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Not Quite Flight: Difference between revisions
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== Comic Books ==
* There's also [[The Mighty Thor|Thor]] who swings his hammer around his head and then releases it with it still attached to his wrist. The momentum then carries him half way across the world. Sure, that would work....no, really, it would work. It would take some epic deltoids though or maybe [[A Wizard Did It|a magic hammer.]] Thor has both.
** His inability to fly depends entirely on who happens to be writing him at the moment. It's possible that they might still stick with the "I throw my hammer!" bit but the way it's portrayed there's no way it could be anything BUT true flight.
* [[X-Men|Magneto]] can also pick himself up with metal objects that he levitates with his powers.
** Magneto is sometimes stated as outright flying (or "levitating") by using the Earth's magnetic field.
* [[Fantastic Four|Susan Storm]] can move around on invisible platforms that lift her into the sky.
* [[Wonder Woman]] was originally unable to fly directly in the manner of Superman but (as with original Superman) they simplified all the handwaves to just give her flight.
** In [[The Silver Age of Comic Books]], and possibly [[The Golden Age of Comic Books]], Wonder Woman used to "glide on air currents" -- which somehow always seemed to be going in the right direction unless it became a plot point (like one story in which the villain encased a city in ice, which apparently meant that there were only downdrafts). This was retconned into full flight in the 1986 revamp, and has remained so ever since.
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** The [[The Incredible Hulk|Hulk]] gets around like this as well.
** [[Squirrel Girl]] has been known travel like this too.
* [[Plastic Man]] does the seven league boots thing.
** [[Plastic Man]], just like [[Fantastic Four|Mr Fantastic]] or [[Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew|Rubberduck]] and other people with shapeshifting or [[Rubber Man]] powers, will sometimes shift into a glider or parachute to at least glide.
* [[The Flash]] has a rarely used and totally inexpiable ability to walk on air (and in one instance Barry ran through ''the vacuum of space''). More realistically Flashes can use their speed to cross short gaps without jumping.
** Given the Flash's nigh-infinite speed potential and the existence of the Speed Force to handwave away any physical implausibility issues, this is hardly the most impossible thing a Flash has ever done.
** More realistically, Flash would sometime build up speed and run off the edge of a building/ramp/whatever, and let his momentum carry him forward. Used to great effect twice in ''[[Justice League: The New Frontier]]''.
*** The [[Legacy Character|older Flash, Jay Garrick]] specifically, would rapidly move his legs, building up air pressure under him to float when he was dropped by one of his fellow heroes.
* Before losing his powers, Marvel's ''[[Quicksilver]]'' could "fly" for short distances by flapping his arms or "vibrating" his legs;
* In one of the early ''[[Bionicle]]'' comics, Tahu is grabbed by a Nui-Rama and lifted far into the sky before getting dropped. Since he, unlike some of his comrades, does not possess a [[Mask of Power|Mask of Levitation]], he instead uses his [[Elemental Powers|elemental power]] [[Playing with Fire|of fire]] to heat the air beneath him, slowing his fall. While it didn't slow him enough to avoid a lethal impact, luckily Onua caught on and took advantage of the slowed fall to grab Tahu with his [[Super Strength|Mask of Strength]].
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** The Toa Hordika discovered a way to achieve flight by launching their Rhotuka energy-wheels into the air, then quickly grabbing onto them, and not worrying about the absurdity of the method.
* Arcanna of the [[Squadron Supreme]] had to use her "nature magic" to levitate a nearby tree branch or other wood to ride on; later, she just learned to use air for the same purpose, effectively making her a flyer.
* [[Captain America (comics)]] is a rare main-character aversion. Iron Man is more than happy to give him a lift though, and it is [[Ho Yay|adorable.]]
* [[Superman]] himself originally could not fly, but rather used his super strength to "leap an eighth of a mile" or, as the radio serial put it, [[Catch Phrase|"leap tall buildings in a single bound."]]
* [[The Flash]] villain the Trickster was able to run in mid-air courtesy of special shoes that pumped out compressed air jets. The original Trickster developed the shoes to help him overcome a fear of falling from the high-wire he walked on in his circus act.
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* The [[Naruto]] fanfic [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6051938/1/The_Sealed_Kunai The Sealed Kunai] gives Naruto this, as a generalization of canon's water-walking. Helps that here he's been [[Level Grinding]] his wind element.
* Two examples in ''[[With Strings Attached]]'':
** Paul at first thinks he can fly; he can't, he can just jump real far. At his highest level of strength he can jump half a mile horizontally and thousands of feet straight up. At his lower level of strength he can jump some 50 feet with little effort. He rarely has use for this ability, though, especially given the damage he causes on both launch and land.
** Ringo once levitated himself with his [[Mind Over Matter|TK]], but he was basically flying blind for seven seconds before he had a concentration failure, and he hasn't tried it again.
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== Video Games ==
* In the ''[[Pokémon]]'' games, Dodrio (which doesn't even have wings) seems to use Fly by jumping really high. In the 3D games, a Dodrio using this move will be shown ''running in place'' about 30 feet above ground to keep aloft while waiting for the opponent to make a move.
