Flight

"Up, up, and away!"

Jonathan: Your mother tells me you... can fly?
Clark: Kal-El can fly. Clark Kent is still earthbound.
Jonathan: How did that feel?
Clark: Amazing. And scary. Because if I can do that, maybe I'm capable of anything.

— Smallville, "Crusade"

Flight has always possessed an inherent appeal for humans.

Millennia of evolution into highly intelligent tool-users and a century of true aviation later and the appeal still remains—the desire to take to the skies unaided is so basic it's an expected theme in nighttime dreaming.

Much like Starburst, flight has quite the rainbow of flavors; to accomplish this feat, characters might . . .

• . . . have functional wings like a bird, bat, or insect.
• . . . produce mechanical thrust like a rocket or jet engine.
• . . . lift themselves or a platform they're standing on telekinetically.
• . . . alter their own gravity, either making themselves weightless or making themselves 'fall' in any direction.
• . . . let the air move them by riding strong winds they may or may not have conjured.
• . . . use magic or some technological equivalent.
• . . . use buoyancy and fill themselves with air like a blimp or balloon.
• . . . sometimes jump, really, really far.
• . . . just do it, because screw explanations.

As can be attested, flight can be undervalued as a power especially when it's cheaply tacked on to many heroes, à la a subtrope of this, the Flying Brick. Oddly, floating is usually seen as cooler.

One feature of fictional flight is that the flier is always capable of ignoring aerodynamics and wind resistance, and can carry another humanoid through the air with ease. Of course, it's well-nigh impossible to carry someone in a non-rescue position without making both parties look very close◊.

See also Video Game Flight. Compare I Believe I Can Fly, which is the Sub-Trope for settings where this ability is very common. Then there's the Magic Carpet subtrope, where the magic is of flight.

Not to be confused with the comic book Flight, edited by Kazu Kibushi, the novel Flight by Sherman Alexie, the film Flight by Robert Zemeckis, nor the Adobe Flash Flight video game designed by Krin Juangbhanich.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Hayao Miyazaki. He is a BIG enthusiast of flight and you can find a flying scene in almost every film he directed: The Castle of Cagliostro, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and The Wind Rises.
• This is Silver Crow's primary power in Accel World and apparently he is the first avatar to obtain this power, though not the first to attempt to obtain it.
• Berserk: Many apostles can fly: Zodd, Rosine, Mozgus, and his "angels" as well as at least two members of the God Hand: Ubik and Griffith/Femto.
  • Morda in Elfhelm can fly via Flying Broomstick, making her the only semi-good human capable of flight in the series.
  • All the elves can fly, too, since they're all basically fairies.
• In Bleach, spiritual beings are able to stand on air, however it is not true flight as it is just that, forming footholds with reishi. However, the Quincy are able to actually fly with the wings bestowed upon them, by Vollständig, which grants them immense speed and power in addition to flight. Also, there are some Zanpakuto abilities such as Hitsugaya's that also allow flight in addition to other abilities.
• This is Skyhigh Saito’s ability in Charlotte. Yuu Otosaka gains this ability after “looting” it from Saito.
• Chrono Crusade: Pursuers and Apostles can fly: Azmaria, Joshua, Duffau, Carv, Gurio, Borzo, Lerajie and four members of the Sinners: Viede, Genai, Chrono and Aion.
• Most characters in Dragon Ball, after the first half of the original Dragon Ball, can use this. It seems to be a multiversally-common way off applying Ki Manipulation, considering that every alien warrior met is capable of it. Even Videl, otherwise the closest thing to The Team Normal, is taught how to fly by Gohan (though she had a martial arts background, giving her a leg-up towards learning to use Ki).
• One of the abilities granted by the Kaleido Sticks in Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA, though Miyu shows that it requires at least some input from the wielder as well. As with the original source Caster is also capable of flight.
• Golden Bat is a superhero who flies faster than a plane. Originally appearing in Kamishibai paper theater in 1930 (see below), he had an anime adaptation in 1966.
• Orche from March Story gained this ability after getting possessed, which he uses to take girls dancing in the sky and then drop them onto spikes.
• My Hero Academia: Some Quirks give the user the ability to fly through different means:
  • Keigo Takami, aka Hawks, is of the Winged Humanoid variety, as his Quirk, Fierce Wings, gives him a pair of red wings made of thousands of feathers that he can control at will.
  • In the Vigilante spinoff, Captain Celebrity's Quirk allows him to create a protective field that can levitate him and grants him some protection that he can spread to others.
  • The 7th User of One for All Nana Shimura had the power of levitation, a power Midoriya later learns to tap into.
• My-HiME:
  • Mai's magatama rings give her the ability to levitate and fly, though it takes her a few episodes after obtaining them to stop skidding after she lands.
  • Natsuki's CHILD, Duran, also has a flight mode, though it isn't as frequently used.
• Despite the prevalence of crazy supernatural abilities in Naruto, only a handful of ninja can actually fly; all three Tsuchikages can control gravity to give themselves and anyone else they touch flight, Fuu does it by manifesting the wings of the demon beetle sealed inside of her, and Sai, Deidara, and Gaara can instantly create flying platforms made respectively of ink, clay, and sand. In addition, the Sage of the Six Paths, as well as those who possess his power (whether it be Pain, the Ten-Tails' Jinchuuriki, or whoever receives chakra from the Sage himself), have the capability of flight.
• One way to recognize a powerful character in Negima! Magister Negi Magi is how easily they can get off the ground and how long they stay off. The fighting tends to get serious when one of the participants takes to the air.
• One Piece: Many characters possess the ability of flight, the majority of which come from Devil Fruit abilities. The type of flight one can do comes in five different categories which includes; Giving the user a pair of wings, give the user a spinning propeller to fly, the user creating a platform for themselves to ride on, the ability of levitation, and the last being a Logia and Special Paramecia achieved flight by turning into their elemental state in order to fly.
  • While there are characters that can achieve pseudo-flight like users of the Moon Walk technique, the only race that can naturally fly on their own are the Lunarians who possess large black angel-like wings on their backs.
• One of the most common villain abilities from the Pretty Cure franchise. The Agents from Labyrinth and Siren and Trio the Minor are exceptions. Cure Bloom/Bright and Cure Egret/Windy are the only Precures with this ability, at least naturally. Several of the others can use this ability, but only if they have a certain upgrade or their fairy helps them.
• Sailor Moon: Oddly this seems to be a very rare ability in this franchise with floating being much more common (to the point everybody appears to be able to do it, even without much prior training or explicitly having it as part of their power set). Of course this could be because, since the mangaka didn't start giving flight as a power until later in the series, she needed something to take its place. While the villains all had the common ability to teleport, the heroines were otherwise not very mobile.
  • Sailor Uranus appears to be the first character to be capable of flight, but even then it's pretty downplayed in that she seems to need trees (or anything solid) as jumping off points and is never seen flying in the traditional sense. This limits how high she can go, which makes it incredibly inconvenient if you're trying to give your princess the slip. Since she has wind powers, she may just be unconventionally using it to make her somewhat capable of flight.
  • Princess Kakyuu is able to sprout wings and fly in the traditional sense, even through the vacuum of space and can make other characters sprout wings and fly with her. Though the "space" part may be justified by the setting's fantastical elements (note that the manga had more of a sci-fi angle than the anime).
  • In the 90s anime, Sailor Venus (and apparently Artemis as well) performs the jumping version of this in the episode after her debut, also making this a rare non-video game example of that trope. To make her escape from the other Sailor Guardians after introducing herself, she improbably jumps from building to building.
• Several characters in Soul Eater can fly, by way of brooms, familiars, hover boards, and adapted weapons. The only two shown to do so under their own power are Asura and Death. Death's ability to fly suggests that Kid will eventually learn how to as well.

