History Main / SpaceIsAir

** The novelization of Macross' Westernized form ''{{Anime/Robotech}}'' [[{{Handwave}} handwaves]] it as the fighters being thought-controlled. Since most of the pilots were used to atmospheric craft first and foremost, their veritechs moved as if they were in an atmosphere.

** The novelization of Macross' Westernized form {{Anime/Robotech}} [[{{Handwave}} handwaves]] it as the fighters being thought-controlled. Since most of the pilots were used to atmospheric craft first and foremost, their veritechs moved as if they were in an atmosphere.
** Later ''Macross'' installments do their best to avert this, showing their fighters using verniers and thrusters to move in space, as well as pulling off maneuvers that wouldn't work in an atmosphere.

* At the end of ''ComicBook/{{Pouvoirpoint}}'', the large starship ''Entreprise-2061'' is assaulted by a [[SpaceFighter small coastguard fighter]], faster and better armed, which turns around him and hassles him [[OldSchoolDogfight like a annoying biplane around a zeppelin]].

** Later ''Macross'' installments do their best to avert this, showinf their fighters using verniers and thrusters to move in space, as well as pulling of maneuvers that wouldn't work in an atmosphere.

Space Is Air when a work treats spacecraft as if they were aircraft; they bank into turns, keep their engines firing at all times, and may even have wings built into their design. Aircraft-style design can be [[JustifiedTrope justified]] if the ship is capable of operating in atmosphere as well as in space (like the space shuttle), but the ''main'' reason that this trope exists is because audiences are more familiar with how airplanes work than with how spaceships work. Thus, creators treat spaceships as if they are simply airplanes [[RecycledInSpace in space]] instead of using realistic physics, in order to avoid confusing the audience. This [[TropesAreTools isn't necessarily a bad thing]] -- after all, it can be used to great effect to make things [[RuleOfCool look really cool]] -- but it does push things down toward the softer end of MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness.

Space Is Air when a work treats spacecraft as if they were aircraft; they bank into turns, keep their engines firing at all times, and may even have wings built into their design. Aircraft-style design can be [[JustifiedTrope justified]] if the ship is capable of operating in atmosphere as well as in space (like the space shuttle), but the ''main'' reason that this trope exists is because audiences are more familiar with how airplanes work than with how spaceships work. Thus, creators treat spaceships as if they are simply airplanes [[RecycledInSpace in space]] instead of using realistic physics, in order to avoid [[ViewersAreMorons confusing the audience]]. This [[TropesAreTools isn't necessarily a bad thing]] -- after all, it can be used to great effect to make things [[RuleOfCool look really cool]] -- but it does push things down toward the softer end of MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness.

* Taken to a literal extreme in ''TheLittlePrince'', in which the Prince leaves his planet by catching migrating birds. Still, the story is less a science fiction tale and more a FairyTale with planets in it.

* ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato'' combines it with SpaceIsAnOcean; capital ships act like sea-going vessels, while smaller craft act like airplanes, to the point of having dive bombers and torpedo bomebrs. Given that the show is very much in the style of WorldWarII's Pacific theater RecycledInSpace, it's to be expected.

** The novelization of Macross' Westernized form {{Robotech}} [[{{Handwave}} handwaves]] it as the fighters being thought-controlled. Since most of the pilots were used to atmospheric craft first and foremost, their veritechs moved as if they were in an atmosphere.

* Battlestar Galactica generally averts this. In an early space battle, one of the Vipers does a head-to-tail 180 degree spin in order to fire at a bogey behind it, and most of the time the engines only fire when they change course.

* DoctorWho both plays this straight AND subverts it in Victory of the Daleks. World War 2 aircraft are given air-containing force fields and engine modifications that actually allow them to fly into space and attack the Dalek mothership (the air inside the force field allowing the propeller to function and perform the usual airplane banks and rolls). The whole thing is hand waved by saying the force field generators and engine modifications were made with Dalek technology.

* DoctorWho both plays this straight AND subverts it in Victory of the Daleks. World War 2 aircraft are given air-containing force fields and engine modifications that actually allow them to fly into space and attack the Dalek mothership. The whole thing is hand waved by saying the force field generators and engine modifications were made with Dalek technology.

** Though Notably the dogfights many of the ships do in fact drift a bit and engage and re-engage thrusters

* The ''Wing Commander'' movie takes this trope even further than Star Wars by having fighters take off from runways the same way airships take off from Aircraft Carriers and ships drop down when they leave the runway.

* While ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' normally tries to avert this trope, the novel ''Pandorax'' plays it dead staight with no excuse or shame.

* ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'' averts this.

* ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'' averts this. Hard.

* Parodied in the ''very low'' budget show [[ShowWithinaShow ''The Planet from Outer Space'']], that appears in ''WesternAnimation/{{The Simpsons}}'' episode ''She of Little Faith'', in which everyone within a ship chokes because of "space air"... until the put on their googles.

The way airplanes work is dependent on the fact that they're travelling through the atmosphere. Wings provide lift, flaps and rudders can reorient the plane by redirecting airflow, and their engines must be on constantly in order to counteract the effects of friction and gravity — wings generate lift only when there's airflow across them, so a certain minimum airspeed is absolutely necessary for them to work. Because space is a vacuum, none of these things apply to spaceships -- wings and flaps are useless, and the engine only needs to be on when the ship is changing speed or direction. This means that spacecraft use dedicated thrusters to reorient themselves, and change direction in sharp bursts rather than gradually. If you see a spaceship changing direction without using maneuvering rockets, or making wide, sweeping turns, then that's because Space Is Air. Comets are almost always shown moving in the opposite direction to their tails, as if they were moving through air and their tails were the trails they left behind.