History Main / SpaceIsAir

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 spacecraft 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 [[Administrivia/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.

* Practically every space combat sim in history uses this, since most of them are just [[FollowTheLeader following the example]] set by ''Franchise/StarWars''. Examples include ''VideoGame/{{X}}'', ''VideoGame/StrikeSuitZero'', ''VideoGame/TachyonTheFringe'', ''VideoGame/TerminalVelocity''...

A subtrope of SpaceDoesNotWorkThatWay, and sister trope to SpaceIsAnOcean. Also a frequent cause of SpaceFriction, and may be why BatmanCanBreatheInSpace. If you see {{Old School Dogfight}}ing in space, it's usually because this trope is in effect; it also dictates the appearance of many {{Space Fighter}}s.

* Averted in ''Series/BabylonFive'' -- the Starfury is clearly designed for operation in three dimensions and looks nothing like an airplane; the pilot is not even in a seated position, but standing.
** Even within the show, ships designed to operate in an atmosphere as well as space, such as the [[SpacePirate Raiders']] delta-wing fighters or the [[MidseasonUpgrade Thunderbolt Starfuries]], will have a more aerodynamic design at the expense of being less maneuverable in space combat. Raiders end up having to rely on superior numbers whenever possible, while the Thunderbolts are fitted with [[MoreDakka considerably more]] [[MacrossMissileMassacre firepower]].
* the new 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.

* This is how ''everything'' works in ''TabletopGame/XWingMiniatures''; if your fighter doesn't move like a plane, you're probably playing Scum and Villainy and sprung for Inertial Dampeners, because everyone else has to be in constant motion and can almost never turn on the spot. Justified on grounds of it being a Franchise/StarWars tie-in; piloting in space is ''always'' identical to piloting in atmosphere in the Galaxy Far Far Away.

* Used in ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'', where the rules for fighting in space are essentially identical to the rules for fighting on a planet -- nevermind the fact that heat dissipation (a major factor in mech combat) would be completely different.

The Octalians from ''WesternAnimation/MiloMurphysLaw'' can survive the vacuum of space as long as they hold their breath and shapeshift into another living being or object.

The Octalians from ''WesternAnimation/{{Milo Murphy's Law}}' can survive the vacuum of space as long as they hold their breath and shapeshift into another living being or object.

* ''Discworld/TheLastHero'' has the Disc's one-and-only spacecraft leaving its atmosphere and making an (unplanned) trip to the Moon. in the flat earth [[InJoke continuinuinuum]], the atmosphere of the disc never completely ends, it thins, but does not diminish to a point where it is virtually non-existent. The intrepid travellers discover they can still breathe on the Discworld's moon, for instance. As the spacecraft has wings to steer with, tis comes in very handy.

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 spacecraft 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.

* ''Discworld/TheLastHero'' has the Disc's one-and-only spacecraft leaving its atmosphere and making an (unplanned) trip to the Moon. in the flat earth continuinuinuum, the atmosphere of the disc never completely ends, it thins, but does not diminish to a point where it is virtually non-existent. The intrepid travellers discover they can still breathe on the Discworld's moon, for instance. As the spacecraft has wings to steer with, tis comes in very handy.

* The Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse has a lot of this, reflecting the films.

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** Though notably in the dogfights many of the ships do in fact drift a bit and disengage and re-engage thrusters for turning.

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.

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. This trope occasionally extends to natural phenomena; for instance, the Sun is sometimes depicted, particularly in children's fiction, as literally on fire, implying that space is full of air to let it burn. 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.

** Partially justified, since ''Mass Effect'' spaceships use [[AppliedPhlebotinum Element Zero]] to travel, by manipulating gravity. While this doesn't provide any atmosphere, it does allow ships to pull off maneuvers that would otherwise be impossible in space.

** There ''are'' parts for spaceplanes (for mixed atmospheric/space flight) and even regular planes, but they're kind of an afterthought compared to the rocketry. People who actually care a lot about atmospheric flight generally use a mod to make aerodynamics in the game work closer to how it does in real life.

* In ''Ride/SpaceMountain'' at the Ride/DisneyThemeParks, not only are guests able to breathe in space, but the rocket vehicle moves through space as if it were normal air, and of course the guests suffer no form of decompression.

* 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 the crew of a ship chokes because of "space air"... until they put their googles on.

* 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 the crew of a ship chokes because of "space air"... until they put their googles on.

* ''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 bombers. Given that the show is very much in the style of WorldWarII's Pacific theater RecycledInSpace, it's to be expected.

* DoctorWho both plays this straight AND subverts it in Victory of the Daleks. World War 2 aircraft (Spitfires actually) 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.