Comic Books

• Many heroes in Astro City can fly. Of particular note is the second Hummingbird, who sprouted wings on her twelfth birthday. This turned out to be the first step in a Forced Transformation.
• The DCU:
  • Hawkman and Hawkgirl (or Hawkwoman, depending on whether you're in The Golden Age of Comic Books or The Silver Age of Comic Books) can fly by using artificial wings and an anti-gravity belt; in the Justice League animated series, though, Thanagarians like Hawkgirl have natural wings.
  • The Legion of Super-Heroes has "flight rings" as standard pieces of equipment. (They also serve to identify the wearer as a member of the Legion, so even the members who can fly anyway wear them.) Cosmic Boy can fly even without his Legion ring by using Magnetism Manipulation so long as he has enough material to work against.
  • Plastic Man can use his Rubber Man powers to inflate his body like a balloon to temporarily fly.
  • Valor/Lar Gand, also known as Mon-El, and all other Daxamites can fly in the same manner as Kryptonians, as they're descended from Kryptonian colonists who intermarried with the natives of Daxam.
• Prince Vultan (and the other Hawkmen) of Flash Gordon are Winged Humanoids whose culture is based entirely on flight — their kingdom is a large flying castle. They dress (and act) like stereotypical Vikings in the 1980s movie.
• Marvel Universe:
  • Those who are gifted the Enigma Force like Spider-Man, Invisible Woman, X-23 and Tamara Devoux can fly as a result of the power.
  • Doctor Strange can fly with the aid of his Cloak of Levitation.
  • The Human Torch of the Fantastic Four was originally explained as being "lighter than air" due to his fiery nature. Later on, it was established that he uses his flames themselves a form of propulsion and lift.
  • The Wasp and her other counterparts can fly with insectoid wings often used to manoeuvre around and bewilder foes.
  • X-Men, many often overlapping with Power Floats.
    • Warren Worthington III a.k.a. Angel naturally has angelic wings as his mutation which gives him an aerial advantage and had girls since the 1960s drooling over him. After Angel lost his flight when Marauders clipped his wings, Apocalypse upgraded him with sick metal ones.
    • Storm can use air currents to leave the ground and fly around at great speed. She can also make others fly using her powers, as in Secret Wars (1984), in which she makes most of the X-Men float alongside her (except for Rogue who can fly on her own).
    • Banshee can fly by propelling himself into the air using his vocal cords, emitting a powerful soundwaves that push him upwards, and maintaining his flight path with the wings on his jumpsuit.
    • While intangible, Kitty Pryde can walk on air as if traversing an invisible staircase.
    • Jean Grey/Phoenix I, Rachel Summers/Phoenix II, Nathan Summers/Cable (when his powers are working at full speed), and Nate Grey/X-Man can fly by using psychokinesis, often at multi-mach speeds and in the depths of space — Jean has even successfully jumped to hyperspace without the Phoenix.
    • Havok uses stored energy for flight by directing it as a downward thrust. At full energy capacity, he has an easier time managing his energized propulsion through his powers.
    • Rogue uses Carol Danvers' Kree/human powers to be a Flying Brick. In fact, Rogue is the Trope Namer for Flying Brick, as her main strategy with flying is to ram into her foes at high speeds.
    • Pixie has insectoid wings which give her great maneuverability.
    • Jubilee was able to fly when she was a vampire.
    • It's revealed in later comics that Mystique, being a Voluntary Shapeshifter, can sprout wings from her back and fly. Since Mystique is a mainly sneaky character, it stands to reason that she rarely uses this ability.
    • Magneto and his daughter Polaris using Magnetism Manipulation to effect their own polarity.
    • At absolute full power, Gambit can disrupt the gravity around him with kinetic energy, making him float and even fly. Sadly, he loses the power soon afterwards.
• In Monica's Gang, many times Smudge flew by flapping his arms like a bird. Namely, this usually happens as he's about to fall on water, something he hates with a passion.
• Most of the Front Liners could fly in No Hero. Controller said that it consumes a lot of calories so they have to eat a lot. Also, landing is very tricky and she had broke her knee the first time she tried to land.
• Orient Men can fly, and that's pretty much his sole superpower. He once met a doctor who was certain that Orient Men is just a madman who is deluded that he can fly. When Orient Men indeed flew away, the doctor concluded that it's a particularly severe delusion.
• PS238: Multiple:
  • American Eagle is a girl with eagle wings (hence the name) and electricity powers. She might have some super-strength, too, as she can flap those wings with far more strength and speed than is to be expected considering her size.
  • After some dimension-hopping, Cecil's coat is turned into a pair of Cape Wings.
    Cecil: I'm never taking this off again! Not even to shower!
  • Suzie Finster (Julie's cousin) can fly too. Unfortunately, it's part of her nuclear-powered suite of abilities, so it sheds radiation and she can't do it much.
    Suzie: I have to get permission to fly, because if I fly too high someone called "NORAD" gets mad, but if I fly too low stuff starts to melt.
• Ungrounded: Ulysses, Mister Solenoid's polar bear friend, has the ability to fly.
• Valiant Comics' Zephyr is a somewhat overweight young woman who can fly. And that's it. She insists on dressing in brightly-colored tights and a cape like a traditional superhero, in the Darker and Edgier Deconstruction puniverse.

