Well a test glider was flown at altitudes on Earth high enough to show it could work in Mars atmosphere, it was able to support its own weight at 29.9 km NASA - Mars Airplane
Also NASA has explored ideas for sending an airplane to Mars.
This is a design called Ares A Proposed Mars Scout Mission
It would fly once, travel about a hundred miles, and then crash.
Sadly, a heavy plane like that couldn't take off again even if you equipped it with a moter.
It would need a take off speed of over 200 mph, faster than a 747 to get off the ground. So, short of building a runway on Mars, that's not going to happen.
However lighter weight smaller model plane sized mars aircraft could take off again from the surface
NASA have explored that as well, smaller, model airplane sized planes with a camera and a radio.
After a vertical tail first landing like this, your airplane could take off again, using the same thrusters. This is a plane that could land on the surface of Mars and then fly again repeatedly. Essentially, it's a design for a miniaturized Mars version of VTOL flight.
In the early days of the space shuttle, the plan was to fly a space shuttle every week. One of the things they could do with all those launches is to send lots of airplanes to Mars for close up exploration of the surface.
You would avoid flying in the Mars dust storms - apart from damage, also means you can't see anything.
But the winds there are not as hazardous for aircraft as you might think. After all our rovers manage fine with fragile cameras and many with solar panels and such like. Because it's a near vacuum, winds on Mars though fast, can only pick up fine dust, and the dust on Mars is much finer than the dust in a dust storm on Earth.
But, fun thing about the Mars atmosphere, since it is so thin, then you can scale up a bumble bees wings to the size of a model aircraft and the result should fly just fine on Mars (doesn't work on Earth).
Balloons also would work fine on Mars.
See also: Soaring, Buzzing, Floating, Hopping, Crawling And Inflatable Mars Rovers - Suggestions For UAE Mars Lander
Also NASA has explored ideas for sending an airplane to Mars.
This is a design called Ares A Proposed Mars Scout Mission
It would fly once, travel about a hundred miles, and then crash.
Sadly, a heavy plane like that couldn't take off again even if you equipped it with a moter.
It would need a take off speed of over 200 mph, faster than a 747 to get off the ground. So, short of building a runway on Mars, that's not going to happen.
However lighter weight smaller model plane sized mars aircraft could take off again from the surface
NASA have explored that as well, smaller, model airplane sized planes with a camera and a radio.
NASA's Langley Research Center Artist's concept of the Mars Airplane - one of many ideas - this is a tiny plane with five foot wingspan which folds to fit into an aeroshell for entry into the Mars atmosphere.With one of these planes they found a way to put it into a stall at a 70° angle towards the ground, They found that in this configuration, it falls reasonably slowly, rather like a parachute. The plan was to add thrusters for a vertical soft landing on the Martian surface.
After a vertical tail first landing like this, your airplane could take off again, using the same thrusters. This is a plane that could land on the surface of Mars and then fly again repeatedly. Essentially, it's a design for a miniaturized Mars version of VTOL flight.
In the early days of the space shuttle, the plan was to fly a space shuttle every week. One of the things they could do with all those launches is to send lots of airplanes to Mars for close up exploration of the surface.
You would avoid flying in the Mars dust storms - apart from damage, also means you can't see anything.
But the winds there are not as hazardous for aircraft as you might think. After all our rovers manage fine with fragile cameras and many with solar panels and such like. Because it's a near vacuum, winds on Mars though fast, can only pick up fine dust, and the dust on Mars is much finer than the dust in a dust storm on Earth.
But, fun thing about the Mars atmosphere, since it is so thin, then you can scale up a bumble bees wings to the size of a model aircraft and the result should fly just fine on Mars (doesn't work on Earth).
Balloons also would work fine on Mars.
See also: Soaring, Buzzing, Floating, Hopping, Crawling And Inflatable Mars Rovers - Suggestions For UAE Mars Lander
About the Author
Robert Walker
Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
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