ooh - very cool!

You're going to build just the glider? Or the transferstage as well?

Going to have the full propulsion package as well, yes.

That thing looks very cool.

I think a balloon would be more ideal for Martian atmosphere

I'd love to see you build the ship from the 50s movie 'Conquest of Space' . In that they went to mars and had a winged section to land and then had a section that had to be absolutely vertical to lift off to come home in.

As I recall, that one ws based closely on the von Braun concept

Yep. I have the movie on my computer in MP 4 format.

There are basically two versions of the mission and machine. The first was a whole fleet of ships, ten in all, with three huge landers. Then the revised later version had only three ships and one of them a smaller lander. I'd WAG that Conquest was based on the later version. Bonestell did art for both versions, and kind of co-mingled details between them, very confusing. I'm doing the earlier and much bigger(500ft wing span) version.

This another client piece?

Oooo! This should be neat when done!

Aha! And I've noticed at JPL they've picked up the concept again by proposing sending an unmanned, flying drone to explore Mars just a bit faster than the Rovers can. They also theorize the flying/gliding probe would find data on the atmospheric dynamics of the planet.

I understand this proposed glider is intended to carry Human explorers, so who knows? Those long winged aircraft might just ply the skies of the red planet some day. I've always liked the concept.

This was just intended as a winged lander. The wings would be discarded and the forward fuselage winched up to vertical for a conventional rocket launch back to orbit.

Whups! I had forgotten about that little detail. Yes. Now that you mentioned it, I recall seeing a Bonestell painting showing the wings removed and the ascending stage winched up into launching position. If I remember it right, it was mentioned the wings and part of the lander would be used to make shelters.

You only need to be certain that the level bubble is in the center before blasting off.

Raising the Mars Bar.

Steady progress on this one. I think i remember seeing a repro of the McCall's Cover with this on it.

Reminds me of the flying wing robot on Venus in the 21stCenturyFox webcomic, neat!

Do you ever build planes for RC flight?
I'm an intermediate level pilot

I've done stick and tissue, mostly long ago, last one done to the level of initial test glides was a six-foot flying wing. Never got into actually flying RC- yet. I've done parts for others RC projects, currently doing bits for a Boeing 314 flying boat, just over six foot span.

The technology has been improving greatly, in the last couple of decades at least.
All components contribute to performance, but, for instance, the energy density of lithium polymer batteries is great.
It's very light.. and weight is an important factor in the mathematics of flight (thrust/drag/lift)
And they can put out a lot of power... If there are shortcomings in the aerodynamics, raw thrust can get your plane up and preforming more like it should!

I peeked at a RC magazine a while back and was impressed with the leaps in technology, both in controls and power systems.

I'm what some would call an "advanced" RC pilot.... Only cause I can fly just about anything, and I fly fixed wing 3D....

This flying wing has been tested? At what altitude? As an RC flyer I can say there's a HUGE difference between sea level and a mile high! (My home altitude).

Mars has a much thinner atmosphere than earth, it'd be more like trying to fly it above the peak of Mt Everest!

Not sure I follow? The flying flying wing I did was almost 40 years ago, and it did glide okay. Had absolutely nothing to do with this Mars project. And the Mars build is a purely static display build. NASA has been doing R&D on a flying wing probe for Mars recently, but it will be a tiny thing. The original von Braun unit would have been HUGE. That there have been several serious flyer concept for Mars certainly suggests there is enough air for ultra-high-aspect wing designs to have a go. One handy detail for the Martian atmosphere, due to the lower gravity, the rate of atmospheric compression is less, so the pressure gradient is less, meaning a deeper flying envelope. I'm not sure, but got the impression that Mars is something like 60,000 foot equivelent (?)

Just checked, more like 100,000 ft. Still doable.

That is going to be beautiful when it is complete.

looking good so far. I would love to see more work in progress in the future