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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** 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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