Question

A light plane flew from its home base to an airport 225 miles away. With a head wind, the trip took 1.7 hours. The return trip with a trail wind took 1.5 hours. Find the average airspeed of the plane and the average wind speed

Answer 1

First we calculate BOTH velocities
Velocity WITH wind = dist / time = 225 / 1.5 = 150 mph
Velocity AGAINST wind = dist / time = 225 / 1.7 = 132.353 mph

plane speed +wind speed = 150
plane speed -wind speed = 132.353
Adding both equations
2 * plane speed = 282.353
plane speed (still air) = 141.177
plane speed + wind speed = 150
wind speed = 8.8235 mph