I am a huge fan of flight simulation games (and aircraft mechanics in general), and this is a question that has always been interesting to me. Why are some crafts able to fly in super cold areas without freezing over and inevitably plummeting, while others have basically no chance of staying airborne?
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There is no reason why they should not. In fact airplanes fly in cold air all the time as they fly high enough in the sky for the air to be far bellow freezing. The problem is related to humidity. It can be cold all day but unless there is actually something that can freeze to ice there is no problem. At altitude and also on the poles it is generally quite dry. So there is no ice forming even though it is cold.
There are however things that aircraft can do to better operate in these temperatures. In the engines the exhaust is hot and can be used to heat up areas that can clog up with ice. There are also electrical heaters. For piston engines they can heat up the carburetor and bypass the air filter. Jet engines are more complex but might have similar settings. You have things like heating the piton tube and such.
Another issue is that the wings collect ice changing their shape and making them stall. This may cause the airplane to fall out of the sky. So you might sometimes see the leading edge of the wing be made of a rubber tube. The tube can be pressurized to change its shape and then the pressure is released changing its shape again. This cause any ice that forms on these leading edges to fall off. The ice on the rear of the wings will then be exposed to the full force of the incoming air and be blown off. Some aircraft even have this on the propeller. These are not common on commercial airliners but when flying on the poles they often follow more rugged smaller cargo airplanes with these modifications installed who can report on the conditions.
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