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[[File:KzintiLesson.png|link=Known Space|frame|A Kzinti warship finds itself on the wrong end of a human fusion drive. [[Superweapon Surprise|Surprise]]!]]
{{quote|"A reaction drive's efficiency as a weapon is in direct proportion to its efficiency as a drive."
Most [[Jet Pack|jetpacks, rocket boots]], and [[Cool Starship|spaceships]] give off impressive plumes of fiery exhaust when they're moving. For the most part, this exhaust is just there to [[Rule of Perception|show that something's happening]]. But the exhaust of a rocket can also double as a [[Kill It with Fire|short-ranged weapon]], especially during a getaway. Characters with [[Jet Pack|jet boots]] can perform really effective [[Goomba Stomp]]s, while starship pilots can [[Superweapon Surprise|cause enormous damage]] with their drive flames.
Also known as '''[[Known Space|Kzinti Lesson]]:''' the more efficient a reaction drive is, the better a weapon it makes. An inversion of the [[Law of Inverse Recoil]], since the recoil in these cases is intentional. Also an inversion of [[Recoil Boost]], which is [[In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You|an exhaustized weapon]]. A subtrope of [[Superweapon Surprise]]. [[Fartillery]] is effectively the biological variant of this. See also [[Backpack Cannon]].
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
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* Taken to absolutely humongous extremes in Mark Geston's novel ''Lords of the Starship'', in which a ''seven mile long'' rocket is built to carry humanity away from a war-ravaged Earth. But it's all a horrible trick: when the rocket is finally completed after more than a century a vast battle rages in its shadow between its millions of supporters and opponents. And then the ship slides down the slipway, and turns around until its engines are pointing towards the warring armies... just imagine how big and how hot a seven-mile long spaceship's rocket exhaust would be. It was all part of a plot by an ancient enemy to get revenge and take over the world. What's left of it.
* In the first ''[[Dune]]'' novel, the Emperor reports that his [[Super Soldiers|Sardukar]] only escaped with their lives after attacking a Fremen sietch by doing this (he was aghast, and rightly so, that his [[Super Soldiers|Super Extra Elite Finest Troops]] were outfought by [[Superweapon Surprise|a settlement of elders, women and children]]).
* In ''[[Harry Potter and
* As part of the climactic sequence of [[Sandy Mitchell]]'s ''Scourge the Heretic'', an Inquisition shuttle pilot uses his exhaust to blast the front wall off the bad guys' mansion.
* In the early [[Terry Pratchett]] novel ''[[Strata]]'', at one point Marco mentions they could use their ship's engine's fusion flame as a weapon (although this is never actually seen).
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* Used in ''Aeons Child'' in [[Robert Reed]] - a starship's fusion rocket is disassembled, brought inside the [[Big Dumb Object|Great Ship]], and reassembled to be used as a last-ditch weapon to purge a chamber of a hostile [[Genius Loci|Gaian]] entity.
==
* In the ''[[Firefly]]'' [[Pilot]], Wash uses Serenity's exhaust flame to ignite a planet's atmosphere as a way to disable/distract a Reaver ship after performing a "Crazy Ivan".
{{quote|'''Zoe:''' Ain't no way they can come around in time to follow us now.}}
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* In an ''[[Andromeda]]'' episode, the crew encounters an ancient Earth STL ship, which uses its massive fusion engine to rapidly accelerate to near-light speeds (it was built before humans learned about [[Subspace or Hyperspace|slipstream]]). In a pinch, this defenseless ship can use the same engine to incinerate enemy ships at the cost of precious fuel.
* Played with in ''[[Top Gear]]'' with a car shooting paintballs from its exhaust. It proved a highly effective weapon when one hit Clarkson [[Groin Attack|quite painfully]].
