Quote:
Originally posted by Mike in NRH:

Um, nope not really. Propulsion in this case has nothing to do with it taking off. Propulsion might as well be associated with making the wheels spin because on a treadmill that's all those jet (or prop) engines would be doing.

Flight is all about lift, and lift is all about air pressure under the wings. If the plane is effectively standing still because of the 'treadmill effect', there is not enough air mass flowing under the wing to create the necessary lift, and the plane would not move at all. The engines would move the air directly in front and directly behind the inlet and exhaust, but not enough air would be moving across the surface of the wing and that is why it wouldn't take off.
That's the major problem with many of the "does fly" arguments. Many completely fail to show that an acceptable amount of lift will be generated.

Here is an explanation from a NY Times blog thread on this subject (Note - the wording of the scenario in that thread is slightly different than our scenario).

Link to thread...

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