Soaring on Mars

I'm sure all these problems would be solved by going to a flying wing
design.

Any minute now a post will appear saying the Marske Pioneer has been
tested on Mars and it would not spin and got 100:1 L/D and the proof
will be up on the website as soon as the Martians give back the video
camera...

"C.Fleming" wrote in message ...
Mach, Knots Indicated Airspeed (kias), and Feet: weird aeronautical units?
Last I checked, those were standard on both sides of the ocean, unless
you're in Russia.

Indicated airspeed and mach ratios are the two most important factors to
consider! The glider needs to reach a specific Indicated Airspeed in order
to produce adequate lift, which in the extremely thin Martian air would be
an extremely fast True Airspeed. The minimum Indicated Airspeed needed is
open for debate, but it certainly is significantly faster than 40 kias, due
to slow-speed-buffet limits in the extremely thin air. We are also limited
by the Mach Ratio, which for a conventional high-aspect ratio glider is
quite low, nowhere close to 0.85 Mach-limited swept-wing subsonic jets. So,
without asking a Boeing-McDonnell-Douglas Engineer to help me with the math,
I think it's pretty safe to say that the minimum speed required of our PW-5
would be significantly faster than the maximum allowable speed; Hence, our
glider no worky-worky.

-Chris