== Real Life ==▼
* ''[[Myth Busters]]'' had a jumbo jet's engines overturn a taxi, a schoolbus, and a smaller aircraft.▼
** They also set their own shop on fire testing a rocket engine ''indoors''. [[Don't Try This At Home]].▼
** ''[[Top Gear]]'' did the same stunt at one point, using a saloon car and then a Citroen 2CV.▼
* The Convair X-6 was a prototype of atomic-fueled bomber releases so much radioactivity on its path, to make it a weapon itself. The project has been closed as there was no way to reduce the emission when in friendly territory.▼
* The [[Fun with Acronyms|Supersonic Low Altitude Missile]] (also known as "The Flying Crowbar", or more formally [http://www.merkle.com/pluto/pluto.html Project Pluto]) would have been an unmanned nuclear-armed cruise missile with an unshielded nuclear ramjet leaving a deadly trail of fallout in its wake. Part of the plan was to have the SLAM run a pattern over the target country after it had delivered its bombs, intentionally irradiating the land.▼
* Inverted with the [[Orion Drive|Orion Project]], which would ''intentionally'' launch ''thermonuclear bombs'' out the back and catching the blast with a pusher plate on massive shock absorbers. Call it [[Mundane Utility|Exhaustized]] [[Recoil Boost|Weapons]]. Or not.▼
** The only space station ever to be really armed (an old Soviet station that had a machine gun on it) ran into problems with the reaction from the bullets pushing it out of its correct orbit.▼
* Thanks to Newton's laws, it's been argued that any kind of drive powerful enough to accelerate a large ship to appreciable speeds would make a phenomenal weapon against said ship's enemies.▼
** Consider the following: to get the space shuttle into orbit, it takes about 10 terajoules of energy. That's enough to boil over 1000 tons of iron, all delivered in eight minutes. That's an average of 20 gigawatts of power. For comparison, when people talk about possible real-world directed energy weapons, they talk in tens of kilowatts. A laser is more directed and longer ranged, but even the relatively wimpy chemical rockets used to get into orbit deliver about two hundred thousand to two million times as much power.▼
* The earliest war rockets tended to work this way. When Tippoo Sultan used them against the British in the Indian wars of the late 18th century, rockets tended to do more damage if you dropped them in a confined space and they ricocheted off the walls burning people with their exhaust than if you used them the conventional way. This was partly because they were too inaccurate to be directly aimed at targets, but another thing that played into it was the fact that such rockets couldn't really carry an explosive payload either.▼
* Almost all rocket-propelled weapons have a hazardous zone behind them. Size of that zone varies with weapon, but it is a very bad idea to stand behind an MLRS (or a humble RPG operator) during launch. Operators of man-portable rocket-propelled weapons are told not to fire their weapons if they have a wall behind their back.▼
** Averted by the German Armbrust and French/Canadian Eryx antitank launchers. The Armbrust exhausts a relatively gentle puff of plastic flakes while the exhaust gases are captured in the tube by sealing pistons. The Eryx has a tiny charge to kick the missile out of the tube, then the main rocket ignites at a safe distance. Both launchers can be used in enclosed spaces with no harm to the crew.▼
** Also partially averted by the [[AT 4]]-CS, which uses a salt-water counter-mass to absorb much of the blast.▼
* The General Dynamics F-111 was well known for dump-and-burn performances. Because the main fuel dump valve was located between the exhausts, opening it and bumping the afterburners would leave a spectacular trail of flame. This was a legitimate tactic for confusing heat-seeking missiles and an airshow specialty of the Royal Australian Air Force, even being performed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics closing ceremony.▼
* Also applies to warp drives - the Alucbierre Drive [http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-03-annihilating-effects-space.html would fry whatever you stopped at.] Then again it'd make interstellar wars pretty easy...▼
* The ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyGDxglTVgA Big Wind]'' is an old tank chassis fitted with surplus jet engines, built to fight oil well fires by ''blowing them out''.▼
== Tabletop Games ==
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== Web Comics ==
* James from ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'', the leader of our good doctor's college Vigilante Club. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090901194539/http://drmcninja.com/page.php?pageNum=9&issue=13 He invented jet boots and used them to kick people and set them on fire].
* Inverted in '''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'', where handheld plasma guns also have a plasma rocket setting.
