History Main / MidairRepair

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnOfTheDinosaurs'', when Buck performs mouth-to-mouth on a pterosaur knocked unconscious by a mid-air collision.

* ''Film/TheFlightOfThePhoenix2004'': As part of the remake's overall ActionizedSequel modification, sequence where the ''Phoenix'' finally is made to fly includes Elliot having to climb the plane's fuselage to fix the controls as it is picking up speed in order for the plane to achieve takeoff (and having to dodge gunfire from the angry nomads chasing the group as well).

* Iron Man gets to repair [[AirborneAircraftCarrier the Hellicarrier]] in ''Film/TheAvengers2012'' 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.'' Captain America tries to help [[FishOutOfTemporalWater but well...]]
-->'''Captain America:''' It appears to run on some kind of electriciy!

** The trope name is basically the job description for R2 units. The page image is from ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', featuring R2-D2 (with several others, which were all destroyed) fixing Padme Amidala's escape ship midflight while she's trying to run the Naboo blockade.

* In ''Videogame/PlanetSide 2'', aircraft will start to plummet and catch on fire when their health is critical. A utility module, the fire suppression system, allows one to restore the vehicle from critical health and regain engine power. Many enterprising pilots have taken advantage of players inheriting the vehicles momentum when bailing by sending the aircraft in a flat spin, ''bailing out'', and repairing it from outside while falling alongside it in a ballistic trajectory, before climbing back in and flying away.

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

* ''[[VideoGame/LegoAdaptationGame LEGO Star Wars]]: [[https://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!'''

->'''Captain America''': It appears to run on some kind of electriciy!

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/IceAge3DawnOfTheDinosaurs'', when Buck performs mouth-to-mouth on a pterosaur knocked unconscious by a mid-air collision.

* Happens in ''* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/IceAge3DawnOfTheDinosaurs'', when Buck performs mouth-to-mouth on a pterosaur knocked unconscious by a mid-air collision.WesternAnimation/MeetTheRobinsons'' - the main character fixes his plane/time machine in midair by... er, rerouting some cables in the [[Franchise/StarTrek Jeffries tubes]] or something.

* ''Anime/CastleInTheSky'': One of the odd jobs Pazu is asked to do while he and Sheeta are in the ''Tiger Moth'' is provide maintenance to the dirigible's rudder. Which he does, while the ship is aloft and he's dangling from a rope. It's as acrophobia-inducing as it sounds.
* ''Anime/ReadOrDie'' has two examples - once in [[Anime/ReadOrDie the original OVA]], where Yomiko's paper airplane takes a nosedive off of a skyscraper because she forgot the tail, and once in [[Anime/RODTheTV the TV series]], where a crashing jumbo jet is saved by wrapping it in paper and turning it into a giant bird.
* In an episode of ''Anime/CodeGeass R2'', not only was Kallen's HumongousMecha repaired as it was falling into the ocean, it was ''upgraded''. By [[MundaneMadeAwesome shooting the necessary parts at it]] from a submarine. [[RuleOfCool In Missiles]].

* In ''[[ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica JSA Secret Files]]'' #1, Speed Saunders does a mid-air patch job on his hot air balloon after it springs a leak while aloft.

[[folder:FanWorks]]

[[folder:Film - Animated]]
* Happens in ''WesternAnimation/MeetTheRobinsons'' - the main character fixes his plane/time machine in midair by... er, rerouting some cables in the [[Franchise/StarTrek Jeffries tubes]] or something.
* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/IceAge3DawnOfTheDinosaurs'', when Buck performs mouth-to-mouth on a pterosaur knocked unconscious by a mid-air collision.

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]