Fan Works

• Three of the four in With Strings Attached.
  • John has been transformed permanently into a Winged Humanoid (not human, as he finds out to his sorrow later). He can't take off from the ground and requires a boost of some sort if he doesn't have a cliff to jump off. When flying, he cannot carry anything much bulkier than a megaphone, explicitly pointing out that he can't even fetch groceries.
  • George frequently transforms himself into flying critters, as small as a fly and as big as a dragon.
  • Ringo once levitated himself out of danger, but the process was so blind and frightening that he never tried to do it again.
    • In The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World, he gets potions of levitation so he can at least go up and down; Paul uses these as well.
• The title character of Empath: The Luckiest Smurf and all Psyches have the ability of flight due to having telekinetic abilities.
• In A Force of Four, Power Girl, and the four villains have this power. It also used to be Superman's favorite power according Jimmy:
  Jimmy Olsen: So he pulls up another chair in front of me, sits down, crossing one leg over the other, and said, ‘You seem like a fine young man. Anything you want to ask me, while I'm here?' Oh, man, what I didn't want to ask him! I asked him how it felt to fly, and he smiled and said, ‘Like nothing you'll ever believe. It's my favorite power. If I could, I think I'd be flying just about every minute of the day.'
• In The Good Hunter, a number of Monster Girls with wings possess the ability to fly. Druella is one such example, with her flight effective enough to dodge several of Cyril's attacks, including a shot from a flintlock pistol.
• In Last Child of Krypton, Shinji finds out he can fly when he tests how high he can jump.
  No. The speed came first. I remember that from when I was little. I didn't fit it at the school in my uncle's village. Some bullies chased me, and I outran them easily. I started to run, a lot. One day I noticed was running faster than a car, and I kept getting faster, and I could jump higher. One time I decided to see how high I could jump, and I just didn't come down.
• In Superman and Man, Christopher Reeve swaps bodies with Superman. At one point he tries to fly and gets understandably giddy.
  "Good Lord," he breathed. He looked below him. Nothing there. Like a Warner Brothers' cartoon character, standing on nothing without harm. Better not visualize that too much, because they always started to fall when they figured out where they were.
  Straighten out and fly right, Superman.
  He corrected the image to place himself at a parallel track to the ground. At once, his upper body dipped a bit, his legs came up, straightened, and there he was, flying in a horizontal manner.
  So this was how it was done. So this was the manner in which a man could fly.
  A woman sunbathing on a building roof looked up and waved at him. He waved back, grinning.
  This was fantastic.
  He yelled incoherently at the Earth, at all the people in the world, at God, even, if He was listening. And how could He not be?
• In Superman of 2499: The Great Confrontation, the main characters and their family are of Kryptonian descent.
  Klar Ken stood at the transparent balcony of his home, 72 stories above the ground. A forcefield barrier below each level would catch a falling body. No one could harm himself, or herself, by being thrown out of a window anymore. You could fly with a MagPak strapped to your back and cut the thing off and maybe avoid the safety tractors. Some had done it. But by and large, if you wanted to suicide, you had to try something else in 2499.
  Klar Ken, standing there in his brown robe and sandals, needed no MagPak to fly.
• In Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton, Asuka finds out she can fly when she springs upwards, smashes herself through a building accidentally... and doesn't come down.
  She kept going up and up and up, feeling like she would never return to the Earth. Already, she was above the roofs of some of the smaller buildings and she was still going strong.
  Her euphoria was not to last, however. Her eyes widened and her happiness was instantly snuffed out by terror as she realized that she was headed right for one of the taller buildings in the slums, a towering skyscraper that looked like it had been abandoned long ago.
  She screamed, instinctively putting her arms up to shield her head and closing her eyes, for all the good it would do her.
  There was a loud crash from all around her, and then suddenly everything was quiet. She could feel that she had stopped moving.
  Silly though it was, Asuka was afraid to open her eyes. Part of her believed that she'd find herself grievously injured when she did, even though she was in no pain, or perhaps even that she'd discover she was dead.
  Yet there was nothing to do but take a deep breath and face whatever it was that had happened. Asuka opened her eyes…and then gasped at what she saw.
  For one thing, there was a large hole that went clear through the abandoned tower, which hadn't been there a few moments ago. Asuka had clearly created it by crashing through the building, and yet she didn't have a scratch on her.
  And as if that wasn't shocking enough by itself, she was now floating in midair just outside the hole she'd made in the decrepit tower. Asuka looked down at the street far below, naked disbelief written all over her features. Part of mind dimly worried about people looking up her dress, even though she knew she was far too high up for anyone to see anything.
  All of a sudden, her shock collapsed, and she again broke out into a broad smile. Throwing one arm up above her head, the Second Child suddenly took off, rocketing up into the sky.
  "This is even better than the running!" she exclaimed as she broke through the cloud layer.
  Once above the clouds, she allowed herself to hover for a few moments, just looking down at the world far below her and soaking in the unobstructed light of the sun. Asuka could feel that the air was cold up at this high elevation, but it didn't bother her in the slightest. Everything was silent save for the sound of the wind, giving her an almost profound feeling, as though she were in a cathedral or some other sacred place.
  After a few moments, Asuka began to soar through the clouds again, and she remained up in the sky for a long, long time.
• In Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Supergirl crossover The Vampire of Steel, Kara Zor-El has this power. Buffy also could fly for a bit when her mind was in Kara's body.
  They fell over 55 stories before Supergirl felt her power resurge enough for her to kick in her flight ability. Taking care of the stress it would place on Buffy’s body, she pulled them into a dive, holding onto her charge, and then arced upward, taking care to remain only around the level of the 40th floor.
• Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku! has Izuku -a Kryptonian- and Firestorm, whose energy powers grant him flight.
• War and Peace in Mind has Will, who inherited his mother's flight power.
• In The Last Daughter, Taylor learns she is able to fly when she doesn't come down after being thrown far away by Glory Girl.
  I rocketed through the air like a human bullet, falling in a parabolic arc to the center of the bay. Unfortunately for me, I didn't know how to swim. With how fast I was going, I was probably going to hit the bottom of the bay and drown in its polluted waters. I closed my eyes, bracing for the inevitable impact...
  ...it didn't come. A few seconds passed as I realized that I had stopped moving, then I warily opened my eyes. I was hovering a few feet over the bay, horizontal to the water. A large wave crashed down, lightly spraying my face with seawater. Steadily, I began to right myself until I was floating upright, my toes just above the water.
  "Holy shit," I muttered. "I can fly."
• In Raindancer, Izuku's Quirk allows him to turn himself into water to avoid attacks and fly through his environment as water or vapor.
• In Oversaturated World, nearly every Pegasus Aspect can fly...except for Scootaloo.
• Several characters in Hellsister Trilogy such like all Kryptonians and the Marvel Family can fly under their own power.
  Within five seconds, she performed her ablutions in the bathroom, did her hair and makeup, zipped on deodorant and a mild perfume, threw on her Supergirl uniform, and was out of the building at super-speed.
  The air friction formed a corona of fire around her as she streaked invisibly through the skies. She ignored it.
  Supergirl burst out of the ionosphere, vibrating at a certain frequency, still accelerating. An IFF device in her belt identified her to American and Russian radar trackers as the Girl of Steel, not an ICBM. They only registered her for a few seconds, anyway.
• Several characters in Atonement have this power: they just are able to negate gravity (Glory Girl, Laser Dream...) or they can grow wings (Pandora, Lung...)
• In New Breed Of Kamen Riders, each of the Ability Riders have a special power that they are named after. Kamen Rider Flight's deck "gives him the ability to fly faster than a eagle".
• Some Bloodliners in Pokémon Reset Bloodlines are able to use their abilities to fly. A Gust Technique Bloodliner propels herself in the air aided by the wings of her Sky Trainer suit, while a Flamethrower Bloodliner can shoot fire from his hands and feet like rocket boosters.
• Homecoming, 2026: The Fictional Sport of "skyball" involves fliers and balls, as implied by the name.
• In New Blood (artemisgirl), This technique was invented by Lord Voldemort, achieved by absorbing an Air Elemental.
• How Friendship Accidentally Saved Magical Britain
  • For a prank at the end of their third year (Harry's first), the Weasley twins give Mrs. Norris wings, unintentionally making her faster and more mobile and virtually silent, allowing her to catch 60% more students than before, much to Filch's delight. The wings remain for at least the full three year duration of the story, forcing the twins (and their prank-loving friends) to dodge her.
  • The summer after his OWL year, Tom becomes obsessed with learning how to fly wandlessly and without any external implements such as brooms, flying carpets, or wings, because if Voldemort could do that even with magic that Tom says should've been severely damaged after making his Horcruxes, it should be child's play for Tom and his relatively undamaged magic. This leads to him repeatedly throwing himself off of roofs and balconies (with cushioning charms under him, don't worry), and hurling himself at trees and into mud puddles as Fred and George look on in bemusement. By the time of the Quidditch World Cup, Tom is able to consistently hover off of the ground by two inches.

Films — Animation

• Amelia from Bands on the Run (a living rubber band shaped like an airplane) frequently insists that she can fly, but doesn't do so because she doesn't want to. When the bands are launched into the air, she insists that it's her talent that made her fly. She finally proves she wasn't lying when the bands are blown out of the flower garden and she catches all of them in mid-air.
• The Book of Life:
  • La Muerte can levitate herself.
  • Xibalba can either levitate himself or use his wings.
• The Incredibles:
  • Jack-Jack can lift himself into the air, though whether it's due to innate flying powers or simply an extension of his telekinesis is ambiguous.
  • Meta-Man, as part of his Combo Platter Powers.
  • Stratogale, as her primary power.
  • Syndrome's rocket boots enable him to fly around freely.
• In the animated film The Flight of Dragons, dragons fly by buoyancy; they keep gemstones in their craws, use them to grind limestone, the limestone reacts with stomach acid to produce hydrogen, and bingo, flight and fire breathing as a two-for-one.
• Metroman and Titan from Mega Mind can fly, Titan, in particular, needed a Training Montage to get flight right.
  • The titular character needs a Jet Pack however.

