I have just been to a presentation on the Perlan project which at it second
stage goal of 100,000ft height is
about mars ground level air pressure.
The aircraft would have 29-30 metre wings (ETA size) and be designed to fly
in the range of 0.6-0.7 mach .The convergence into "coffin corner" occurs at
108,000ft .
The l/d of the design at sealevel would be 50:1 and at the altitude would
drop to 25:1 (source, Nasa supercomputer flight simulations)
The designer of the ETA has been asked to provide some data on large span
composite wing structures at the reynolds numbers required for this project
gary
"C.Fleming" wrote in message
...
Said another way, the air is so thin on Mars, you might as well be trying
to
soar on the moon. It doesn't matter that the gravity is less; without
air,
you're going to have a 0:1 glide ratio!

Chris




"puffnfresh" wrote in message
...
Given the lesser density of air on Mars what would be the glide ratio of
a PW-5 starting at an altitude of say 5000 feet? (lesser gravity, too)
Is it worth book a trip in next few years?