by G-force » Tue Feb 19, 2008 10:12 pm
You guys that think it wont take off need to stop thinking like a car. The wheels of an aircraft do not propell it like a car, the thrust from the propeller or jet make it move, not the wheels. The wheels are just along for the ride...they simply do whatever they want based on the speed diference between the aircraft and the ground. Again, the wheels have zero bearing on the plane achiving lift...thats a factor of the propeller or jet accelerating the plane through the air. It doesnt mater if there are wheels, skies, floats on water, or heck, a convayer belt, turning any direction or speed it wants. The plane is held in place by friction from the air (drag), the wheels just freewheel any darn way they please. In simple numbers, if you had a plane that lets say lifted off at 100 MPH, and you were on a convayer belt moving forward at 100mph, the wheels would not be turning. The forward speed of the plane and the belt are the same=no wheels turning. Now reverse the convayer belt, the plane is still being thrust forward 100mph by the propeller, the belt is moving rearwards at a 100 mph= the wheels are turning at a speed of 200 mph because the speed differential (100 forward and 100 backwards) equals 200mph. At any time in either scenerio, the convayer belt could stop, reverse, speed up or slow down...it wont effect the planes airspeed at all, only the speed and or directon the wheels are rotating. This is assuming there is zero friction in the wheel bearings, which there is not, there is a tiny amount, but that is not enough to matter in any of the above scenerios. Make sense?
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Mike