ELI5, If a large passenger jet was trying to take off on a free spinning treadmill, would it take off?
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A plane takes off because it gains airspeed. Usually, gaining airspeed is achieved by rolling over the ground, but the plane is not pushing on the ground itself. There is no propulsion going to the wheels at all.
If you put an extremely long treadmill on the ground and tried to match the speed of the plane to keep it from taking off, all you would do is move the wheels faster, but moving the wheels faster would not stop the plane from gaining airspeed.
If the plane needed 150 mph of air speed to take off, for example, then the apparent speed at the wheels would be 300 mph – – 150 from the plane’s speed through the air and another 150 from the treadmill spinning backwards, in the opposite direction that the plane is moving. But the speed of the air over the wings would still only be 150 mph.
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