Films — Live-Action

• The various incarnations of Mechagodzilla are typically equipped with rocket-powered flight (either innately or via an add-on unit). Notoriously, Godzilla himself also used his atomic breath like a rocket in Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster. No, really.
• Another Kaiju example, and a particularly memorable one at that, is Gamera. He's a turtle, how could something like him fly? The answer is pulling his limbs into his shell, and then firing rockets out of the holes
• In the Italian B-movie L'Uomo puma (known to MST3K fans as "The Pumaman"), the main character has all of his powers based on puma abilities — including the ability to "leap" great distances (as a visual effect, indistinguishable from stock superhero flight). This delights Mike and the 'bots no end ("Are pumas known for their ability to fly?"). Adding to the comedy is the obvious blue screen flying effects along with the actor being suspended by wires, along with unstable camera shots, making it seem as if The Pumaman is not only floundering around, waving his limbs wildly, but is flying in odd directions (i.e. sideways).
• In the MCU flight was the main desire of Iron Man when he building his Powered Armor and became giddy once he achieved it. Apart from Tony Stark others who can fly with include: War Machine, Thor (using Mjölnir/Stormbringer), Falcon, Starlord (with his rocket boots), Vision, Scarlet Witch uses her Telekinesis to levitate/blast off and finally Captain Marvel who can fly at Faster Than Light speed.
• DC Extended Universe:
  • In Man of Steel, Clark can break the sound barrier and engage in aerial combat. He also tends to leave large cracked dents in the ground whenever he takes off.
  • Averted (mostly) in Wonder Woman. Diana is more accurate to her original comic depiction, meaning she can jump really far and high. At the end however after realizing she was the Godkiller and destroying Ares, Diana floats gracefully back to the ground, suggesting she might have flight after all.
  • Played straight in the sequel, where its shown that, 70 years later, she well and truly learns to fly.
  • Cyborg from Justice League can fly viva thrusters, similar to Iron Man.
  • SHAZAM! (2019), Billy gains the ability to fly, but initially fails to become airborne◊. When Doctor Sivana (whose already mastered flight) drops Billy from the clouds, he finally figures it out inches from the asphalt. Freddie ironically starts hovering the moment he gets his Super Mode from Billy.
  • Black Adam can fly as well. Ditto Hawkman, thanks to being a Winged Humanoid.
• If the eponymous villain in Warlock (1989) performs a certain spell for which he needs to kill and harvest an unbaptized child, he can fly through the air at his own discretion.
• In Up, Up and Away!, Bronze Eagle and his father Steel Condor can fly. However, Steel Condor is so old that his flight is slower than cars that pass under him. Scott pretends to fly by going outside, throwing a ball at tree branches, and running away before his parents come outside.
• X-Men: Days of Future Past:
  • The Future Sentinels have this capability.
  • The Prototype Sentinels can fly through a thruster adapted from a Harrier jet, which is mounted in their chest.
• In The Matrix Trilogy, Neo is able to fly, but only when he's jacked into the Matrix, due to his power over the underlying code. Later in the trilogy, his Evil Counterpart Agent Smith gains the same ability, but really only uses it in the Final Battle.
• In Half Baked, the three main characters gain the power to fly after smoking marijuana. A brief scene later in the film shows several people in a disco floating and flying around.
• In The People, interplanetary visitors land on Earth and build a small town. They have the power to fly, though this is revealed only when some of the children take to the air, thus disobeying the adults, who are trying to hide their powers from the general public.
  • This is based on "Pottage", a novella in The People series by Zenna Henderson (see below).

Literature

• Oberon in Adam R. Brown's Alterien sees Theseus fly away and later discovers he can do the same after the Sisters of Orion teach him.
• In Astral Dawn, the high spirits can fly quite easily. The high spirits can accomplish this because they have no physical weight to hold them down and are not subject to gravitational laws. With their energy forms providing the force required to achieve flight, the high spirits fly using their thoughts.
• In the One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights) tale, The Ebony Horse, a flying mechanical horse Robot controlled using keys could fly, through the skies and even into outer space and towards the Sun. The titular ebony horse can fly the distance of one year in a single day, and is used as a vehicle by the Prince of Persia, Qamar al-Aqmar, in his adventures across Persia, Arabia, and Byzantium. This story appears to have influenced later European tales such as Adenes Le Roi's Cleomades and "The Squire's Prologue and Tale" in The Canterbury Tales.
• In Journey to the West, the protagonist Sun Wukong (a.k.a. Son Goku) flies on a cloud.
• Technically possible for mages in Tamora Pierce's Tortall Universe, but it is so magically taxing that virtually no one uses it. Flying over a small ravine is the last part of the ordeal that Bazhir shamans go through to prove their worth, and it's quite strenuous with Alanna's students only barely passing it.
• Early literary example: J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan. Peter can fly by himself, and shares the power with his companions via fairy dust. In later adaptations Peter's flight has an unusual weakness: you have to think happy thoughts to fly. This means that sad people can't fly until they change their attitude. This was even deconstructed with Captain Hook in a Peter Pan live action, getting pixie dust and flying because getting to fight Peter on a even playing field makes him very happy. (This weakness, like Neverland being "the second star to the right", was something Peter only said because he's incapable of telling the Darling children "I don't know" when they ask him questions, instead making things up. Later movies took both of these and ran with it.)
• In The Legendsong Saga windwalking is the ‘power’ possessed by Acanthans. While windwalkers can lift themselves with just the power of their mind, for longer times/distances they also use a harness with gliding wings. Solen is a particularly strong windwalker.
• Arthur Dent of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy teaches himself to fly by an ancient method: he jumps at the ground and misses. It turns out that this can only happen under certain circumstances: you have to be distracted just as you're about to hit the ground. Also, it's important that you not think about how unusual it is to be flying, or else gravity will notice you.
• In Touch (2017), we have James, a twelve year old who learns to fly as an aftereffect of a particularly bad bit of trauma. He takes a refreshing amount of joy in just using it to zoom around New York like a rocket.
• Harry Potter:
  • In the first few books, flight via broomstick, car, and motorbike are commonplace (and magic carpets exist too, but are illegal in Britain). In the final book, it comes as a nasty shock to the good guys that Voldemort has developed a unique unaided flight spell. He apparently also taught it to Snape, who uses it for a quick getaway.
  • Depending on your interpretation at the start of book 1, Harry's accidental magic of "jumping and appearing on the top of the school" is either flight or Apparation, but due to Lily Potter's accidental Hovering in Snape's memories it is more likely flight.
• Winged centaurs in Xanth have the talent of making things lighter by flicking them with their tails. In order to fly, they flick their own butts a few times and then take off. This also justifies the ability to carry immense weights, because anything they have to carry they simply make lighter. An added benefit is that if you fall off of the winged centaur's back mid-flight, you'll float to the ground as if you had a parachute. However, if you've just disembarked and it's windy, you could have trouble.
• Star Wars Expanded Universe: Force Flight falls under the "telekinetic" variant of the power, but it is very difficult to pull off successfully, let alone for long periods of time (it tires one out easily due to the sheer amount of concentration and energy required); not even the Skywalkers (contrary to the name) use it with any frequency.
• The eponymous Guardians in The Guardians are Winged Humanoids, and many demonic and Chaotic creatures can shapeshift into winged forms. The Guardians also go for a little Power Perversion Potential during flight.
• Done by magic in Krabat. You can even take a non-magic user as a passenger, so to speak.
• The Lost Art Of Flyte in Septimus Heap is a Flight spell that gains plot importance in Flyte and Physik.
• Trapped on Draconica: The dragokin can fly because they have dragon wings.
• In Victoria Forester's The Girl Who Could Fly, as the title said. Piper first flew when she rolled off the table while her mother was changing her diaper. Since she was born very late to a woman who thought herself barren, the mother's first thought is that that's the sort of thing you expect when doing things the way they shouldn't be done.
• Janine, in Dinoverse finds herself in the body of a giant pterosaur. It takes her a long time to learn to fly, especially considering how quickly the other characters adapt to the skills of their groundbound bodies. When she finally gets the hang of it, she's able to solve almost every problem they come across, so for most of the rest of the book she has to be absent or incapable in order for conflict to be maintained.
• In Betty Brock's beloved classic No Flying in the House, Annabel can fly because she is part fairy. Once she becomes aware of this, she's told she has to choose between living as a fairy or remaining with her human grandmother.
• The Hansen women in Rita Murphy's Night Flying can all fly, but restrict themselves to flying only at night so people won't find out. This is just one of many family rules; each generation has to add a rule, and things are getting pretty strictured. Georgia is about to turn sixteen and is gearing up for her first solo flight, when her wild Aunt Carmen shows up to reveal some unnerving secrets.
• Zenna Henderson's The People can float and fly (they call it "lifting") among their many other paranormal abilities.
• In Alexander Belyaev's Ariel the eponymous youth is rendered able to somehow "order" the heat motion of atoms in his body in single direction. Later he learns how to emulate several other superpowers with this (Walk on Water to mock religious peasants, Super-Strength by flying his arms under the weight, Super-Speed by dashing just above ground while pretending to run, etc. )
• The Sartan can fly (using the proper spells) in The Death Gate Cycle. The Patryns, a rival Mage Species, can't, unless they shapeshift into something with wings, since their magic is more firmly rooted in the material world; Haplo the Patryn, while in an Enemy Mine with Alfred the Sartan, feels a stab of irritation when he contemplates this fact.
• This is one of the impossible things that Mr. Impossible can do in the Mr. Men books; he simply stands outside and flaps his arms, and away he soars. ("You try it," says the narration, "it's impossible!")
• In Michael C. Bailey's Action Figures - Issue One: Secret Origins, doing this is what gives Carrie away to Matt as a superhero. (She was given the powers by an alien.)
• One of the titular Midnight's Children has this power, though we aren't given any details.
• In The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School, Amy has the ability to make herself lighter or heavier, and when she's lighter she can float off the ground, but has no control over her movement. She finds that she is also able to make other objects lighter or heavier, and eventually to direct the motion of objects she's levitated. During the climactic confrontation, she has a breakthrough when she discovers that the latter ability still works when the object in question is herself, giving her the power of fully-controlled flight.
• In The Flying Boy Jeremy was always flying since he drank the Anti-Gravity Potion. He can't touch the ground for three seconds.
• Everybody can levitate in Damon Knight's novella Dio (aka The Dying Man). Everybody is also immortal and eternally young and beautiful. It's when the title character suddenly loses the ability to fly, while in midair, and the resultant injuries don't heal instantly, that he knows something is really wrong.
• In the Discworld several kinds of humans and humanoid entities can fly. Witches have assisted flight via broomsticks (or else can Borrow the mind of a flying creature, and ride as a passenger); wizards can levitate, and "fly" this way, although physical laws limit their ability to do so - for a Wizard to fly, say to the tops of the tower of Art, means an equivalent mass has to be moved in the opposite direction... in theory. Though given the Reality Warper nature of Discworld magic, sufficient belief that you can fly can overcome this, as the Bursar demonstrates in The Truth (it's treated as a side-effect of his dried frog pills and a mild nuisance). Vampires have unassisted flight and can fly at will, either in human or bat form. Banshees, a predatory humanoid bird, can also fly. Other humans might have recourse either to a flying carpet (Klatchians) or a large monolith weighing several tons (Druids. It Makes Sense in Context).
• The Animorphs regularly shapeshift into birds to travel long distances. They consider this easily the most fun part of their jobs; almost any given book has at least one mention of how awesome the sense of freedom is.
• Many capes in the Parahumans series of Web Serials (contains Worm and Ward) can fly, with explanations ranging from "it is a direct application of their power" (which encompasses the grand majority of the list up top) to "The cape just got it after they got their power." Word of God is that the interdimensional entities that grant the powers to humans have a lot of different varieties of flight to test out, so it gets shoehorned into a lot of powers.
• In Renegades, Lady Indomitable was a superhero with the power of flight - which makes her death by falling all the more mysterious.
• Flight is a fairly common ability among windcrafters in Codex Alera, though Amara is unusually skilled at it. Unusually, the issue of friction and aerodynamics is addressed; flyers have to project an additional windstream as a shield in front of them as well as the main one that provides lift.
• The works of Arthur C. Clarke:
  • Childhood's End: The Overlords are equipped with fully functional wings. As a result, doors into the buildings on their homeworld can be basically anywhere on the structure.
  • In 3001: The Final Odyssey, the upper reaches of the giant Space Elevator-enabled towers have spaces at 0.1 g where humans equipped with appropriate wing-suits can fly like birds with the right arm motions. Frank Poole thoroughly enjoys himself in this entertainment.
• In The Stormlight Archive, the Windrunners and Skybreakers, two of the ten orders of Knights Radiant, can use the Surge of Gravitation to fly. Among their enemies, the Shanay-im, or Heavenly Ones, can use the same power. There's a tradition of Windrunners and Shanay-im engaging in aerial Duels To The Death that neither side will disturb.

