Those Magnificent Flying Machines: Difference between revisions
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[[File:magnificentearlyflyingmachines 4455.jpg|frame|[http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.02561/ Translation from French: The utopias of Air Navigation in the last century]]]
{{quote|''It's a Falling Machine.
|''[[Girl Genius]]''}}
▲{{quote|''It's a Falling Machine. I'm so '''[[Sarcasm Mode|impressed]]'''.''|''[[Girl Genius]]''}}
Once upon a time [[Flight|Flying]] was not the relatively mundane commute that it is today, but an adventure into an unexplored realm, a victory over gravity that was long thought to be impossible. Flying machines were not the shiny, high-technology [[Cool Plane]]s we regularly see in the sky nowadays, but fabulous contraptions cobbled together by [[Mad Scientist]]s, sporting lots of spinny bits, belching smoke and fire, risky and ''magnificent''.
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Or ''cool'', necessarily. While usually these craft will be treated as impressive feats of engineering—as the title implies—in some settings a primitive-looking flying machine will be [[Played for Laughs]] (perhaps as an aeronautical version of [[The Alleged Car]]). Actual use of the term "''Flying Machine''" usually suggests humour.
[[Truth in Television|Actual]] aircraft in the early days of aviation, as well as many early unsuccessful attempts to build flying machines, may well fit here. (But [[Stock Footage]] of their [[Epic Fail]]ures will be found at [[Dawn of Flight Failures Montage]].) [[Leonardo da Vinci]] deserves special mention for dreaming up many fanciful aircraft in the early 16th century (several examples below were inspired by his work). The trope likely stopped applying to [[Real Life]] sometime after [[World War I]] as airplanes gradually became more streamlined, less improbable-looking, and more mundane.
{{examples}}
== Anime & Manga ==
* [[Hayao Miyazaki]]'s entire filmography: scenic flying sequences are a signature element, and he grew up around old airplanes in the factory operated by his father and uncle.
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** ''[[Kiki's Delivery Service]]'' has a pedal powered experimental plane and extensive broomstick flight scenes.
** ''[[Porco Rosso]]'' is a love letter to early aviation, using some of the most fanciful designs from real aviation to ever actually work.
** The steam-powered, wing-flapping aircraft of ''[[
** ''[[Princess Mononoke]]'', ''[[My Neighbor Totoro]]'', and ''[[Spirited Away]]'' are exceptions, but tend to feature flying scenes anyway, via high-jumping, running on cliffs, dragon-riding, or treetop cat-bus rides.
* In [[Fullmetal Alchemist (anime)|the 2003 anime version]] of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', this is Ed's reaction to seeing the [[World War
* ''[[The Daughter of Twenty Faces]]'' has a double-balloon airship that is definitely strange, [[Steampunk]], and propeller-laden enough to count.
* Most of the flying machines seen in the first episode of ''[[Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water]]''.
* In ''[[
* Eneru's [[Cool Ship|Ark Maxim]] in [[One Piece]]. It's a huge boat with wings and lots of propellers. The primary power source is [[Shock and Awe|Eneru himself.]] The backup suspension system, should Eneru be otherwise occupied, is ''seashells''. Well, [[Applied Phlebotinum|extinct Jet Dials]], but still seashells. It's designed to take Eneru and four people of his choice to the moon. Which it does, minus the extra passengers. Oh, and it's made of gold. Like, solid gold.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Deadlands]]''.
* The metallic Deffkopta model in ''[[Warhammer
* The Ornithopters ("Thopters" for short) from [[Magic: The Gathering]].
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* ''[[Futurama]]'', despite being set in the 31st century, occasionally shows flying machines that fit this trope right alongside [[Flying Car]]s and [[Shiny-Looking Spaceships]]. Bender once referred to the protagonists' [[Cool Starship]] as "the Flying Machine", evoking this trope (though their ship is not itself an example).
** Leonardo's spaceship in "The Duh-Vinci Code" is probably an example, though, and there are more on the planet Vinci.
* Parodied in a 1995 episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' that featured a fortune-teller predicting Lisa's life in the far-off future year of [[The New Tens|2010]]. We see
{{quote|'''Lisa:''' I just love these new planes!
'''Hugh:''' Yes, it's a good thing they re-evaluated those wacky old designs! }}
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* [http://www.redbullflugtagusa.com/ Red Bull Flutag] showcases some hilarious, inefficient, ineffective but ultimately awesome "flying" machines.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h6BzNwACDs This clip] presents black-and-white stock footage that includes several silly airplanes and helicopters failing (two examples at the beginning, then more about halfway through).
* A working, human-powered [[wikipedia:Ornithopter|ornithopter]] was built by University of [[Toronto]] post-graduate students and [https://web.archive.org/web/20101230155908/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/university-of-toronto-students-make-history-with-human-powered-flight/article1719728/ flown successfully in August 2010] (though earlier flights can contest the "world's first" claim in the article, this is likely the most successful, and elaborate, design used so far). Interestingly, the design was created using [[Leonardo da Vinci]]'s sketches as an early starting point, though the final product looks nothing like his work (but no less impressive in flight for that).
* An annual festival in Japan<ref>Can someone provide link? Google isn't very helpful right now.</ref> brings together man-powered contraptions to essentially leap off a cliff together in their pursuit of flight. Success is measured in distance and seconds, but isn't the sole criteria; points are given for design originality and sheer ballsiness.
* A series of 3-dimensional models in the Chinook Mall (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) are this. They're suspended from a track which they periodically move around.
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[[Category:Tropes On a Plane]]
[[Category:Flying Tropes]]
[[Category:
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