As we’ve reported, a small part of the Mars Perseverance mission is the planned first ever flight of an aircraft, a small helicopter, tucked way inside the Mars rover, which made a successful touchdown on the surface of the Red Planet on February 18, 2021, is a tiny bit of Earth aviation history that has plucked at the flying wires/heartstrings of pilots the world around.
That little bit of treasure is a bit of fabric from the Wright Flyer, that is, from the actual Wright Flyer which on December 17, 1903, became the first successful human carrying heavier-than-air powered aircraft to ever take to the skies. So, a little bit of the Wright Flyer will be first in fight on its second planet How cool is that.
It will not be the first heavenly body for the Flyer’s grand celebration tour, however. Apollo 11’d Eagle landing craft, which landed on the Moon in 1969, carried with it a piece of wood from the Wright Flyer. But there’s not enough atmosphere on the moon to allow lifted flight, so Mars will be its first planet, though who knows, maybe not its last.
NASA has recently been floating a possible date for Ingenuity’s flight, April 8, 2021. We can’t wait!