Live-Action TV

• Buffyverse
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Willow and Amy can do this in the Season 8 comics. Later so do Buffy and Angel.
  • Unlike the film, Vampires cannot do this, which Angel weaponizes in the premier of his own show:
    Russell: I pay my taxes, I keep my name out of the paper, and I don't make waves. And in return, I can do anything I want.
    Angel: Really. Can you fly?
    [boots him out of his office window where he burns in the sunlight, while falling at least 20+ stories, turning to ash before he hits the ground.]
    Angel: Guess not.
• In Smallville, one of the major criticisms is directed toward Clark's "no tights, no flights" rule, although he has flown in "Crusade" and in the finale. Starting with the introduction of Kara in Season 7, all powered Kryptonian's can fly, with the exception of Clark, and other aliens like Brainiac and the Martian Manhunter. "Warrior" lampshades this by having a boy receive superpowers including flight, which he didn't know before. He immediately goes "Holy crap! I can fly!"
• Superman in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, obviously. A few other characters as well.
• The Arrowverse has several characters who can fly.
  • Ray Palmer, introduced in the third season of Arrow builds a power suit that lets him fly.
  • Carter and Shayera can both fly with their retractable wings in Legends of Tomorrow.
  • Supergirl, along with several recurring cast members of her show.
• Forever Knight: Vampires can fly in this series (and no, they don't have wings). Nick himself is often seen flying around the city when a car isn't fast enough.
• In Heroes, Sylar seems to use his telekinesis to fly (or at least levitate really fast), although it's mostly implied off-screen and never really explicitly shown. He later explicitly copies the real deal from Nathan Petrelli, who has this as his only power. It's also copied by Peter. Claire's Season 2 boyfriend, Wes, could also do this.
• In The Flying Cestmir, Cestmir is transported to a planet of plants and gains six magical seeds which he grows into flowers. Smelling their scent gives people super abilities and skills for a certain period of time. One of the flower causes that Cestmir and others can suddenly fly.
• Some Kamen Riders are able to do this:
  • The aptly named Skyrider has the ability to fly as his signature.
  • Kamen Rider 555 in Blaster Form has a jetpack that grants him flight.
  • The Riders in Kamen Rider Blade have to ability to seal a defeated Monster of the Week into a magical card. They can use these cards to gain special abilities based on said monsters. The 'Float Dragonfly' card gives the user the ability to fly. Also, when The Hero and The Lancer receive their Mid-Season Upgrade, wings are added to their suits.
  • Kamen Rider W gains wings gains wings to defeat the villainous Kamen Rider Eternal during the climax of The Movie.
  • Kamen Rider OOO has his powerset based on numerous animals. The bird-based Tajador form and and dinosaur-based Putotyra form both are able to fly using wings, which in the latter are mounted on his head. Kamen Rider Birth can also fly by using a function on his suit.
  • Kamen Rider Fourze can fly by using a rocket attached to his arm.
  • Both Riders in Kamen Rider Wizard are able to fly. Wizard, a user Elemental Powers is able to fly by using the power of wind, while Kamen Rider Beast, a multi- Animal Themed Super Being can do this when using eagle powers.
• In Power Rangers, some Battlizers (mostly American exclusive Super Modes) give the user the ability to fly. Examples include the very first Red Battlizer Armor, the Animarium Armor and the Tribattlized Armor.
• In Legacies, Landon Kirby, a phoenix, can both levitate and by using his fiery wings, fly with great speeds.
• In Supertorpe from Argentina, Poli Truper can fly, though in a clumsy (torpe) manner.
• Take a Look at any "Teletubbies" episode from 1997-2001 (including 1999's "Catherine's Toy Farm") and tell me that half the magical moments don't end when the character vanishes in the SKY or floats down at the start holding onto their clothes or something idk!!!
• In the TV branch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this comes up a few times.
  • Glen Talbot gains this ability in the fifth season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..
  • Jessica from Jessica Jones (2015). Maybe. When asked about it, she refers to it as "Controlled falling", but it looks more like super-leaping.
  • In Runaways (2017), Karolina can fly, as can her biological father, Jonah.
  • Both Wanda and Vision in WandaVision.

