History Main / BellyScrapingFlight

* At the end of the first level of ''VideoGame/MetalWolfChaos'', Air Force One ends up knocking a chunk of the roof off the Lincoln Memorial after taking off from a secret hanger underneath the Reflecting Pool. [[WidgetSeries It's that kind of game]].

* Used in the third ''WesternAnimation/CuriousGeorge'' film, when Ted's seaplane goes over a waterfall. George manages to pull the plane out of its dive just in time to avert a crash, although its pontoon skims the water briefly.

* ''Film/TopGunMaverick'': At the end, [[spoiler: after Maverick and Goose have stolen an enemy F-14 from the [[{{Ruritania}} rogue]] [[{{Qurac}} nation]] the airstrike takes place in]], Maverick takes off from a ''very'' short taxiway (since the runways are cratered and unusable) that's right up against a pair of large fuel tanks. He gets airborne, but his nose landing gear is sheared off by the crosswalk between the tanks.

* Those red beacons that light up at night on the tips of buildings, bridge supports, radio aerials, cell towers, and the like that exceed a specified height? This trope is why they're mandated. This actually led Ride/UniversalStudios to self-limit the height of ''Ride/TheTwilightZoneTowerOfTerror'', as red beacons would look [[AnachronismStew anachronistic]] on what's supposed to resemble a [=1930s=] hotel.

* Those red beacons that light up at night on the tips of buildings, bridge supports, radio aerials, cell towers, and the like that exceed a specified height? This trope is why they're mandated. This actually led Ride/UniversalStudios to self-limit the height of some regional versions of ''Ride/TheTwilightZoneTowerOfTerror'', as red beacons would look [[AnachronismStew anachronistic]] on what's supposed to resemble a [=1930s=] hotel.

* Those red beacons that light up at night on the tips of buildings, bridge supports, radio aerials, cell towers, and the like that exceed a specified height? This trope is why they're mandated.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe3'', when an upside-down Bratt is carried away by a giant gum bubble at the end, his head thumps the edge of a billboard in transit.

* ''Film/ThirtySecondsOverTokyo'': When the B-25s make their way to the Japanese mainland, they hug the waterline and later the ground, coming close to hitting several treelines in the process.

* In ''Film/{{Flight}}'', the airliner's wing cuts the top off a church steeple as it's coming in for a crash landing.

* In ''Film/AlienCovenant'', the cargo-lifter knocks the head off a tremendous Engineer statue when Tennessee nearly crashes due to the crane swinging around to grab a Xenomorph and throwing the [=VTOL=] vehicle off-balance.
* In ''Film/{{Battleship}}'', a helicopter tries to vertically evade an oncoming shredder drone, lifting off with so little time to spare that the drone's spinning spikes carve a series of grooves in its undercarriage.
* ''Film/{{Midway|2019}}'':
** Occurs when Best is about to take off on a routine patrol, but realizes ''Enterprise'' doesn't have enough speed, meaning he doesn't have enough airspeed to get airborne. As it is, he barely manages to get by just getting the belly of his plane wet before managing to pull up and away, and the only reason he ''doesn't'' crash is because he's [[ImprobablePilotingSkills just that good]]. His wingman isn't that skilled or that fortunate.
** Later, after bombing the ''Hiryu'', Best pulls his SBD into a sharp climb, his wingtip dipping into the ocean as he pulls out.
* Inverted in ''Film/SanAndreas'', when the small boat piloted by the hero is scaling the face of the tsunami, only to have a ''huge'' cargo ship's aft end appear at the wave's crest directly in its path. The boat veers off to pass under the cargo ship's stern, and one of the giant vessel's rotors rips the sunshade off the smaller one.
* ''{{Film/Flight}}'': Moments before it hits the ground, the crash-landing airliner clips the very tip off a church steeple with one wing, all while the pilots look back in StunnedSilence.
* In ''Film/{{Elf}}'', Santa's sleigh loses its booster rocket when it clips a statue on takeoff.

* Inverted in ''Literature/SewerGasAndElectric'', when the eco-pirate submarine ''Yabba Dabba Doo'' dives '''under''' a massive fishing net while eluding a swarm of torpedoes. The sub clears the barrier by such a narrow margin that, in passing, its sail is struck by the thrashing tail of an ensnared marlin.

* In ''VideoGame/SurfaceTheSoaringCity'', you restore the city's flight capabilities just in time to stop it from crushing the settlement below, and its underbelly only knocks down somebody's weathervane.

* At the end of the first level of ''VideoGame/MetalWolfChaos'', Air Force One ends up knocking a chunk of the roof off the Lincoln Memorial after taking off from a secret hanger underneath the Reflecting Pool. [[WidgetSeries It's that kind of game]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Rio}}'', Linda and Tulio drive a Carnivale float onto the runway where the bird smugglers' plane is taking off. The plane gets into the air just in time, but its fuselage still destroys the upper part of the float. Later, Blu and an injured Jewel fall out of the plane over the bay, and Blu manages to get his wings out just in time to pull up -- skimming Jewel's back across the water -- before they hit the surface.

* In ''TabletopGame/FlyingCircus'', you can have your pilot fly at Altitude 0, which is equivalent to flying just above the ground. [[RealityEnsues Typically, this is a bad idea.]] Ground effects reduces Stall Speed, the plane hits the ground if it goes any lower, and pulling up from this altitude counts as an attempt to Evade Danger. However, the Dogfighter Mastery move Belly Scrape makes near-ground flight less dangerous.

* In a deleted scene from ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch'', the protagonists (apart from Lilo) scrape the ''side'' of a skyscraper with their landing gear in a hijacked 747 during an extremely tight turn. [[TooSoon/SeptemberEleventh After 9/11, the scene was scrapped for obvious reasons.]] The airliner was changed to a SpacePlane, and downtown Honolulu replaced with a canyon. The spaceship still makes a tight turn extremely close to the ground, just low enough to [[RunningGag knock a relaxing tourist's ice cream cone out of his hand with its wingtip.]]