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I am absolutely not going to write "on another planet" in the title, but that's what I mean.

I found a cross-over point from here when I recently linked to my answer in space exploration stackexchange.

There are several questions about solar powered aircraft here, but in Earth's atmosphere. The expertise is here to ask flight-specific questions about the solar powered aircraft discussed for Venus Take a moment to look at Venus Aircraft - design evolution 2000-2008, Geoffrey A. Landis, NASA John Glenn Research Center) - is there any room for a discussion of the possibility of something like that being on-topic here?

I'm not going to post the question yet, but this is where people who know about atmospheric flight can be found, so I thought I would test the water.

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I'd say that if your question is about aerodynamics and/or practical flight then there's at least a good chance that it's on-topic. A few reasons that it might be considered off-topic could be:

  • It's closer to physics than aerodynamics (try physics.SE)
  • Any answer requires detailed knowledge about Venus (try space.SE)
  • It's a science-fiction scenario, not a scientific one (try worldbuilding.SE)

But based on what you've written I'd just ask it and see how people react. Keep in mind that SE is about answers, not discussion, so you need to be specific. But it looks like you already have enough rep on space.SE to know that :-)

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    $\begingroup$ I agree with your first two points but not completely with the 3rd one. We may never be able to fly a vehicle in the atmosphere of Venus but it is still aerodynamics and the laws of physics. $\endgroup$
    – Farhan Mod
    Aug 8, 2016 at 1:25
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    $\begingroup$ @Farhan I agree, I mentioned worldbuilding only in case the OP is looking for some plausible but not necessarily accurate explanation of how an aircraft could fly on Venus. Otherwise as you said, it's all physics. $\endgroup$
    – Pondlife
    Aug 8, 2016 at 14:01

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