Uncharacteristically Dumb Mythbusters

I love the show Mythbusters, but this time I think they were just going through the motions for the sake of showing off a cool experiment. The "myth" in question is simply too easy to figure out without all the theatrics.

The myth they set out to investigate sounds intriguing on the surface: If you set a plane on a giant conveyor belt and move the belt backwards as the plane accelerates, can it take off? So, to test the theory they get a 2000-foot-long tarp, attach it to a pickup, and pull the tarp backwards as an ultralight plane atop the tarp tries to take off in the opposite direction. Since the plane requires a takeoff speed of 25 MPH, they pull the tarp backwards at 25 MPH to see what happens.

Here's why the whole test was stupid to begin with: If planes accelerated because the wheels powered the vehicle forward and caused the plane to reach air speed, then pulling the tarp backwards would cause the plane to sit still and thus remain grounded. Only, that isn't how planes take off; instead, the propeller pulls the plane through the air, accelerating it to take-off speed. Since the tarp/conveyor belt doesn't pull the air backwards, the plane is still going to accelerate as normal.

With the tarp moving backwards at 25 MPH and the propeller pulling the plane forward at 25 MPH, the only thing different about the test takeoff compared to a normal one is that the plane's wheels are turning at 50 MPH rather than 25 MPH.

The video is worth watching for the sheer audacity of the testing methodology, but it strikes me as unnecessary, especially because they were concerned the tarp might rip and snag the plane. Why risk lives to test something you can explain simply in a couple of sentences?