Midair Repair: Difference between revisions

* In ''Riders Of The Storm'' (one of Dennis Hopper's lesser known works), one character has to crawl out onto the wing of a B-29-cum-pirate radio station to fix one of the engines inflight.

* Parodied in ''[[Ice Age|Ice Age 3]]'', when Buck performs mouth-to-mouth on a pterosaur knocked unconscious by a mid-air collision.

* The trope name is basically the job description for R2 units.

* Parodied in ''[[Hot Shots]]'' when Topper's dad tried to make repairs to his fighter as it was crashing. This included everything from stapling sheet metal onto the nose to holding the wing on by hooking his feet to the fuselage.

** 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...

* 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).

*** 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]] '''[[Fun With Acronyms|E]]'''[[Fun With Acronyms|ngine]] '''[[Fun With Acronyms|T]]'''[[Fun With Acronyms|urns]] '''[[Fun With Acronyms|O]]'''[[Fun With Acronyms|r]] '''[[Fun With Acronyms|P]]'''[[Fun With Acronyms|assengers]] '''[[Fun With Acronyms|S]]'''[[Fun With Acronyms|wim]]

 

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[[Category:Sublime Rhyme]]

[[Category:Midair Repair]]