In: Physics
When a plane turns, it banks as shown in (Figure 1) to give the wings' lifting force F? w a horizontal component that turns the plane.?If a plane is flying level at 870 km/h and the banking angle is not to exceed 50 ?, what's the minimum curvature radius for the turn??
Solution:
First, the speed of the airplane in SI units is:
870kmh = 870km/h(1000m/1.0km)(1.0h/3600s)
= 241.67m/s
When the aircraft banks the lift force may be broken into
horizontal and vertical components. The horizontal component causes
centripetal acceleration acting toward the center of the circular
path. From Newton’s 2nd law the horizontal forces allow us to
write:
?F = mv²/r = Lsin?---------------->(1)
The vertical forces are:
?F = 0 = Lcos? - mg
L = mg/cos?------------------------>(2)
Plugging (2) into (1), we get:
mv²/r = (mg/cos?)sin?
v²/r = gtan?
r = v²/gtan?
= (241.67m/s)² / 9.8mtan50°
= 5000.587m
= 5 km.
I hope you understood the problem, If yes rate me!! or else comment for a better solution.