Music

• Ayami Muto in Parallel World.
• Maty Soul in In My Village.
• Chenoa in Todo Ira Bien.
• Helene Segara in Mefie Toi de Moi.
• In Poets of the Fall's "Drama for Life," flying to absurd heights with the agitated "madman in [his] mind" is one of the ways the singer describes embracing his creativity.

Myths & Religion

• Not surprisingly, this is commonly ascribed to gods, angels, demons, witches, etc.
• Several Greek gods and monsters can fly thanks to the bird wings growing from their backs and Hermes gets to fly solely because of winged sandals. Daedalus and Icarus flew using mechanical wings.
• Several Hindu gods fly, most notably Hanuman from the Ramayana. He is often considered the inspiration behind Sun Wukong (a.k.a. Son Goku) in Journey to the West, but where Sun Wukong flies on a cloud, Hanuman can fly on his own.
• Germanic mythology may have an example in Wayland the Smith, the equivalent of Daedalus in Greek myth. How he comes to fly is a bit muddier. He either fashions fake bird wings like Daedalus or actually grows wings/transforms into a bird, most likely a swan. Surviving texts aren't very clear.
• Santa Claus's reindeer are typically depicted as having this power, rather than being winged.

Pinballs

• In the futuristic world of Bally's Xenon, everyone flies around simply because they can.

Tabletop Games

• Anathema: All players, and other shrouds, have wings and can fly as fast as a commercial jet.
• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • Certain spells, such as Flight and Overland Flight, allow this for otherwise ground-bound beings.
  • Unlike what his considerable bulk and utter lack of wings would suggest, the Elder Evil Father Llymic can fly at a clip of thirty feet per round.
• Magic: The Gathering: Flight is one of the special abilities that many creatures possess. Only other flying creatures, or creatures with the special ability "Reach", can block fliers. While there are many many spells and creatures that can counter flight, it's still a powerful ability that should not be overlooked. Especially since some of the most powerful creatures in the game such as dragons, angels, and vampires all possess it. Flight is present in all colours except for Green, which gets it very rarely at best, though White and Blue still stand out by far as the best flyers.
• Psionics: The Next Stage in Human Evolution: Sufficiently powerful telekinetics and magnekinetics can fly by picking themselves up or by riding wind currents, respectively.
• Spellfire: Flyer cards could attack any realm that didn't specifically bar flyers from attacking it, as opposed to the first unrazed realm of the defending player.
• Games Workshop games:
  • In Warhammer: Age of Sigmar the mystical Windthief Charm is a magical treasure of the Arcanite Cults that allows its bearer to unshackle themselves from the bonds of gravity and fly through the skies of the battlefield.
  • In Warhammer 40,000, the Blood Angels' Primarch Sanguinius had huge white bird-like wings that allowed him to fly. His brother primarch Corvus Corax was so jealous he didn't stop training with a jetpack until he could match him, while Blood Angel Librarians can use a psychic spell called Wings of Sanguinius to leap across terrain, even when in Dreadnoughts. You may now imagine multi-ton, smoke-belching walking tanks hurtling across the sky to bring death and destruction to the Emperor's enemies.

Theater

• Golden Bat, who debuted in Kamishibai paper theater in 1930, was the first flying caped Super Hero.

Toys

• In BIONICLE, Toa Lewa possesses the Mask of Levitation and Toa Nuparu uses the Mask of Flight. The two are related, but different — rather like a hot air balloon and an aeroplane respectively. Additionally, both Toa Lewa and Toa Matau have swords that can be used as wings. As Toa of Air, they use their control over the winds to aid them in their flight.

