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A sailplane (or "glider") is a small, unpowered, high-performance aircraft. A sailplane must be initially towed a few thousand feet into the air by a small airplane, after which it relies on regions of upward-moving air such as thermals and ridge currents to ascend farther. Suppose a small plane requires about 120 m of runway to take off by itself. When is it towing a sailplane, how much more runway does it need?
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