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Airplane on a Conveyor Belt - Mythbusters Tonight!


LPFSTheFett

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Said it before, I'll say it again.

 

The propeller pulls the plane while on the ground until the plane reaches a speed at which sufficient lift is produced, then the plane lifts. The prop then pulls the plane through air. That pulling forces air over the wings, and creates the lift that lets the plane fly.

 

KillJoy

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Explain to me how a treadmill can match engine thrust? :)

 

from the video preview...i'm rather disappointed with their "plane"...it's a simple park flyer...prolly makes 5grams of thrust. i dunno if that's just a working model and they plan to step it up....but that little plane is so light the wind coming off the rotating tread mill would be more than enough to get it off the ground.

 

 

we'll see..usually they do something crazy.

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from the video preview...i'm rather disappointed with their "plane"...it's a simple park flyer...prolly makes 5grams of thrust. i dunno if that's just a working model and they plan to step it up....but that little plane is so light the wind coming off the rotating tread mill would be more than enough to get it off the ground.

 

 

we'll see..usually they do something crazy.

That was just a model. They're using a real plane on a car-pulled tarp, simulating a treadmill.

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how could it possibly get lift to take off, if there is no air going over the wings?

if the plane has no horizontal displacement change, relative to the atmosphere, it will not generate lift.

 

It will be moving horizontally because the prop or jet will be pulling it. If the wheels made it move then it wouldnt take off, it would be sitting still relative to the ground.

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how could it possibly get lift to take off, if there is no air going over the wings?

if the plane has no horizontal displacement change, relative to the atmosphere, it will not generate lift.

 

that part you are correct about. the plane will still move forward do to thrust from the prop. moving trap will have no effect.

 

 

also the plane is around 400 lbs. the trap is 2500 ft long and the plane does fly.

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It will be moving horizontally because the prop or jet will be pulling it. If the wheels made it move then it wouldnt take off, it would be sitting still relative to the ground.

 

i see. i thought the idea was that the treadmill would match the thrust of the plane till a point that it wasn't moving. i thought that the whole point was that the plane would not be moving when it took off(which is ridiculous), but in the case that the treadmill will have negligible affect on the forward motion of the plane(which it will), then i agree it will most definitely take of.

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My position on this is the same as when this was first posted a year ago. The experiment is bogus because the airplane won't stay on the conveyor belt. An airplane produces thrust to pull itself through the air. It doesn't matter what the wheels under it are doing, it will pull itself through the air and off of the belt.

 

Draw a free body diagram.

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So do you guys who think it won't take off feel dumb yet?

I'd feel dumb for several different reasons, like if I was a smoker, drove an automatic car, or maybe stroked myself off to the idea that I was correct about an internet myth on a television show.

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