HSLD

That's hilarious!

Also, it's good to see the Mythbusters (finally) take on the conveyor belt controversy. I know they got pinged more than a few times based on this thread back in 2005:

http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/showthread.php?t=1762

Photon

I saw that episode and was really disappointed. Aerodynamics 101 would give you the answer... Nothing to bust

EvilGN

you are right, there is nothing to bust, however there are a lot of winged (military and civilian) aviators out there that think the plane should not take off....there was a huge thread about this topic well prior to mythbusters taking it on, on the website airwarriors.com (primarily a naval aviation site) and about half the people in the thread thought the plane wouldn't fly. Its sad really.....

Cubdriver

This whole airplane on a conveyor belt silliness brings back a memory I have from early childhood. There was this one kid named Buster that was not so very bright. I used to wonder did Buster's his parents name him that, or did someone else because this kid was truly not very swift. One day a kid poses the question to Buster, how can a fly take off from an armrest of one seat in an airliner and then fly faster than the airliner to get to the seat a little farther ahead. Poor Buster could not get his head around this riddle no matter how hard he tried. His mind was fixed on the fact that the groundspeed of the fly had to be faster than the airplane's for it to move ahead of the airplane. We tried to inform him that the air inside the airplane moves as fast as the airplane and that even sitting still the fly was going 500 mph or so, but to no avail he was fixed on how could a fly go faster than an airliner. Poor Buster pondered this dilemma for hours and finally gave up. Funny the kids you grew up with, I think they might be at Airliners dot net arguing over the airplane on a conveyor belt.

MoosePileit

I don't get the success- other than a safe takeoff- the plane didn't stay in one place over the ground while the conveyor zipped off in the other direction- it flew because it had airspeed, same as always- it wasn't like a zero length launch or anything interesting.

by the way- that's a good way to check your taildragger for toe-in or toe out- get a stip of paper or material wider than your gear and 100' long- PUSH the plane and see if the paper bunches up (toe in) or tear/spreads (toe out).

AMMV. So will actual ground roll.

multipilot

All it did was make the wheels on the airplane go a little faster while they were still on the tarp.

CPOonfinal

Normal take-off except the wheels were spinning a lot faster...lame in my opinion. The myth should've been something like "Can the bearings on a light aircraft handle the friction produced by taking-off on a fast-moving conveyer belt?"

FallingWithStyle

Ok it's 2017 and yes I saw the mythbusters episode.

What if each wheel of the plane was placed on a non electric treadmill?

That was my original thought when first ever hearing this question. If the plane doesn't get forward momentum how could it take off?

In the show it clearly moves along the conveyor belt allowing air to flow over the wings so of course it will take off.

I thought though that the conveyor belt would be fast enough to basically keep the wheels spinning in place. In that scenario it seems the plane could not take off.

Yes there are some really light planes whose thrust could maybe produce enough airflow to get it off the ground, but I'm talking about the 747 in the original question.

So, if a 747 has each wheel on a non electric treadmill, will it off?

awax

Buster, is that you?

Clearedhot28

Yeah, saw that episode and laughed. They did one several years ago on the myth a postage stamp stuck on top of a rotor blade would make a helicopter not able to fly. I laughed harder at that one.