On the otherhand you probably could get away with a space elevator on Mars where you couldn't on Earth.
In case it’s not obvious, I suspect that larger wings are required because of the lower density of Mars’ atmosphere, which would increase the stall speed relative to Mach number of any given aircraft.
Mars' surface gravity is 1/3 that of Earth's.
Mars' surface air density is 1/60 that of earths.
So to use lifting surfaces on Mars to fly, the situation is 20x harder.
It's roughly equivalent to flying at 40,000 ft on Earth with an electric helicopter. The world record for highest helicopter ever flown is 42,500 ft on Earth.
Flying on Mars is like flying more or less at the service ceiling of all but the most specialized aircraft can on Earth, and most of those are air breathing engines.
The structural weight required to make equivalent lift to weight ratios (L/W) is very much harder and the lower gravity doesn't make up for most of the difficulty.
> It's roughly equivalent to flying at 40,000 ft on Earth with an electric helicopter. The world record for highest helicopter ever flown is 42,500 ft on Earth.
The record was established in a jet-engined helicopter, whose service ceiling is largely a function of engine power at appropriate altitudes (e.g. it varies a lot with temperature and humidity).
Note: I cannot vouch for its correctness.
It's still really difficult to accelerate something to 5 km/s. (It's 2.5 km/s on the moon)
Not like the rocks on the moon are that useful for anything, but....