OK, I hate to bring this thread back from the "almost dead", but this is funny.

Where I work there is a very respected PhD "staff scientist/mathematician". I asked him the question, and after a couple of days, he said the answer is "No, the plane won't fly".

Now, since he arrived at the "wrong" conclusion, I have to say that this scenario must be more confusing than most of the WF'ers acknowledge. That explains why this thread lasted for over 800 posts, and there are other similarly lengthy discussions all over the net.

I didn't give a full-blown answer as to why he was wrong, I just left him with a clue to ponder:

Airplane engines push against AIR.

I'll ask him what his response is in a couple more days.