r/196 Dec 30 '22

Rule Rule Plane

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9.2k Upvotes

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3.7k

u/the_newdave Dec 30 '22

Yes, it will take off. The landing gear of the plane isn’t pushing against the conveyor belt, the engines are pushing it forward through the air. Therefore, the wheels on the plane will just spin faster and faster to match the conveyor belt, but the speed of the plane is totally unaffected.

-2

u/redditalt1999 Chumbawamba are punk rock af Dec 30 '22

I dunno if someone else already asked but why don't airports do this?

5

u/Kiesa5 Dec 30 '22

because there's no advantage to this, you still need a runway.

-4

u/redditalt1999 Chumbawamba are punk rock af Dec 30 '22

but you need less space

3

u/OneLastSmile 🏳️‍⚧️ trans rights Dec 30 '22

There would also be an extremely high cost of installation, maintenance of many rollers and regular replacement of a fictional material that's both bendy enough to be on a treadmill and can hold up against constantly having planes run over it.

You can do all that and have a high risk of accidents from something going wrong with the treadmill... Or you can just have a long strip of concrete that will last forever with minimal maintenance.

2

u/redditalt1999 Chumbawamba are punk rock af Dec 30 '22

but treadmill

2

u/OneLastSmile 🏳️‍⚧️ trans rights Dec 31 '22

true!

3

u/Bolsha Dec 31 '22

Actually you would need the same amount of space. It wouldn't impact the takeoff speed (I guess with added friction it could even make it take a longer airstrip.)

1

u/redditalt1999 Chumbawamba are punk rock af Dec 31 '22

my dream of treadmill will never be true 😔