History Main / DoABarrelRoll

** HowDidWeMissThisOne -- [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome The Adama Maneuver.]] For sheer ballsy things you can do with several megatons of militarized metal, there is no substitute.

* A part of ''StarFox'' since the very first game. Peppy Hare's command to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIkJvY96i8w "do a barrel roll!"]] to get yourself out of trouble became a big [[MemeticMutation Internet meme]], and [[TropeNamers gave this trope its name]].

** You mean from ''[[StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan Wrath of Khan]]''? It works in context - namely, the nebular gasses having a MinovskyParticle-type jamming effect on starship sensors, something even [[StarTrekTheNextGeneration the Borg]] can't solve 80 years later (although ''they'' can just drop the Borg equivalent of depth charges). Besides, Nicholas Meyer wanted to evoke submarine warfare with that battle.

*** How could we forget the space battle, where Anakin actually shouts out "Let's try spinning! [[EverythingsBetterWithSpinning That's a good trick!"]]

* Doing a barrel roll in a fighter, where manoeuvrability is an essential component of design, is not very exceptional in and of itself. Barrel-rolling a prototype four-engine commercial jet is something else entirely. While it was actually quite safe for the pilot and plane, it was not something one sees on a regular basis. See [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_367-80#The_barrel_roll here]], on TheOtherWiki, for details.

* Alvin "Tex" Johnston flew a barrel roll on the presentation flight of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_367-80#The_barrel_roll Boeing 367-80]], a prototype jet airliner. Boeing President Bill Allen wasn't very happy about it.

* Alvin "Tex" Johnston flew a barrel roll on the presentation flight of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_367-80#The_barrel_roll Boeing 367-80]], a prototype jet airliner. Boeing President Bill Allen wasn't very happy about it.

* Alvin "Tex" Johnston flew a barrel roll on the presentation flight of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_367-80#The_barrel_roll Boeing_367-80]], a prototype jet airliner. Boeing President Bill Allen wasn't very happy about it.

*** How could we forget the space battle, where Anakin actually shouts out "Let's try spinning! That's a good trick!"

** You mean from ''[[StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan Wrath of Khan]]''? It works in context - namely, the nebular gasses having a MinovskyParticle-type jamming effect on starship sensors, something even [[StarTrekTheNextGeneration the Borg]] can't solve 80 years later. Besides, Nicholas Meyer wanted to evoke submarine warfare with that battle.

** You mean from ''[[StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan Wrath of Khan]]''? It works in context - namely, the nebular gasses having a {{MinovskyParticle}}-type jamming effect on starship sensors, something even [[StarTrekTheNextGeneration the Borg]] can't solve 80 years later. Besides, Nicholas Meyer wanted to evoke submarine warfare with that battle.

* In [[{{Film/TheATeam}} The A-Team]]'', Murdock does a barrel roll in a civilian medic helicopter, then in a C-130. Just to be clear, neither one of these should be able to do that.

** The G-Diffuser system generates a forcefield around the Arwing while rolling. Paying attention helps.

* {{WWII}} U.S. fighter pilots found that the Thunderbolt, Wildcat and Corsair's superior high-speed roll rates often allowed them to gain the upper hand over othewise more maneuverable enemy fighters like the Zero (and gave them a good way to escape when the couldn't.) They also developed defensive tactics that exploited this advantage like the "thatch weave" and the horizontal scissors.

* {{WWII}} U.S. fighter pilots found that the Thunderbolt, Wildcat and Hellcat's superior high-speed roll rates gave them an exploitable advantage over more maneuverable enemy fighters like the Zero because it allowed them to use a scissors maneuver to allow their wingman to get a shot on a plane that normally would outmaneuver it.

* In the [[StarTrek Starfleet Command]] games, you can't do a barrel roll, but you can Starcastle: sit in one spot and spin your starship in a circle, firing off your weapons as the enemy enters their firing arcs. Pairing this with the tractor beam (which has a rotate function to spin the captured ship around yours while you spin in the opposite direction) and a starship with good all-around weapon coverage (Federation ships, Borg ships), and you can do near-constant damage to your target.