A planes actual resulting ground speed and direction are 550 mph and N26E. A wind is blowing from the northeast. If the pilot is holding a course of N27E how fast is the wind blowing?

1 answer

if the wind speed is w and the plane's speed is s, then

(w cos-135°,w sin-135°)+(s cos63°, s sin63°) = (550 cos64°,550 sin64°)

-.707w + .454s = 241.104
-.707w + .891s = 494.337

w = 31.089