[tw]

Originally Posted by Torrere

With a plane, however, the the only purpose of the wheels is to keep the plane above the ground and reduce friction. The plane pushes itself forward by pushing the air back.

Probably the only way to keep the plane from flying would be to immerse it in a tailwind that matched the plane's velocity,

As was posted previously:

Originally Posted by tw

So that velocity of a plane is totally irrelevant to ground. Wheels will spin as slow or as fast as necessary so that velocity of the runway and velocity of plane stay totally independent.

Posting by Torrere is that airplane wheels make that plane 'separate from' (independent of) both runway and treadmill. Treadmill only affects how fast those wheels spin. As MaggieL posted, otherwise those wheels would burn up; function instead like brakes.

Meanwhile, tailwind does not change the problem. Remember the two items that a force - the engine - applies between. Engine force pushes between airplane and air. Tailwind or headwind - still that engine applies same force causing the airplane to have a same velocity relative to air (also called airspeed). Still that same F=ma equation applies. No matter how fast the tailwind is blowing, F=ma makes the plane move a defined speed faster than air because same force (F) is remains between air and the airplane.

Airplane speed relative to runway is speed of airplane created by its engine plus speed of air created by tailwind.