An executive flew in the corporate jet to a meeting in a city 1500 kilometers away. After traveling the same amount of time on the return flight, the pilot mentioned that they still had 300 kilometers to go. The air speed of the plane was 600 kilometers per hour. How fast was the wind blowing? (Assume that the wind direction was parallel to the flight path and constant all day).

Question

An executive flew in the corporate jet to a meeting in a city 1500 kilometers away. After traveling the same amount of time on the  return flight, the pilot mentioned that they still had 300 kilometers to go. The air speed of the plane was 600 kilometers per hour. How fast was the wind blowing? (Assume that the wind direction was parallel to the flight path and constant all day).

DrBob222 · Answer

The problem isn't clear if the wind was blowing on the first part of the trip. I have assumed it was not.
distance = rate x time or
time = d/r
For the trip out, we have time = 1500/600
For the trip back we have 1200/r. The times are the same so we set them equal.
1500/600 = 1200/r
solve for r. I have 480 km/hr so the wind must have been blowing 600-48- = 120 km/hr.
You can check this by checking the time.
time for trip out is 1500/600 = 2.5 hrs.
time for trip back is 1200/480 =2.5 hrs.

If the wind blew on the way out you must make some adjustments to the above.