: It is an interesting video.

hmm... the bit about the banshee incinerating... I don't believe that would be so - IF the banshee were able to match the rotation of the ring (and the atmosphere) first. If so, then the atmosphere, already spinning at the ring's rate and held in place, wouldn't incinerate the banshee. Basically, there's no "orbit" above the ring surface like there is on Earth, so anything trying to land would have to speed up and match the rotation by itself, but I believe that as it descends into the atmosphere, it would start to get pulled/pushed along with the help of the ring's rotation, until it's engulfed by the atmosphere.

But I think there would be an effect with the atmosphere as well, since it's the physical ring that's being propelled as one solid entity at its rotation speed; the atmosphere (particles) is not. So, there may growing sheer as you ascend away from the surface of the ring, making descending from space onto the surface probably pretty crazy - matching the rotation, but probably pushing through higher atmosphere that's lagging, not rotating in sync with the ring surface, as it gets denser and eventually rotating in sync at surface level.

At least the drop pods in Halo 1 showed re-entry burn, whether for the proper physics or not. :P