Video Games

• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Mario seems to win a new way of flying with every console generation: The Raccoon and Tanooki suits in Super Mario Bros. 3, the Sky Pop in Super Mario Land, the Power Balloon and Feather Cape in Super Mario World, the Carrot in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Wing Cap in Super Mario 64, the Rocket Nozzle attachment for FLUDD in Super Mario Sunshine, the Red Star in Super Mario Galaxy, the Propeller Mushroom in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the Propeller Box in Super Mario 3D Land, the Super Acorn in New Super Mario Bros. U, and a possessed flying or hovering mook (with Cappy's ability) in Super Mario Odyssey. Whenever playable, this applies to Luigi, Toad and Toadette as well.
  • Princess Peach can fly of the levitating sort in Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Princess Peach and Super Mario 3D World. Toadette inherits this ability when using the Super Crown and turning into Peachette in the Switch version of New Super Mario Bros. U
  • Super Mario World allows Yoshi to fly as well, but only for a limited time when holding a blue Koopa shell (or any koopa shell if the Yoshi itself is blue). Later games mellowed it down to a limited ability to flutter in the air for a few seconds. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl however, his Final Smash lets him grow wings and spew fireballs.
  • Wario can fly with his jet hat in Wario Land.
  • Waluigi, defying all logic and reason, can swim in mid-air in Mario Tennis and Mario Hoops 3-on-3
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Miles "Tails" Prower flies, very fast, too. Courtesy of his appropriately named dual-tails which he twirls like a helicopter (Some suspension of belief is required for the detail that he can constantly spin his tail in one direction constantly without having to unspin it to unwind it first).
  • Knuckles the Echidna can glide though the air thanks to his dreads/quills absorbing air currents, though Knuckles will forced to float down if there’s no wind/fan.
  • Cream the Rabbit is also capable of flight to a limited extent, using her giant floppy ears (as is her Chao partner Cheese, whose species possess fairy-like wings).
  • Rouge the Bat more conventionally uses her wings, though whether this is flight or just gliding varies between games.
  • In Sonic Colors, the Orange Wisp allows Sonic to fly straight up into the air, destroying enemies and obstacles along the way.
  • Charmy Bee. The bee who's flying almost every second he's on screen.
  • Super Sonic can also fly when his super mode is an 11th-Hour Superpower. (Most of the time, anyway.)
  • Shadow the Hedgehog can fly using his air shoes, Chaos Control, or if he's Super Shadow.
  • Blaze the Cat is capable of flying through unknown means or if she's Burning Blaze.
  • Silver the Hedgehog can fly by turning his telekinesis on himself, or if he's Super Silver.
• Also, from the creators of Sonic, flight is such an important concept in NiGHTS into Dreams… that a unique controller was developed for the game in order to get the full effect. Nearly everything in that game can fly in some way except for the human dreamers themselves at first...
• In Bravely Default, the game's subtitle "Flying Fairy" refers to Airy being able to fly. Except, the harmless subtitle later changes to "Lying Airy" ("Airy Lies" in Japanese) after the party learns that she's been using them to release her master Ouroboros.
• In Bravely Default II, the church of Rimedhal goes on fairy hunts to push innocent people into the Jaws of Judgement in an attempt to force fairies into revealing themselves by putting them in a situation no human can survive unless they change forms and take flight. This is all a ploy for Archbishop Domenic to get rid of any "unbeliever" trying to get in his way for total control of Rimedhal, literally pushing people down to their deaths. Ironically, however, while the ritual never ends up with a single human turning into a fairy as they fall, it indirectly reveals someone else's identity as a fairy.
  • Later on, the fairies from Mag Mell can't help feeling sorry that humans are unable to fly at all.
• Ditto with the eponymous character of Conker's Bad Fur Day. Although it's more like a double jump due to it's short duration.
• Flight is one of the Pool Powers in City of Heroes that can be taken in addition to the main powersets, one of four 'travel powers' (the others being Super-Speed, Leaping and Teleportation). It's notable among the powers for being technically the slowest, but providing full 3D movement and being very easy to use. And oddly enough, the pool includes a melee attack specifically for use against flyers. The Peacebringer Epic Archetype gets Flight for free. Several popular Temporary Powers are flight-capable jetpacks.
• In Earth and Sky, flight is one of the powers conveyed by Emily's skysuit.
• Sora gains the ability to fly from Peter Pan in the original Kingdom Hearts, though he can only use that ability in Neverland and during select boss battles. Outside of those areas, he does retain the ability to glide around on air currents. Due to the fact that both Neverland and Atlantica were considered Scrappy Levels, Sora cannot fly in the sequels outside of cutscenes (and Mulan's Red Rocket and Peter Pan's Neverland limits), though he does regain the ability to glide and levitate once you unlock Final Form. He can also glide in Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], though it's technically useless thanks to Flowmotion. In Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, some missions set in Neverland allow the player to fly.
• In Touhou Projects Gensokyo, everyone can fly. Even the muggles. The two big exceptions are the main heroines:
  • Reimu started the series unable to fly, unlike all of her opponents. She quickly acquired an old flying turtle, until she got the power to float in the sky as her singular ability. Since she's incredibly talented anyway, she can use it to float away from reality and become invulnerable.
  • Black Magician Girl Marisa always flies on a Flying Broomstick. Side materials and Word of God have it that she does it to complete her Cute Witch styling because, as Akyuu puts it, "In Gensokyo, it doesn't really matter; anyone can fly."
• Pilotwings and Pilotwings 64 were all about this, using various vehicles to fly around islands and complete challenges. The ultimate prize was the Birdman outfit, which allowed you to fly around the islands without crashing or needing fuel.
• Rayman can fly by making a helicopter out of his hair. To avoid Game Breaking it's usually just depicted as gliding during most gameplay segments, but there are some instances while using special items or level-specific powers where he can just flat-out fly.
• In some of the Devil May Cry games, Dante's Devil Trigger form can sport wings and allow him to fly. The first three games tie this mechanic to a specific weapon, ability or item upgrade (Alastor in DMC1, Aerial Heart in DMC2, and Nevan in DMC3). However in Devil May Cry 5, the power of flight is innately available to his Devil Trigger form regardless of the equipped weapon.
• In the Heroes of Might and Magic series, flight is incredibly useful. In battle units that can fly avoid all obstacles on the field including siege walls; not something to be taken lightly. And some of the strongest units in the games like dragons and angels all share this power. On the adventure map it's a total Game-Breaker since the hero can fly over water, mountains, and garrisons. The spells and artifacts that grant flight are usually disabled in campaign scenarios for this reason.
• The first boss of Bug, a giant snail. How does such a thing fly? It goes into its shell, a helicopter rotor comes out, then it takes off. And then it'll start dropping bombs all over the place (or trying to crush Bug)!
• In Child of Light, thanks to Aurora gaining fairy wings, flight becomes a standard ability after the first boss battle.
• In Paladins, Willo's Ultimate ability, Fae Flight, allows her to fly freely around the map for 10 seconds, as opposed to simply floating over it. While this may seem like a Useless Useful Spell compared to most other characters' Ultimates, a skilled player can use this short time window to rain Death from Above with Seedlings and Dead Zone pollen without much fear of retaliation, as the enemy would have to aim upward to fire at her and take their eyes off the other enemies on the ground.
• Astra Superstars: One unique feature of this game is that everyone can fly and float in the air in a manner similar to Dragon Ball and other similar such Shōnen Demographic aimed anime/manga.
• The Maid of Fairewell Heights: There's the Flying Angel costume which allows Marshmallow to fly.
• Towards the end of Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, Shanoa can obtain the Volaticus glyph, which gives her a pair of functional black wings while active. It comes in very handy in one of the two Bonus Dungeons, but is disabled in the other one as this one is a platforming challenge.

Webcomics

• Embers in the IronGate can do this as part of being enchanted by Fey magic, despite being on a team whose members have supernatural powers, she's the only one who can fly.
• In Blue Yonder, one of Jared's powers, even as a Three-Month-Old Newborn. It makes him think being a bird is good for the view alone. Indeed, there's a whole flashback sequence about the wonders of flight leading to the scene where he's told he's grounded, which means no flying.
• Several characters in El Goonish Shive have some form of flight. Nanase has a spell that allows her to fly, as does Elliot (but the spell turns him into a comic book superheroine rather than simply allowing him to fly), and Grace can use her telekinesis. Two villains have also been capable of magical flight.
• Jack of Gunnerkrigg Court recently displayed the ability to fly. However, unlike most examples on this page, it is treated as something special and even borderline unbelievable by several characters despite the fact that many other magical abilities have been seen.
• In The Order of the Stick:
  • Vaarsuvius can fly—if s/he casts the (presumably Overland) Flight spell, of course, which it seems s/he, as a high-level wizard, has made a habit of casting when the day starts. Note that an early strip implied they didn't have this spell when the comic started, as they try in vain to trade with Zzdtri for it.
  • The Empress of Blood can fly. She's a dragon, so this would be expected. But she's also an Adipose Rex. The strip that demonstrated her flying ability was titled "Maybe She Swallowed a Zeppelin".
    Elan: She can FLY???
    General Tarquin: Quite a stumper, isn't it?
    Vaarsuvius: I should avoid casting any spells tonight, if only to give the laws of physics time to cry alone in the corner.
• Parimetra: Antine, aka the superhero Torch, has both this and fire powers. She doesn't have actual wings, but her fellow hero Gale does, and flies using her wind powers.
• Project 0: Noor is the first seen flying. The others haven't figured out how to yet, hence Owen's insistence on building a flying machine.
• Schlock of Schlock Mercenary has a button on his BFG that switches it to a thruster mode. The rest of the company has flight capabilities built into their low profile Power Armor. It's rarely actually used, since a flying soldier is a more contrast target too far from any cover—or, as Sgt. Leelagaleeni-leeleenoleela put it, skeet.
• In Soul Symphony, flight is another one of the magical spells Olivia possesses.
• I Don't Want This Kind of Hero: Naga and co. are the flight team—Naga can levitate with his powers, Hyena flies on her broom, and Sasa has wings.
• DICE: The Cube That Changes Everything: Levitation, one of the A-ranker abilities, lets a Dicer float freely.

Web Originals

• The New Narnia: While in Malacus, Tommy gains this ability as his magical power.
• Sailor Moon Abridged: Venus randomly being capable of doing the jumping version of this trope is mocked.
  Sailor Mars: STUPID . . . BITCH . . . CAN . . . FLY. WHAT THE F*honk*CK?!
• SCP Foundation:
  • SCP-2757 ("Dr. Wondertainment's Projector Fantastico™"). When the SCP-2757 projector is used with the film SCP-2757-1e The Valiant Crusaders, one of the powers gained by the experimental subjects is flight.
  • SCP-2901 ("Mothman"). SCP-2901 can freely move through the space-time continuum, giving them the abilities of flight and teleportation.
• Every one of the listed ways of flight has been adopted by at least one of the characters in the Whateley Universe. Of course, since it's at the Super Hero School Whateley Academy which has nearly 600 students plus a host of superpowered teachers, it's inevitable that a lot of people there can fly or have figured out how to fake it. One way not mentioned in the list at the top of the page: one girl with magical powers has given her horse wings so she can fly on the horse's back (her horse also magically communicates with her).

