Midair Repair: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|"Who on board is smart enough to fix the propeller, but stupid enough to climb out there to do it?"|'''Scrooge McDuck''', ''[[DuckTales (1987)|The Uncrashable Hindentanic]]''}}
Our heroes are in an aircraft, falling. Perhaps they've been shot down, or maybe their vehicle didn't work in the first place. No need to worry, though. Someone (usually the [[Gadgeteer Genius]] or [[Mad Scientist]] of the cast) will get everything back into working order. In mid-air. Before hitting the ground.
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== [[Anime]] & [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Read or Die]]'' has two examples - once in [[Read or Die|the original OVA]], where Yomiko's paper airplane takes a nosedive off of a skyscraper because she forgot the tail, and once in [[
* In an episode of ''[[Code Geass]] R2'', not only was Kallen's [[Humongous Mecha]] repaired as it was falling into the ocean, it was ''upgraded''.
** By shooting the necessary parts at it from a submarine. [[Rule of Cool|In Missiles]]. [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?]]
* In ''[[Air Gear]]'', tuner(read: [[Wrench Wench]]) Kururu Sumeragi rebuilds main character Ikki's titular Cool Rollerblades. Rather than being with him when starting the fall, she ''jumps off a building to tackle him as he falls'', and proceeds to dismantle and rebuild the mass of tiny parts.
{{quote|'''Kururu:''' How many seconds until impact?!
'''Ikki:''' [[Talking Is a Free Action|Uh... Three seconds... I'd guess]]?
'''Kururu:''' [[Oh Crap|Three seconds]]?! (thinking during two-page spread of her spilling tools from her backpack) [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|In that case... I've got more than enough time!]]
(And Kururu ''very quickly'' rebuilds Ikki's skates.) }}
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"You mean--"
"I mean that the assistant chief engineer would succeed to the position of chief a few minutes later. Chief engineers are very carefully chosen, Bill, and not just for their technical knowledge." }}
* In the ''[[Virgin New Adventures|Doctor Who Expanded Universe]]'' novel ''The Dying Days'', the
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
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** In the Tok'ra's defense, however, they're not building the ships. They're stealing them from the Goa'uld, and as a result can't pick and choose, and can't find lots of spare parts.
** This problem isn't limited to the Tok'ra, however. The human-built ships aren't much better. For example, on the official maiden voyage of the first human spaceship, the ''Prometheus'', the hyperdrive overloaded and had to be ejected before destroying the ship. And the list goes on...
* Because the TARDIS is the [[Cool Ship]] version of [[The Alleged Car]], [[Doctor Who|the Doctor]] has had to do this a couple of times. For example, in "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S1
* In a first season episode of ''[[MacGyver]]'', Mac uses a map to patch his hot air balloon when it springs a leak after being shot.
** In the later episode "Rock the Cradle", Mac has to unjam the landing gear on a plane as Jack Dalton is bringing it in for a landing. He succeeds, but falls out the plane (he is wearing a parachute).
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* In [[Real Life]], NASA does occasionally send up astronauts to repair stuff, which is kind of in midair by default and falling at an atrocious speed. Just not in danger of hitting the ground.
** Wouldn't a
*** They have to bring their own.
** Well, as [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|Arthur Dent]] would point out, the art of flying is all about managing to [[Not the Fall That Kills You|avoid hitting the ground]] while falling.
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** Additionaly, many older multi-engine airplanes (mostly made during/before the 1950s) were actually ''designed'' so a mechanic could access the engines mid-flight through a cramped tunnel burried in the wing. Even earlier airplanes (First World War vintage) considered it a matter of routine for the mechanic to do a wing-walk to maintain the notably finicky engines while the plane was underway. These days engines are so reliable that a breakdown is considered truely exceptional rather than uncommon.
*** Not that today's airplane engineers like to take any chances on that account: recognizing the impossibility of midair repairs on today's engines, it is required by FAA law that today's multi-engine planes have enough engine power to remain in control in the event of catastrophic loss of an engine. Maybe not enough control to get where you were planning on going, but at least enough to make your way to the nearest major airport.
**** Related to this requirement is a requirement for airliners that intend to fly transoceanic routes: Essentially, they have to be airworthy with an engine out (which is why many older airliners had four engines). The requirement allowing ''twin'' engined airliners to fly such routes is called '''ETOPS''', '''E'''xtended-range '''T'''win-engine '''O'''perational '''P'''erformance '''S'''tandards. [[Fun with Acronyms|Also known as
* The [[wikipedia:Convair B-36|B-36 Peacemaker]] was so large that it had a crawlspace in its wings, which meant that, theoretically, brave crewmen could crawl to the engines and fix them in flight. Perhaps thankfully, this was never tested.
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