my brain hurts

 

wait until college where they roast your brain...

 

im actually looking forward to going i might actually learn something useful unlike High School

 

I got a headache from that one...I'm almost done with my masters!

 

No doubt in my mind... if it could be done, it would have been by now.

If you can force-generate artificial lift, you're go, otherwise, I'd have to see it done to believe it could be.

Maybe a big dyno with a huge fan!!!!! Yeah, that's it.

 

Of course the plane would not take off. An airplane needs windspeed thru the air in order to generate negative air pressure under the wings to lift off of the ground. If the conveyor belt is moving in the opposite direction of planes wheels then does not matter how fast the wheels or engine are going.
The question proposed by bkey is extremely interesting though. I initially thought that no you would not see the light as you would be traveling at the same speed or faster but think of it in this way (as 6pack noted). If you are traveling in a supersonic airplane you do not hear the sonic boom created like you would if you were on the ground because you are traveling faster then the sound created. Yet at the same time if you are in the plane going faster than sound you can talk to fellow travelers and that sound is not left behind as was the sonic boom.

 

With regards to the plane, no wind=no lift, but for the plane to remain stationary, then the prop is not moving (or only moving enough to overcome wheel bearing friction). If the plane were at full throttle it would move forward and get enough lift to take off, regardless of what the conveyor belt is doing underneath. All planes try to land in a headwind so that the "conveyor" speed is minimized and therefore the least braking is needed

With regards to the speed-of-light, your mass would be infinitesimal at the speed of light, so you couldn't reach the headlight switch. There's and old joke that you can fit a 20-foot long car into a 19-foot long garage if you're going fast enough (somewhere around .9 x the speed of light).

Mark in MA

 

Not quite 20-foot long, but less than a van's length. Go aprox. 55 in a 25 zone, miss a stopsign at a "T" intercetion and fly right in [to some unsuspecting, sleeping person's garage]. I've seen it done! Doesn't do anything healthy for the garage though, and I have a feeling a pole would do the same thing (if you exclude the .9C thing).

Shame I didn't have a camera when I saw that... was just down the street from my house too. Bah...

 

if the prop is not moving , then for sure the plane will NOT stay there

it will be going in the direction of the conveyor and at that : at the speed of the conveyor .... whatever speed it is

remember that the conveyor is going AT THE SAME SPEED AS THE PROP ENGINES as mentioned originally [:-]

logic says one compensates for the other ..... granted , in true life this is impossible to recreate ..... but here we are theorising on fictional

you say if the plane was at full throttle , ...... well the conveyor (fictional) is AT FULL THROTTLE ALSO .... both at same speed ; thus full compensation .... simple as that

for the light thing , I stand unchanged so far , notwithstanding the 'impossibles' that are irrelevant , to this fictional hypothesis

 

Nope. The only reason the plane would move with the conveyor is the friction in the wheel bearings. It would only take a small amount of force (in the form of propeller spinning) opposite to the conveyor to keep the plane stationary. The wheels are spinning like mad from the conveyor, but the prop spinning almost at idle would keep the plane stationary. If you then take the plane to full throttle, the plane will propogate forward, opposite of the conveyor belt. Once the plane reachs an airspeed capable of producing enough lift to compensate for the plane's weight, it will take off. Airplanes operate according to airspeed, not groundspeed.

Again, that's why planes take off and land in a headwind. They need a certain amount of airspeed to remain in the air. If that speed is...say, 70 knots, and they are landing in a headwind of 30 knots, then when they touch down, they are only travelling at a groundspeed of 40 knots. If they were trying to land in the opposite direction (with a tailwind), they would land at a groundspeed of 100 knots. Much easier to bring your plane to a stop from 40 knots than 100 knots.

Mark in MA
Pilot, and, even worse...Engineer