* An engineer in ''[[Vexxarr]]'' [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=080210 pointed out] that since by definition hot plasma goes in the direction exactly ''opposite'' to the ship' acceleration, this also solves a fundamental philosophical dilemma -- "fight or flight".
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* ''[[Transformers Animated]]'': Prowl uses his jetpack to burn a Space Barnacle monster in "Nature Calls".
▲== Real Life ==
▲* ''[[
▲** They also set their own shop on fire testing a rocket engine ''indoors''. [[Don't Try This At Home]].
▲** ''[[Top Gear]]'' did the same stunt at one point, using a saloon car and then a Citroen 2CV.
▲* The Convair X-6 was a prototype of atomic-fueled bomber releases so much radioactivity on its path, to make it a weapon itself. The project has been closed as there was no way to reduce the emission when in friendly territory.
▲* The [[Fun with Acronyms|Supersonic Low Altitude Missile]] (also known as "The Flying Crowbar", or more formally [http://www.merkle.com/pluto/pluto.html Project Pluto]) would have been an unmanned nuclear-armed cruise missile with an unshielded nuclear ramjet leaving a deadly trail of fallout in its wake. Part of the plan was to have the SLAM run a pattern over the target country after it had delivered its bombs, intentionally irradiating the land.
▲* Inverted with the [[Orion Drive|Orion Project]], which would ''intentionally'' launch ''thermonuclear bombs'' out the back and catching the blast with a pusher plate on massive shock absorbers. Call it [[Mundane Utility|Exhaustized]] [[Recoil Boost|Weapons]]. Or not.
▲
▲* Thanks to Newton's laws, it's been argued that any kind of drive powerful enough to accelerate a large ship to appreciable speeds would make a phenomenal weapon against said ship's enemies.
▲** Consider the following: to get the space shuttle into orbit, it takes about 10 terajoules of energy. That's enough to boil over 1000 tons of iron, all delivered in eight minutes. That's an average of 20 gigawatts of power. For comparison, when people talk about possible real-world directed energy weapons, they talk in tens of kilowatts. A laser is more directed and longer ranged, but even the relatively wimpy chemical rockets used to get into orbit deliver about two hundred thousand to two million times as much power.
▲* The earliest war rockets tended to work this way. When Tippoo Sultan used them against the British in the Indian wars of the late 18th century, rockets tended to do more damage if you dropped them in a confined space and they ricocheted off the walls burning people with their exhaust than if you used them the conventional way. This was partly because they were too inaccurate to be directly aimed at targets, but another thing that played into it was the fact that such rockets couldn't really carry an explosive payload either.
▲* Almost all rocket-propelled weapons have a hazardous zone behind them. Size of that zone varies with weapon, but it is a very bad idea to stand behind an MLRS (or a humble RPG operator) during launch. Operators of man-portable rocket-propelled weapons are told not to fire their weapons if they have a wall behind their back.
▲** Averted by the German Armbrust and French/Canadian Eryx antitank launchers. The Armbrust exhausts a relatively gentle puff of plastic flakes while the exhaust gases are captured in the tube by sealing pistons. The Eryx has a tiny charge to kick the missile out of the tube, then the main rocket ignites at a safe distance. Both launchers can be used in enclosed spaces with no harm to the crew.
▲** Also partially averted by the [[AT 4]]-CS, which uses a salt-water counter-mass to absorb much of the blast.
▲* The General Dynamics F-111 was well known for dump-and-burn performances. Because the main fuel dump valve was located between the exhausts, opening it and bumping the afterburners would leave a spectacular trail of flame. This was a legitimate tactic for confusing heat-seeking missiles and an airshow specialty of the Royal Australian Air Force, even being performed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics closing ceremony.
▲* Also applies to warp drives - the Alucbierre Drive [http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-03-annihilating-effects-space.html would fry whatever you stopped at.] Then again it'd make interstellar wars pretty easy...
▲* The ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyGDxglTVgA Big Wind]'' is an old tank chassis fitted with surplus jet engines, built to fight oil well fires by ''blowing them out''.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Combat Tropes]]
[[Category:
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