Western Animation

• Many characters of Adventure Time, particularly Ice King, Lady Rainicorn, and Marceline.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • Airbenders, of course, control the wind. Aang often uses a fragile-looking glider, and without it he can manage Not Quite Flight and some big jumps. While in the Avatar State he can airbend strongly enough not to need the glider at all.
    • Aang's ten tonne air-bison Appa can fly, much to Sokka's incredulity. He's the team's usual mode of transportation.
    • With enough power, a firebender can propel themselves through the air with jets of fire from their feet. Under normal circumstances, this manifests as little more than a Double Jump. During Sozin's Comet, Ozai demonstrates the ability to fly with almost as much dexterity as Aang. Azula uses a similar ability several times with less power and skill, and Zuko manages it as well in the finale.
    • In the comics, Katara used waterbending to create a slate of ice that lifted her through the air like a magic carpet.
  • In the Sequel Series The Legend of Korra:
    • Korra uses a glider like Aang after she learns airbending, and of course so do the other airbender kids. During Korra's fight with Zaheer she uses flame-jets like Ozai, Azula, and Zuko.
    • True flight is revealed to be the advanced form of airbending, lost for centuries. This is how the air bisons fly; they don't bother with gliding or controlling wind currents, they just flat-out ignore gravity. For a human airbender, the only way to achieve this is to completely sever their ties to the material world. This is why no one has been able to manage it for so long. In the case of Zaheer, it is the death of his lover that leads to him achieving this power.
• Ben 10: Some of the alien species that Ben can turn into can fly, though how they fly depends on the species.
  • Stinkfly, Big Chill, Jetray, Nanomech, Astrodactyl, Whampire, and Pesky Dust all have wings.
  • Heatblast can propel himself by blasting fire out of his hands or feet.
  • Mole-Stache has a moustache that can be formed into Helicopter Hair.
  • Ghostfreak and AmpFibian float like the ghostly creatures they are.
  • Upgrade can meld with technology and give it the ability to fly, even once turning a clock's hands into a helicopter rotor.
  • Buzzshock and Feedback generate electrical impulses which they then ride on.
  • NRG can fly once he leaves his containment suit.
  • Terraspin can generate wind via Spectacular Spinning and ride on that.
  • Gravattack can manipulate his own gravitational field.
  • Chromastone, Atomix, and Alien X are all Flying Bricks to various degrees.
• Certain vampires in Castlevania (2017) can levitate off the ground and stay in the air, Dracula and his son Alucard can outright fly through the air at high speeds.
• Code Lyoko:
  • Jérémie gives Aelita's Lyoko-form wings in Season 4, making her the only hero who can fly without the assistance of a vehicle.
  • William can also fly in his "Super Smoke" form when he becomes XANA's Dragon.
• In Creative Galaxy, Captain Paper can achieve this power via another of his powers: he's able to shapeshift into a paper airplane.
• In Danny Phantom, this is a standard ghost power.
• In Dragon Tales, the dragons can fly — what makes it this power is that their wings are tiny in proportion to their bodies and obviously can't propel them on their own. A glimmer and sound effect are used whenever they're flying to indicate that the flight is also being powered by magic.
• The Fairly OddParents!:
  • Fairies, pixies, anti-fairies, and genies can fly. Oddly, though all of them except genies have wings, they never seem to use them to fly.
  • It's also one of the Crimson Chin's powers, and Crash Nebula can use a jet pack.
  • In one of the Oh Yeah! Cartoons shorts, Timmy wishes this up as part of several superpowers. His every attempt to take off results in him hitting something.
  • Timmy's parents get this power (among several others) when they become Mighty Mom and Dyno Dad.
• The eponymous creatures of Gargoyles possess wings, but as they explain to Eliza, they are not capable of true flight, instead gliding on warm air currents (though this doesn't prevent Brooklyn from flapping his wings a couple times to try to stay aloft while carrying and unconscious Lexington).
• Jade from Jackie Chan Adventures combines the power of the Rooster (levitation) and the Rabbit (speed) talismans to give herself flight.
• Most of the team members in Justice League can fly. Only Batman and the Flash can't, and Batman has a jet anyway.
• Winkle from the Little Wizards can fly by holding her breath (inflating her cheeks like balloons to provide lift) and flapping her big, rabbit-like feet to provide propulsion. The downside is that she can only fly as long as she can hold her breath.
• In the My Little Pony franchise, the pegasi (winged ponies) and alicorns (winged unicorns) are the only ponies who can fly naturally. This doesn't exclude other kinds, though. In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, there is a spell to give other kinds of ponies wings... but only for a limited time. Then you have Twilight Sparkle self-levitating in the third season. By the end of the season, it becomes obsolete — although the flight lessons might not have taken, given her performance in My Little Pony: Equestria Girls.
• The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: In "Up, Up and Awry", Pooh expresses his wish to fly in the sky like kite and bees and so tries many ways with the help of Eeyore which results in him and his friends being arrested for "breaking laws of gravity". In the end, it is implied tha, Pooh can indeed fly.
• PJ Masks: Being owl-themed, Owlette has flight as her main power. She's the only one of the main characters who can fly directly without the aid of a vehicle or device.
• The Furlings from Once Upon a Forest build an aircraft using Bamboo Technology called "the flapper wingamathing" so that they can retrieve an herb growing on a tall cliff-side for their comatose friend.
• In The Spectacular Spider-Man, the Vulture invented his Magnetic Air Transport System, a suit of flight-capable Powered Armor, while the Green Goblin rides on his bat-shaped Goblin glider that he created as Norman Osborn.
• In Stan Lee's Superhero Kindergarten, Fly Boy combines this with Fartillery, as his flight is derived from farts.
• Static from Static Shock flies by magnetically levitating any handy metal platform. In early episodes, he uses a nearby garbage pail lid or manhole cover; in later episodes, he carries a folding metal disc in his pocket.
• Teen Titans (2003): Starfire is a Flying Brick, Raven is telekinetic, and Beast Boy transforms into birds. Robin and Cyborg have to make do with single-episode glider capes and rockets strapped to their backs, respectively. Robin and Cyborg are usually in the care of their flight-capable companions during the stints when they have need.
• Transformers:
  • In the original The Transformers series, the power of Flight is one of the defining characteristics between Autobots and Deceptions — all Decepticons can fly in their robot form, but only the few Autobots with air or space transformations can do so (plus Sideswipe, who's equipped with a rocketpack, and Tracks, whose car altmode has wings). The Dinobots can fly in their robot modes (Swoop in either mode) — no reason is given for why, but it's awesome.
  • This leads to a brief Let's You and Him Fight situation in Transformers: Animated when the Earth Autobots meet Jetstorm and Jetfire, two Autobots on Sentinel's team who have been upgraded with flight capability based on Starscream's specs. The Earth Autobots briefly mistake the two for Decepticons and attack them because, to the best of their knowledge, only Decepticons can fly. In the Grand Finale, Rachet builds a jetpack for Optimus so he can fight Megatron on a more even footing.
• In Young Justice (2010), out of the sixteen members of the Justice League, only Batman, the Flash, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Aquaman have no flight capabilities whatsoever. Conversely, among the teenage focus characters, only Miss Martian can fly.

Real Life

• Every winged animal in the animal kingdom, except for a few exceptions, possesses the ability to fly. These animals including birds, insects, and bats.
• Flying squirrels can, in some sense, fly, due to fleshy membranes on the sides of their body that act as parachutes, however they are more just falling with style.
• Flying fish can briefly fly using wing-like fins they have. But their powers of momentary flight would be more useful in a scenario which requires quite a long jump.
• In a space with zero gravity, pretty much everything and everyone within it can defy gravity and fly.
• Similar to flying squirrels, wing suits invented for human flight, can allow its wearer to soar using fin-like “wings” which slows one’s fall, making it more of a a stylish descent.
• Jetpacks, although expensive, can allow a practical way to fly using propulsion technology.
• Flying is a common story within dreams, and those who have the ability to lucid dream, or control their dreams, can fly within their dreams.
• Magnetic propulsion off the ground could allow flight for magnets.
• Magnetic levitation could make objects, including living things, lift off the ground, via manipulation of magnetic fields.

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