Serway & Jewett — Circular Motion and Other Applications of Newton's Laws: Problem 44

A model airplane of mass 0.750 kg flies with a speed of 35.0 m/s in a horizontal circle at the end of a 60.0-m-long control wire as shown in Figure P6.44a. The forces exerted on the airplane are shown in Figure P6.44b: the tension in the control wire, the gravitational force, and aerodynamic lift that acts at \(\theta = 20.0^{\circ}\) inward from the vertical. Compute the tension in the wire, assuming it makes a constant angle of \(\theta = 20.0^{\circ}\) with the horizontal.