Thread realignment:

Why is my aircraft more unreliable than my 17 year old, 344000 mile Land Rover even though all the aircraft parts, genuine and PMA, cost at least 10 times as much as genuine Land Rover parts???????

AAHHHHHHH

Re-engagement of thread drift:

Does the handrail travel at the same speed as the conveyor?

camlobe

Yes, but not in the same direction….

Dont forget drag, the belt is made (of rubber or similar) and the tyres, of a similar material, and of course deflection, there will be more contact between two similar surfaces, creating more drag; the wheel bearing issue is only one part of the jigsaw.

The thing to do, is to imagine that you are at the end of the mythical conveyor (however long) and with the A/C in front of you (whichever way round) the belt starts to move towards you, bringing the stationary A/C into contact with yourself, you might be able to hold it back, depending on size,(for this purpose we’ll assume its an average spam can) at very low speeds, but as the speed of the conveyor increases so will the force, and I believe you will not.

My conveyor belt is really short, as I’m too tight to by one any longer!

So its agreed then, neither of us knows what the ***** we are talking about, but find it impossible to stop, or is that just me!!

If friction doesn’t increase with speed, why doesn’t a match light when slowly drawn across the abrasive?

In a bearing, it is heat generated by friction that fuses the two surfaces together, the grease reduces friction (unless really cold); a wheel barrow has no wheel bearing, and at walking speed for short distances it doesn’t need one , tow one behind your car at 50mph (if you dare) and it will either seize or wear away to nothing, as a result of increased friction, as a result of speed.

My observations are based on the Jodel A/C that I mentioned earlier, it couldn’t extricate itself from a relatively small pothole, even on full power; I would have thought it possible to replicate the same opposing force, on the now mythical conveyor belt !!

In truth I dont know the answer to this one, merely trying to fathom it out , without devoting a life time to the cause!!

The tower was forsale last year by its owners the local council, having failed to sell before, it has permission to convert into one holliday let, and had a guide price of £100k.

I looked at it, took a couple of photos and went home, so I dont know if it sold (april 2006) but it was about £40k overpriced in my view, especially when you look at the one that sold down in Somerset (the previous year) which was the tower, runway, a few odd buildings and 50 acres all for £150k!

So are we all basically in agreement then…that the aircraft will move along the conveyor and take-off pretty much as normal?

With respect to the ‘drag’ created by the aircraft tyres, brake shoes (brakes off) and wheel-bearings; these are small forces that every aircraft should easily overcome on a relatively flat runway.

The fact that the conveyor will be spinning the wheels faster than during a normal take-off will not affect these forces…as they are forces of friction and these forces do not increase as the speed of the wheel increases.

There will be other forces that do increase as the aircraft speed increases such as the drag created by the top of the wheels spinning rapidly into the direction of flight but this will be a small force and will only lengthen the take-off run slightly.

The only other factor I can think of is the inertia of the spinning wheel will be greater. 🙂

If friction does not increase with the increase of speed, why do we put grease in the wheel bearings, and oil in the engines?

One thing that is more than obvious, is that almost everybody that has contributed to this, has a different idea what they mean by an “Aircraft”, and how long the conveyor belt is, and even which started to move first, the belt or the A/C;

to sumarise my view, if the A/C was able to move forward even 1″ then, it will fly because it has broken free of its opposing forces, however I think that they will be too great at the very moment when it would start to move, and so it won’t.

Why dont we ask the man who started all this!

Power o’ t’internet, maybe?

🙂

Either that, or someone in the know has made him a cash offer! Graham? Graham?