* When their airplane had run out of fuel in ''Film/TheGodsMustBeCrazy II'', the pilot got a bottle of wine they had with them and poured it into the fuel tank.
* In ''Riders Of The Storm'' (one of Dennis Hopper's lesser known works), one character has to crawl out onto the wing of a B-29-cum-pirate radio station to fix one of the engines inflight.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'': The Millennium Falcon is the TropeNamer for WhatAPieceOfJunk for a reason, especially in the ExpandedUniverse.
** The trope name is basically the job description for R2 units. The page image is from ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', featuring R2-D2 (with several others, which were all destroyed) fixing Padme Amidala's escape ship midflight while she's trying to run the Naboo blockade.
* In line with the real life example below, ''Film/{{Flyboys}}'' has a scene featuring a German bomber crewman walking out on the wing to conduct some maintenance on one of the bomber's engines. Not that it helps much in the end, as the bomber is shot down not moments later.
* Parodied in ''Film/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 ''Film/ThoseMagnificentMenInTheirFlyingMachines'', 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 ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'', Bond is clinging to the outside of an airplane. Kamal Kahn sends Gobinda out to kill Bond before he disables both engines and kills them all.
* ''Film/JumanjiWelcomeToTheJungle'': After the helicopter is damaged by gunfire and unable to ascend, Spencer climbs on to the roof to reconnect the control arm to the rotor.

[[/folder]]

* In the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII novel ''Hornet Flight'', the hero has to refuel his plane in mid-air.

-->"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."
* In the ''Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures'' 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/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour "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, ''while he's hanging out the door''.
* In a first season episode of ''Series/MacGyver1985'', Mac uses a map to patch his hot air balloon when it springs a leak after being shot.
** In the later episode "Rock the Cradle", Mac has to unjam the landing gear on a plane as Jack Dalton is bringing it in for a landing. He succeeds, but falls out the plane (he is wearing a parachute).
* The 1985 Australian mini-series ''A Thousand Skies'' depicts the incident mentioned below in Real Life where the ''Southern Cross'' had to have its oil changed in mid-air.
* ''Series/TheExpanse''. In "Doors and Corners", Amos has to unstrap himself from his chair and go repair a broken thruster fuel line during a space battle. Even his magnetic boots aren't enough to stop him being thrown about during an emergency high-G maneuver.

* ''[[VideoGame/LegoAdaptationGame LEGO Star Wars]]: [[https://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!'''

* A core game mechanic in ''VideoGame/BomberCrew'' is choosing which of your various brave, foolhardy crew will have to climb out onto the wing of your damaged bomber to repair a damaged engine or rush to extinguish a fire in the ammunition locker before you're all blown up. On top of that, there is a very real risk of your crewman saving the plane but dying from exposure, enemy gunfire, exploding equipment/ammo, or simply being swept off the wing and into the night.
* In ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxterTheLostFrontier'', if [[SubsystemDamage one of your plane's armor bars is depleted]], Daxter will go out and perform repairs, restoring some armor. This uses up a repair patch, of which you have a limited supply per mission. Additionally, your plane can still take damage while it's being repaired, potentially enough to destroy it.

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'': As quoted above, the eponymous dirigible in [[Recap/DuckTalesS1E57TheUncrashableHindentanic "The Uncrashable Hindentanic"]] develops an in-flight mechanical fault. Scrooge's question leads to a GilliganCut of Launchpad agreeing to go out there and fix the propeller.

* 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/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour "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]]''.

** Many rigid airships actually incorporated this into their design; there was no remote throttle control in that era, so each engine had to have an operator watching over it at all times. This meant that the engine cars had to be accessible in-flight, usually via a ladder leading up into the hull; many military zeppelins also mounted [[MoreDakka defensive machine guns]] inside their engine cars, since it's as good a place to put them as any.

** Many rigid airships actually incorporated this into their design; their engine cars (the pods hanging under the hull that held the engines) were designed to be manned by default, accessible via a ladder leading up to a hatch in the hull. Since an airship generally doesn't require its engines to stay airborne, it was commonplace to shut one engine down for maintenance while the others keep turning. In the case of First World War military zeppelins, extra space in each engine car was often used to mount [[MoreDakka defensive machine guns]], since the lack of remote throttle control at the time meant that each engine needed to be accessible by one or more operators at all times, so you might as well use the space for something.

** Many rigid airships actually incorporated this into their design; their engine cars (the pods hanging under the hull that held the engines) were designed to be manned by default, accessible via a ladder leading up to a hatch in the hull. Since an airship generally doesn't require its engines to stay airborne, it was commonplace to shut one engine down for maintenance while the others keep turning. In the case of First World War military zeppelins, the extra space in each engine car was often used to mount an additional machine gun.

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

* The Australian mini-series ''A Thousand Skies'' depicts the incident mentioned below in Real Life where the ''Southern Cross'' had to have its oil changed in mid-air.

** The trope name is basically the job description for R2 units.