What happens when you try to fly a Cessna on Venus or Titan ?

[eppur_se_muova]

http://what-if.xkcd.com/30/

Someone did a lot of work on this.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Not much, probably, since there isn't any air.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Both have atmospheres ... just not a lot of oxygen.

(For the purposes of the thought experiment, the Cessna was battery powered.)

[NYC_SKP]

2. I presume that they mean "assuming that the engine would run and you could breath"?

I'll check!

[rightsideout]

4. That's great

Reminds me when my Dad's Cessna fell out of the sky on his way back from Catalina island. He forgot to turn on the carburator heater and the gas froze up. He was able to glide into a farmer's field south of LA. His instructor drove out and took him back to the airport and put him on another plane to try his solo trip again.

So even if you have an atmosphere you still need produce lift to keep the plane from falling like a rock.

[bluedigger]

7. Your dad took his solo flight over open water?!

That's, um... ambitious...

[NYC_SKP]

5. Fun. Last week's "what if"... swimming in a expended nuclear fuel pond...

How safe is that?

http://what-if.xkcd.com/29/

I love the answer at the very end...

[cloudbase]

6. Let's try it with a glider

and see if there are any thermals out there.

[kestrel91316]

8. If you took a Cessna to Venus it would melt. That lump of melted metal and burned plastic and rubber

won't fly.

[pauldemmd195j]

9. I think it'd be pretty difficult

Venus' atmosphere is extremely hot, and the plane would burn up completely. As for Titan, it'd be too cold for a plane to operate.

[jberryhill]

10. The same thing that would happen if I tried it on earth