrocopter.

The automatic tendency for people to judge what the aircraft is doing *relative to the ground* instead of relative to the *air* (as you should) can easily crash and kill you if you allow your eyes to override your brain. The infamous "downwind turn" that you will often hear pilots talking about.

Problem is, you can't *see* the air that you are flying through, but you *can * see the ground.

So when someone goes from flying into the wind, with the relatively low ground speed that results from a headwind, and then turns "downwind" and as a result goes to a much higher ground (sometimes 3x as fast), the tendency is to either back off on the power to slow down, or tighten up on the bank angle, since the increase in ground speed makes your turn look much wider (judging from what the ground is moving like) than you expected). So what happens is you end up in a tight bank, with low power, high ground speed, but low *airspeed* - which is what you actually need lots of to keep you flying.

Result, one low airspeed, but high groundspeed impact with the ground, which suddenly goes from being completely irrelevant to what the aircraft is doing (while its in the air), to being *totally* relevant as you try to interface with it and match your relative velocity vectors. (kind of like a mid-air refuelling).

Its perfectly understandable that most people would get this wrong. Unless you understand and have actually experienced in some way the principles of aerodynamics and how its the invisible *air* that you are flying relative to, most people have nothing in their experience to tell them they should be judging their flying ability according to an invisible reference. Even experienced pilots screw up and crash on downwind turns on occasion, and they know about it.

Ignoring the evidence of ones eyes is very hard to do.
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mm pleanty of peoples with lots of time on here lol ...my answer right away was the plane would take off.. the moveing conveyor would simply make the wheels spin faster the plane basicly grips the air to move foward with its propelers or gests foward thrust if its a jet once it gets enough air speed it will take off

the wheels seize up and break off

will the average planes wheels handle double the takeoff speed?
if they do, all is good