A cargo plane has to drop a relief package to people in need. How can the pilot determine when to drop the package?

What is known:

• The plane is flying level (vertical velocity = 0) at 600 ft.
• The plane is traveling at 176 ft/s in a straight line toward the drop target.
• The wind resistance on the package can be neglected.

Problem Diagram

When releasing the package, at what angle θ down from the horizontal must the pilot see the target for the package to land on the target?

• Use vectors to analyze curvilinear motion.
• Resolve the vectors for curvilinear motion into rectangular components.
• Integrate the acceleration to find the horizontal distance covered by the package, then use trigonometry to determine the angle θ.