reference frames - Is it possible to counter-act centrifugal force by moving at the same speed in the anti-spin direction?

I've recently been contemplating things like artificial gravity in a rotating space ship (for example, the O'Neill Cylinder) and learning about the Coralis effect and other interesting fictitious forces that appear in rotating reference frames.

It occurred to me that, if you were living on a space station spun for artificial gravity, it might be possible to become weightless in such an environment by travelling fast enough against the spin of the ship. My friend, who I was discussing this with, thinks otherwise, that you would actually be under more g's as you tried to gain the speed to lift off from the inner edge of the ship.

In terms of concrete numbers, say the ship is 4 kilometers in radius (as an O'Neill Cylinder would). At this size, the rate of rotation to generate 1g in centrifugal force (the artificial gravity) is under 0.5 rpm. If a vehicle travels on the inside of the cylinder against the spin fast enough, eventually the vehicle would cease moving when looked at from a static reference frame. I would think at this point, the vehicle could simply push off from the edge of the cylinder and float towards the center of the station. Is this correct?

Furthermore, would this method of "getting into air", as it were, be easier than it would be to counteract real gravity on Earth (with things like planes that generate lift with their wings)?

Answer

The technique would work, but whether you would use it would depend on many many details.

Rotating frames of motion come with all sorts of counter intuitive bits, so lets look at it from an inertial frame outside the station. We perceive the station as rotating. The velocity vector of any object on the station is a tangent, so we see the result of every object pushing against the rotating body of the station. It looks roughly like a weird form of gravity.

Now a vehicle beings traveling in the opposite direction of the spin, faster and faster. From our inertial point of view, outside the station, it actually looks like it is slowing down! From what we know of physics, the centripetal acceleration is related to the velocity of the object, so we can assume they feel less and less of the effect of this artificial "gravity." Eventually, they can just push off and float up.

Interestingly enough, this happens on earth, thanks to the rotation of our planet. However, the effect is very small compared to the aerodynamic forces present, so we usually do not pay attention to it when deciding how planes will fly.

Let's go back to the O'Neil cylinder. In reality, people try to make transport as efficient as possible, so they will use these frame effects in whatever way is most ideal. Obviously, the faster you go against the rotation, the more wind drag you'll feel. However, there will be an "ideal" speed where the decreased apparent weight balances with the extra drag. The exact speed that is ideal will depend not only on your cylinder, but also on the characteristics of the aerodynamics of the vehicles you choose.