My last club was in Maine and we often had good winds and sometimes pretty gusty conditions. The thing I found with landing in the wind is often I would have to land power on. Not a big deal once you get use to it. If fact one day I was out at the club and we had no wind. I had a horrible time landing, constantly floating the plane down the runway because I was so use to the wind and power on I couldn't get use to power off.

Carl, remember, the plane does not care about the ground, it only cares about the air moving over the wing. There was a myth that if you put a plane on a large conveyer belt the plane could not get airborne because the relative speed of the plane would be zero. Mythbusters tried this out and busted the myth. I knew it would be busted, again because what makes a plane go flying is the lift generated by the air moving over the wings, not how fast the plane is moving relative to the ground. So the answer to your questions is yes, if the wind is moving fast enough the plane will take off without moving forward, but the problem is getting the plane there in the first place. When the plane is crosswind the wind will probably flip it, same with when you face the wind, the plane will probably flip backward. Like was mentioned above, that is why aircraft carriers turn into the wind before taking off, to increase the airspeed over the wings of the plane. Same with runways. All planes want to take off into the wind, makes for a shorter ground roll, and makes it easier to take off.