4 ms·

From what I remember of playing around with X-Plane's Mars atmosphere model, you can glide, but at very high speeds (for most planes close to the speed of sound

• m4rtink 5y ago
  Doesn't paint a good future for large scale aeronautics on Mars - even if you somehow can sustain those speeds in an atmosphere where you cant burn stuff for propulsion, landing the thing, somehow, at the destination would be very hard - possibly harder than landing the F-104 Starfighter!;-) That speed likely rules out any normal landing gear or runways, possibly with the exception of a maglev catcher cradle. Most likely the "aircraft" would need some sort of a robust long duration vertical landing capability, likely rocket based. No wonder you don't see any aircraft on Mars in The Expanse series - only hyperloop like pods on flimsy rails making use of both the low pressure and low gravity or full on spaceships or orbital shuttles.
  • imtringued 5y ago
    We need to "inflate" the atmosphere. That means digging up nitrogen deep in the soil.
  • skykooler 5y ago
    Yeah, the only real possibilities for landing on a runway are insanely long runways (dozens of miles!) or high-speed arrestor cables, like souped-up versions of those used on carriers. And even then, the super-wide maneuvering radius means flaring without stalling is practically impossible - you'd need to clear a long area in front of the runway so you can basically come in almost flat.