Tonight on Mythbusters Plane on a treadmill

[beat90tsi]

@PoisonousBeef

The treadmill moves under the plane but it still moves forward and takes off because the jet/prop is pushing/pulling against the AIR, not the ground.

As someone else stated, if the plane was propelled by its wheels then it wouldn’t be able to take off because it wouldn’t move. In that case the treadmill would prevent the plane’s thrust from being translated into forward motion, just like your car would behave on a treadmill or a dyno.

With air propulsion (jet/prop) it wouldn’t matter how fast or slow the treadmill was moving, it would just make the wheels move faster/slower, but should have no impact on the thrust and consequent forward motion of the plane.

Good explanation, very concise.