** [[Awkward Zombie]] offers an [http://www.awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=030711 alternate explanation.]
** There is also the fire-type Blaziken, whose Pokedex entry says "it cannot fly, but can jump so high that it doesn't matter."
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* [[Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy|Psi Ops the Mindgate Conspiracy]]: Allow you to levitate an object you are standing on to reach certain areas. [http://psiops.wikia.com/wiki/TK_surf "TK surfing"] started out as quirk of the physics system but was kept when the developers realised what they could do with it.
* In ''[[Bug!]]!'', Bug has a pair of wings, but they're too small to allow him to fly. In ''Bug Too!'', he does get the ability to slow his descent for a short while... by flapping his arms like wings.
* The Windham Classics [[Alice in Wonderland]] had two objects that granted this. The parasol allowed you to make a controlled downward glide, but the Mad Hatter's hat let you catch updrafts. It also used the same engine as the [[Green-Sky Trilogy]] game.
* Most of the later ''[[Castlevania]]'' games give you an ability that allows you to infinitely super jump into the air.
** A few characters get true flight though. [[Castlevania: Symphony of the Night|Alucard]] and [[Castlevania: Chronicles of Sorrow|Soma Cruz]] can [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|turn into a bat]], and [[Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia|Shanoa]] can manifest a pair of black angel wings with the Volaticus glyph.
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* [http://nonadventures.com/2006/09/09/the-torment-of-a-thousand-yesterdays/ Wonderella can't fly but she can totally jump hella high.]
** And she's quite pissed that the Godhead gave her sister Penumbra the power to "float upon the axis of reality". [http://nonadventures.com/2006/09/23/lucy-in-the-sky-with-genocide/ "Frickin' FLIGHT! I am RAGE personified!".]
* ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'' has the "organic jetpack" which can grow out of your body if you exercise too much. It allows you to fly with [[Gasshole|methane and hydrogen]] as fuel.
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* The "being in a team" thing is common; look no further than ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]''. When they're not in a vehicle, Cyborg is always being carried around by one of the fliers. Robin usually just uses [[Building Swing]], but for longer distances he might hitch a ride.
** There was that time with the bird flyer suit, but it never showed up again.
** Terra can also ride on rocks she's levitating.
* In ''[[Gargoyles]],'' the Gargoyles glide on air currents, and need to jump off high places or find rising hot air to leave the ground. Nominally, at least. They swoop and swerve very high upwards whenever the plot requires that they do so. Still, they can't manage a vertical or running takeoff, or hover.
** Logically they shouldn't be able to hover, but yet they still do from time to time.
** [[Word of God]] is that they ''can't'' hover. Unfortunately, some of the animators never got the memo.
* [[Samurai Jack]] learns to: "Not fly. Jump good." So good, in fact, that he's jumping around not just [[Super Troopers|nimbly-bimbly from tree to tree]] by the end of the episode, but between individual leaves on trees in the ''canopy'' of a forest. However, later episodes severely restrict his jumping skill.
* In "I Am Legion" of ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'', Fire is carrying Flash after bailing out of their Javelin [[It Makes Sense in Context|while battling robot condors]]. Flash tells Fire to drop him so that she can go help Hawkgirl, who is struggling in her battle with one of the condors, and Fire reluctantly does so [[The Charmer|after Flash gives her a smile and tells her to trust him]]. When Fire mentions this to Shayera, she says, "You know he can't fly, right?" He manages to improvise a quick way to "fly" on the way down:
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* NASA's Space Shuttle generates 37 million horsepower at lift-off, and achieves a ground speed of 17,000 MPH to reach orbit, but has to come back to Earth unpowered, as a glider. The main engines are useless without the giant External (fuel) Tank. The shuttle gets one chance, and one chance only, at landing.
* Why were the Wright Brothers considered the first to actually pull off manned flight, even though powered heavier-than-air aircraft were around for at least ten to fifteen years before the Flyer? The reason for this was because even though other aircraft managed to get airborne, they couldn't manage anything more than a short, uncontrollable hop. At the time, it was thought that this was due to insufficient engine power, but the real cause of the problem was that many of these aircraft had no means of elevation control. So while other inventors went on to build more powerful and lighter engines, the Wright Brothers primarily focused on developing more efficient aerodynamics for their aircraft and the three-axis control scheme that is still basically in use today.
** One should remember, however, that the Wright Brothers are not acknowledged as the first to actually pull off manned flight everywhere. France and Brazil both disconsider their efforts, having Santos Dummont as the inventor of the airplane.
* Gliding as a form of locomotion turns up in a wide range of vertebrates, from mammals (flying squirrels, sugar gliders, colugos) to reptiles (draco lizards, flying geckos, ''Chrysopelea'' tree snakes) to amphibians (flying frogs) to fishes (flying fish, halfbeaks). Still more powered-flight species will glide as a means of conserving energy, and several climbing species (cats, sifaka) possess a limited ability to "parachute" to slow their descent in the event of an accidental fall.
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