Aircraft Carrier Landing: The Physics Behind the Fighter Jet's Deceleration

How does a fighter jet slow down to a stop before falling off an aircraft carrier runway?

Given: Length of runway = 400 m Speed of jet = 641 m/s We need to find the time it takes for the jet fighter to slow down and come to a stop before falling off the runway.

Answer:

The time taken by the aircraft to come to rest on the runway is 1.25s.

Explanation:

Given:

The initial speed of the aircraft on the runway is 641 m/s.

The final speed of the aircraft on runway is 0 m/s.

The distance covered by the aircraft on runway is 400 m.

Concept:

The aircraft moves on the runway and comes to rest under the constant acceleration during its motion. In this case, the acceleration acts in the opposite direction of the motion of aircraft.

The average velocity of a body that has constant acceleration during the motion is defined as the mean of the initial and the final velocity of the body.

Write the expression for the average velocity of the aircraft.

v_avg = (v_f + v_i) / 2

Substitute the values of initial and final velocity of the aircraft in the above expression:

v_avg = (0 + 641) / 2 = 320.5 m/s

The time taken by the aircraft to come to rest can be calculated as the ratio of the distance covered to the average speed of the aircraft.

Write the expression for the time taken by aircraft.

T = v_avg / d

Substitute the values of distance and the average velocity of the aircraft:

T = 400 m / 320.5 m/s = 1.248 s ≈ 1.25 s

Thus, the time taken by the aircraft to come to rest on the runway is 1.25 s.

Understand more about Physics by exploring related topics such as:

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2. The effect of change in radius on the angular velocity

3. The distance at which the tennis ball falls after being hit