You are then trying to speed the vehicle up, through the propeller, using only energy derived from the contact with the ground, which is necessarily less than or equal to the energy loss that the vehicle sustained in order to convert that energy into rotational energy.
No, I’m not trying to do that because that wouldn’t work. Energy taken from the ground/vehicle difference is not being used to accelerate the vehicle.
How would you explain its acceleration when the vehicle is traveling at wind speed, in the vehicle’s reference frame? It seems to me — incorrectly, I assume — that the only energy available there is from the ground/vehicle difference.
No, I’m not trying to do that because that wouldn’t work. Energy taken from the ground/vehicle difference is not being used to accelerate the vehicle.
How would you explain its acceleration when the vehicle is traveling at wind speed, in the vehicle’s reference frame? It seems to me — incorrectly, I assume — that the only energy available there is from the ground/vehicle difference.