Flaps and slats on take off
 

I'm asking this in response to the horrible events in Madrid, where it seems that there is the possibility that the plane's wing was wrongly configured for take off. I hope this is the right place to ask this kind of stuff. I think some of the answers are in the main thread, at least in part. But nevertheless I've been thinking about the following.....

1) What happens if you try to take off in a plane without the flaps and/or slats (sorry if this terminology is wrong) in the right position. Will there be a warning, and if so, of what kind? Will it actually prevent you from taking off (i.e. would it stop the engines spooling up)?

2) Presumably there is some speed at which you would take off beyond VR even if they weren't extended (I mean planes move up and down in flight without the use of flaps don't they?). Typically then how much faster would a plane have to go to take off?

Depends on the a/c. I once had a jumpseat trip out of Malta in a Laker A300 Airbus, and part of the pre-flight brief was...."This will be a flapless take off". No hassle there. AFAIK, there are config warnings for assymetric flap and/or slat/flap configs.
watp,iktch