Planes in Saturn
So I'm writing a story that takes place in Saturn's atmosphere, and I've run into a bit of a problem. You see, I wanted it to be possible to have some pretty badass scenes with sci-fi fighter jets taking place. (Yes, I know that real life fighter plane combat is a lot of hoping the targeting computer is right about how to hit that speck miles away, if the speck is visible at all. I've got plot devices to fix that.) The problem is that planes need oxygen to run, and rockets are too inefficient for long distance travel. Unless you do suborbital jumps, I guess, but I want planes dammit. My question is, what sort of propulsion system could work in the atmosphere of Saturn? I know electrically driven propellers might do the job, but that feels kind of slow.
Note: Planes need not be SSTO capable, they can land and refuel at large stations in the atmosphere at "surface" level (1 atm pressure)
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/60209. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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