History Series / Airwolf

%% Zero Context Examples are prohibited. Please provide context before un-commenting entries. %%

Creator/ErnestBorgnine, who played Dominic Santini, passed away in 2012. Creator/JanMichaelVincent, who played Stringfellow Hawke, passed away in 2019.

* ManInWhite: Michael "Archangel" Coldsmith-Briggs, Hawke's contact with the FIRM, who not only wears white suits, but is flown around in a white helicopter and driven in a white limo, and aided by a string of exotic looking female assistants dressed in (wait for it...) white. Lampshaded several times by String and Dom.
--> '''Dominic:''' "You think he has that chopper washed everyday?"\\
'''Hawke:''' "Well probably, with him ''in'' it."

* GoodColorsEvilColors: All Firm agents wear white suits, though this may be more attributable to Archangel's preferences, since his own superiors wear perfectly ordinary business outfits. The one subordinate seen wearing a normal business suit turns out to be trying to steal Airwolf.

** In a rather notable subversion in that same episode, especially considering the period in which the episode was written, the spy's family aren't thrilled to getting on Airwolf to begin a new life in the land of hot dogs and apple pie. They are all proud Russians and they don't take the news that the man they thought was a friend and family member is an American spy well, with both his daughter and his brother-in-law outright considering him a traitor. Yet they are portrayed mostly sympathetically.

A 1984-87 action-adventure program about Stringfellow Hawke, a helicopter pilot whose brother is missing in Vietnam. The concept of the show is that Stringfellow Hawke manages to blackmail the Firm (a thinly veiled branch of the UsefulNotes/{{CIA}}) by failing to return a prototype helicopter that he'd retrieved for them after the chopper's creator, the evil Dr. Moffet, flew it off to Libya.

* AcePilot: Stringfellow and almost certainly Dominic.

* AmericaSavesTheDay: Sort of. The Firm is big on doing this and String ''is'' an American, but he also doesn't have a lot of loyalty for his government and does not consider himself as representing the country.

Hawke: No........no, she didn't suffer.\\

* {{Hypocrite}}: Unfortunately, yes, on one occasion. In the episode "Santini's Millions," Dom ends up on the board of directors of a major corporation (it makes sense in context) and ends up derailing his first board meeting when he realizes the company is charging the U.S. Air Force $16,000 a piece for aircraft sensors that he himself recently bought for Santini Air for $160, and he yells at them for ripping off the American taxpayers. Three episodes later, in "Severance Pay" Dom reveals that he's charging the Firm $4,000 for repairs to Airwolf despite having fixed it himself with parts from a coffee percolator. (The Firm ''does'' receive government funding, also, so this is also ripping off the taxpayers.) Sure, the amount is far less, but Dom is still doing the same thing he previously complained about other people doing.

* InstrumentalThemeTune: The legendary techno track that opens the show is one of the best and most memorable parts.

* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: Justified because Airwolf ''is'' the prototype, ''Dr. Moffet'' was the designer - and he destroyed the facility where it was designed and manufactured in the pilot episode just before stealing it and defecting to Lybia. And Hawke killed him while retrieving Airwolf.

* StockFootage: Only became truly obnoxious in later episodes.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Saint John Hawke.

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Zig-Zagged. It's Hawke's usual operating procedure, though he does try to avoid bloodshed when he can, and he gives enemies the chance to surrender whenever possible. But when he shoots, he doesn't just shoot to kill - he makes sure ''no one'' is walking away.

* VideoWill: despite being killed very, very dead in the pilot, Dr. Moffet managed to return as a villain in "Moffet's Ghost", using a twisted version of this trope.

* AWolfInSheepsClothing: Invoked if not actually used. The design concept was a [[JustPlaneWrong supersonic attack helicopter]] whose weapons were hidden in pods so it could pass as a fancy executive transport. The flight suits' shoulder patches even featured a Wolf In Sheep's Clothing design.

* VideoGameAI: Though not played with much in the series, Airwolf does have a primitive AI system that monitors and constantly optimizes the copter's systems. It also learns from and can assist the pilot in combat situations. These abilities are utilized in "Moffett's Ghost", as Airwolf has to find its own way to Langley and to deal with the situations it's in. These precise situations are not likely to be things Moffett could have predicted or programmed the autopilot to do without such AI, as he had no idea where Airwolf would be or what it would be doing if he were dead or in jail at that point in time.

* ArtificialIntelligence: Though not played with much in the series, Airwolf does have a primitive AI system that monitors and constantly optimizes the copter's systems. It also learns from and can assist the pilot in combat situations. These abilities are utilized in "Moffett's Ghost", as Airwolf has to find its own way to Langley and to deal with the situations it's in. These precise situations are not likely to be things Moffett could have predicted or programmed the autopilot to do without such AI, as he had no idea where Airwolf would be or what it would be doing if he were dead or in jail at that point in time.

