History Main / MidairRepair

* IronMan gets to repair an AirborneAircraftCarrier in ''TheAvengers'' film: restarting a damaged turbine, which becomes increasingly important once another (of the four) is taken out, and increasingly dangerous as he as to bring it up to speed ''inside it.''

* In an episode of ''CodeGeass R2'', not only was Kallen's HumongousMecha repaired as it was falling into the ocean, it was ''upgraded''.
** By shooting the necessary parts at it from a submarine. [[RuleOfCool In Missiles]]. [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome What do you mean it's not awesome?]]

* In ''{{Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines}}'', Orville takes Patricia up in his flying machine, and even lets her control it. But one of the wing spars breaks, so he walks out on the wing and fixes it by wrapping his belt around it, losing his pants in the process. All turns out well.

* In ''FarmerInTheSky'', by RobertAHeinlein, Bill Lermer's father explains why they have an engineer along in space, when the engine is a radioactive torch that can't be shut off in flight.

* In the ''[[VirginNewAdventures Doctor Who Expanded Universe]]'' novel ''The Dying Days'', the Doctor -- five minutes above London, downward bound and accelerating -- builds a parachute out of a helium tank and the contents of his pockets.

* 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.

** Well, as [[{{TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy}} Arthur Dent]] would point out, the art of flying is all about managing to [[{{NotTheFallThatKillsYou}} avoid hitting the ground]] while falling.

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* Happens in ''MeetTheRobinsons'' - the main character fixes his plane/time machine in midair by... er, rerouting some cables in the [[StarTrek Jeffries tubes]] or something.

* ''ReadOrDie'' has two examples - once in [[ReadOrDie the original OVA]], where Yomiko's paper airplane takes a nosedive off of a skyscraper because she forgot the tail, and once in [[RODTheTV the TV series]], where a crashing jumbo jet is saved by wrapping it in paper and turning it into a giant bird.

* In ''Manga/AirGear'', tuner Kururu Sumeragi rebuilds main character Ikki's titular footgear. Rather than being with him when starting the fall, she ''jumps off a building to tackle him as he falls'', and proceeds to dismantle and rebuild the mass of tiny parts.

* In ''FarmerInTheSky'', by Robert A. Heinlein, Bill Lermer's father explains why they have an engineer along in space, when the engine is a radioactive torch that can't be shut off in flight.

* In ''AirGear'', tuner Kururu Sumeragi rebuilds main character Ikki's titular footgear. Rather than being with him when starting the fall, she ''jumps off a building to tackle him as he falls'', and proceeds to dismantle and rebuild the mass of tiny parts.

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* When their airplane had run out of fuel in ''TheGodsMustBeCrazy'', the pilot got a bottle of wine they had with them and poured it into the fuel tank.

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

* Parodied in HotShots 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 FarmerInTheSky, by Robert A. Heinlein, Bill Lermer's father explains why they have an engineer along in space, when the engine is a radioactive torch that can't be shut off in flight.

* In the ''[[VirginNewAdventures Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] novel "The Dying Days", the Doctor -- five minutes above London, downward bound and accelerating -- builds a parachute out of a helium tank and the contents of his pockets.

* Because the TARDIS is the CoolShip version of TheAllegedCar, [[Series/DoctorWho the Doctor]] has had to do this a couple of times. For example, in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E3TheEdgeOfDestruction The Edge of Destruction]], the Doctor has to fix the TARDIS before it hits the Big Bang and is destroyed, and in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E01TheEleventhHour The Eleventh Hour]], the Doctor, having almost destroyed the interior of the TARDIS with his violent regeneration, must use his Sonic Screwdriver to repair the ship enough to actually land, just before it hits Big Ben, ''[[CrazyAwesome while he's hanging out the door]]''.

* [[LegoAdaptationGame LEGO Star Wars]]: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgFCQoHvNgk Revenge Of The Brick]] has a lot of this. Considering it's LEGO. Anakin even manages to make an entire biplane, then a starfighter, '''while floating in space!'''
* ''Blazing Angles'' incorporates a teammate who can "heal" your craft during missions. The game tries to HandWave it by having your character perform the actual repair, while being talked through it by your teammate.

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2zqTYgcpfg This]] advertisement.

* [[LegoCrossoverGame LEGO Star Wars]]: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgFCQoHvNgk Revenge Of The Brick]] has a lot of this. Considering it's LEGO. Anakin even manages to make an entire biplane, then a starfighter, '''while floating in space!'''

* Because the TARDIS is the CoolShip version of TheAllegedCar, [[DoctorWho the Doctor]] has had to do this a couple of times. For example, in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E3TheEdgeOfDestruction The Edge of Destruction]], the Doctor has to fix the TARDIS before it hits the Big Bang and is destroyed, and in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E01TheEleventhHour The Eleventh Hour]], the Doctor, having almost destroyed the interior of the TARDIS with his violent regeneration, must use his Sonic Screwdriver to repair the ship enough to actually land, just before it hits Big Ben, ''[[CrazyAwesome while he's hanging out the door]]''.

* Because the TARDIS is the CoolShip version of TheAllegedCar, [[DoctorWho the Doctor]] has had to do this a couple of times. For example, in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E3TheEdgeOfDestruction The Edge of Destruction]], the Doctor has to fix the TARDIS before it hits the Big Bang and explodes.

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2zqTYgcpfg This]] advertisement.

* ''Blazing Angles'' incorporates a teammate who can "heal" your craft during missions. The game tries to HandWave it by having your character perform the actual repair, while being talked through it by your teammate. ThisTroper was personally disappointed that your wing-man didn't bail out of his own craft, land on your plane, and proceed to play this trope straight.

**** 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. [[FunWithAcronyms Also known as]] '''[[FunWithAcronyms E]]'''[[FunWithAcronyms ngine]] '''[[FunWithAcronyms T]]'''[[FunWithAcronyms urns]] '''[[FunWithAcronyms O]]'''[[FunWithAcronyms r]] '''[[FunWithAcronyms P]]'''[[FunWithAcronyms assengers]] '''[[FunWithAcronyms S]]'''[[FunWithAcronyms swim]]

"There are certain adjustments which could conceivably have to be made in extreme emergency. In which case it would be Mr. Ortega's proud privilege to climb into a space suit, go outside and back aft, and make them."

"You mean--"

"I mean that the assistant chief engineer would succeed to the position of chief a few minutes later. Chief engineers are very carefully chosen, Bill, and not just for their technical knowledge."

* ''ReadOrDie'' has two examples of this - once in the original OVA, where Yomiko's paper airplane takes a nosedive off of a skyscraper because she forgot the tail, and once in the TV series, where a crashing jumbo jet is saved by wrapping it in paper and, turning it into a giant bird.

* There's a hilarious example of this in ''GirlGenius'', when Gilgamesh and Agatha are first testing Gilgamesh's Flying Machine (or rather, as Agatha sourly points out, "[[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20030623 It's a falling machine. I'm so impressed.]]") by starting from Baron Wulfenbach's airship. As they both slip into Spark-mode, their growing excitement about repairing and upgrading the ship in mid-flight almost fatally distracts them from the approaching doom.

* There's a hilarious example of this in ''GirlGenius'', when Gilgamesh and Agatha are first testing Gilgamesh's Flying Machine (or rather, as Agatha sourly points out, "It's a falling machine. I'm so excited.") by starting from Baron Wulfenbach's airship. As they both slip into Spark-mode, their growing excitement about repairing and upgrading the ship in mid-flight almost fatally distracts them from the approaching doom.