Will the plane takeoff?

[KenP]

This is from a pilot relative in his early 50's that has been flying since he was 15. He's flown and had license to fly pretty much every type of aircraft. He was even a 'copter pilot in one of the Rambo movies. He currently flies for Southwest.

Ahhh, the old moving conveyor belt trick!!! The airplane will NOT takeoff. It has no airspeed with which to generate lift. Look at it this way. If the thrust of the engines were to generate 100 mph of forward movement but the conveyor belt cancelled the movement by moving the same speed in the opposite direction, you could stand to the side of the belt and hold onto the wing of the airplane cause it isn't moving relative to the ground. Now, since it isn't moving relative to the ground, and no mention was made of a wind blowing, the airspeed would be zero. No airspeed, no lift, no fly!. On the other hand, you could attach a cable to the nosegear so the airplane can't move across the ground and then blow a 100 mph wind over the wing from a giant fan, and the airplane would sense an airspeed of 100 mph and it would indeed fly, just like the Wright brothers did in the strong winds at Kitty Hawk with their tethered airplanes.