Creator/ErnestBorgnine, who played Dominic Santini passed away in 2012. Creator/JanMichaelVincent, who played Stringfellow Hawke passed away in 2019.

An comic book anthology, ''Airwolf:Airstrikes'', was published in 2015.

An comic book anthology, ''Airwolf:Airstrikes'' was published in 2015.

* DodgeByBraking: A common combat tactic was to slam open Airwolf's air brakes causing a pursuing aircraft to overshoot.

An ''Airwolf'' comic book series is scheduled to launch in fall of 2015.

* VillainousValor: Moffet again, at the end of the pilot, when he finds himself facing an enraged Stringfellow piloting Airwolf: he coolly tries to shoot a bullet into the chopper's [[AchillesHeel gas-intake]]. Had he succeeded, it would have been a OneHitKill.

* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: Justified because Airwolf ''is'' the prototype, ''Dr. Moffet'' was the designer - and he destroyed the facility where it was designed and manufactured in the pilot episode just before stealing it and defecting to Russia. And Hawke killed him while retrieving Airwolf.

* GuyInBack: Dom or Caitlin, but on one occasion Archangel.

A 1984-87 action-adventure program about Stringfellow Hawke, a helicopter pilot whose brother is missing in Vietnam. The concept of the show is that Stringfellow Hawke manages to blackmail the Firm (a thinly veiled branch of the {{CIA}}) by failing to return a prototype helicopter that he'd retrieved for them after the chopper's creator, the evil Dr. Moffet, flew it off to Libya.

* VideoWill: despite being killed very, very dead in the pilot, Dr. Moffet managed to return as a villain in one episode, using a twisted version of this trope.

->''"This briefing is from file A56-7W. Classified Top Secret. Subject is Airwolf, a Mach 1+ attack helicopter with the most advanced weapons system in the air today. It's been hidden somewhere in the Western United States by its test pilot Stringfellow Hawke. Hawke has promised to return Airwolf only if we can find his brother, St. John, an MIA in Vietnam. We suspect that Archangel, deputy director of the agency that built Airwolf, is secretly helping Hawk in return for Hawke flying Airwolf on missions of national concern."''

--> Archangel: "Did...she suffer?"
--> ''(long pause)''
--> Hawke: "What difference does it make?"
--> Archangel: "''Dammit'', I sent her out there, I wanna know!"
--> ''(long pause)''
--> Hawke: No........no, she didn't suffer.
--> Archangel: "....thank God for that."

--> '''Dominic:''' "You think he has that chopper washed everyday?"
--> '''Hawke:''' "Well probably, with him ''in'' it."

* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: Justified because Airwolf ''is'' the prototype, and Dr. Moffet destroyed the facility where it was designed and manufactured in the pilot episode.

* CodeName: "Archangel", real name Michael Coldsmith-Briggs III.[[labelnote:*]]Seasons after the first treated the code as his real last name[[/labelnote]]
* CoffinContraband: In "Half-Pint", an American running a mercy operation to repatriate the bodies of American soldiers from Vietnam is actually using the coffins to smuggle cocaine.

** In a rather notable subversion in that same episode, especially considering the period in which the episode the written, the spy's family aren't thrilled to getting on Airwolf to begin a new life in the land of hotdogs and apple pie. They are all proud Russians and they don't take the news that the man they thought was a friend and family member is an American spy well, with both his daughter and his brother-in-law outright considering him a traitor. Yet they are portrayed mostly sympathetically.
* DisneyDeath: String is the master of this. Often when it appears he can't outrun a missile, he'll dodge behind a sand dune or blow it up at the last minute, appearing to have been taken out with it. Airwolf then proceeds to fly over a sand dune or around a hill, in front of the badguy, [[OffscreenTeleportation Jason Voorhees-style]]. In one episode he does this with a B-52 bombing run ''simulating a nuclear attack''.

* AWolfInSheepsClothing: Invoked if not actually used. The design concept was a [[JustPlaneWrong supersonic attack helicopter]] whose weapons were hidden in pods so it could pass as a fancy executive transport. The flight suits' shoulder patches even featured a Wolf In Sheep's Clothing design.

* TooDumbToLive: The Sheriff in "Sweet Britches" stands out. The DirtyCop in that episode is overflown by an armed helicopter that blows out his windows, destroys two trucks and threatens to continue unless he releases his hostage. Mind you, he was facing life in prison or death row, but he would've at least had a chance to get away. While his cohorts at least had the sense to run out the back, he just keeps shooting and tries to kill his escaped hostage.