Originally Posted by mad_jock
They already have this and have it in production.
The belt is running at about 15-20 knts and the fan is anywhere between 0 and 50knts of wind. Its called an aircraft carrier
Actually it doesn't matter what speed the threadmill is doing the only thing the aircraft carrier is doing is steaming into wind to get the intial airspeed up. The relative speed of the ground under the aircraft wheels will have no relation at all on take off distance presuming no friction.
Surely if an aircraft carrier works the same as the conveyor belt under discussion, then the carrier should steam OUT of wind and the aircraft should take off into wind, by flying off the STERN of the carrier???
This is all tooooo much for my poor little brain - I am planning to fly a REAL aircraft off a REAL stationary runway, tomorrow!
