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Interplanetary Cessna

what-if.xkcd.com · 1,281 words · saved by 1 readers

Here’s what happens when the aircraft is launched above the surface of the 32 largest Solar System bodies: In most cases, there’s no atmosphere, and the plane falls straight to the ground. (If it’s dropped from one kilometer, in a few cases, the crash will be slow enough that the pilot may survive—although the life-support equipment probably won’t.) There are nine Solar System bodies with atmospheres thick enough to matter: Earth—obviously—Mars, Venus, the four gas giants, Saturn’s moon Titan, and the Sun. Let’s take a closer look at what would happen to a plane on each one. The Sun: This works about as well as you'd imagine. If the plane is released close enough to the Sun to feel its atmosphere at all, it's vaporized in less than a second. Mars: To see what happens to aircraft on Mars, we turn to X-Plane. X-Plane is the most advanced flight simulator in the world. The product of 20 years of obsessive labor by a hardcore aeronautics enthusiast who uses capslock a lot when talking abou

What would happen if you tried to fly a normal Earth airplane above different Solar System bodies? —Glen Chiacchieri Here’s our aircraft: The Cessna 172 Skyhawk, probably the most common plane in the world. Here’s our pilot: Here’s what happens when the aircraft is launched above the surface of the 32 largest Solar System bodies: In most cases, there’s no atmosphere, and the plane falls straight to the ground. (If it’s dropped from one kilometer, in a few cases, the crash will be slow enough that the pilot may survive—although the life-support equipment probably won’t.) There are nine Solar Sy

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