Can the Plane Take-Off?

[Andrew Blair]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

Ok.. I'm not gonna give in on my answer, but I see the way it could potentially work now.. Still kind of mind boggling.

So.. this leads to the real world applications and possibilities:

Why not build this huge conveyer belt system as an alternative to making short runways on a mountain where real estate is a prime commodity???

Think of the potential a system like that could have if it worked.
This way larger planes could take off in a small space, and cargo can be brought in by air to these reletively remote places.

Uh oh though.. will this same problem work in reverse, yet be to my thought advantage this time, and make the plane land and stay still so as not to leave the area of the huge conveyer belt and still use that same small real estate???

Or will the speeds (plane and treadmill type device) have to be non equal and perfectly harmonized for this to work, and this is just a pipe dream???

Yeah..

-------> ( Me - "Outside of box")
BOX

As Ken said, I'm pretty sure this would be the opposite of what you want. An airplane, unless you do something like manipulate the speed of the earth/atmosphere, needs to have a certain space of air to fly through to achieve a certain velocity through the air. So, the x-distance traveled, if the plane's speed is constant, can also only be constant. The conveyer would only be limiting the velocity of the plane ( not by much, but still). The only practical way to shorten takeoff is to increase the acceleration of the plane via a catapult device.

Or you could turn the atmosphere's rotation speed in relation to the plane...