You have to remember that the plane's airspeed is completely independent of
its wheel speed. As you know, a plane can have sufficient airspeed to fly
even if the wheels are stopped, and it can have insufficient airspeed even
if the wheels are spinning at 200 mph.

The treadmill spins the wheels - it has absolutely no affect on airspeed.
The plane gathers airspeed by means of the propeller acting on the
surrounding air. No matter how fast the treadmill belt is moving it is not
taking the surrounding air with it.

If you tie a rope to the wall and then sit in a wheelchair on the treadmill,
as long as you hold onto the rope the chair will not move no matter how fast
the treadmill goes. Likewise, by simply pulling on the rope you can move
yourself forward on the treadmill no matter how fast the belt is going. The
reason is because the force moving you forward on the treadmill (pulling on
the rope) is not related at all to how fast the belt is going. The plane is
"pulling on the rope" (air) using its propeller - it doesn't care what its
wheels are doing.

BDS


"Darkwing" theducksmail"AT"yahoo.com wrote
How is that possible if the wings are stationary? Are you saying the thing
will take off due to the pure power setting to keep up at 25mph (or
whatever), nothing to do with the wings?

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DW