OK, from a pilot:

Quote:
You are correct. Think of it this way. The wings provide the lift. They need a rush of air to do that. Tell your 3rd graders to think of themselves sitting on the wing of an airliner taking off from a non-conveyor-belt runway. Imagine the 150 mph winds they would feel in their face, which the wings turn into lift.
but, sitting on wing of the conveyor-belt-runway plane, they wouldn't feel any wind at all. So, all you would be doing is wasting a lot of fuel and creating unnecessary carbon dioxide.

A more realistic situation is to take a Maule aircraft (attached). It will take off at 50mph. So, if you pointed it on the runway (or anywhere else!) into a 50mph headwind, it would take off straight above of its current position. Point it into a 55 mph wind, and it will take off, and fly 5mph (relative to the ground) backwards!!
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"Nature has constituted utility to man the standard and test of virtue. Men living in different countries, under different circumstances, different habits and regimens, may have different utilities; the same act, therefore, may be useful and consequently virtuous in one country which is injurious and vicious in another differently circumstanced" - Thomas Jefferson, moral relativist