Drunkard's Walk Forums

Hey people.  I was inspired to whip up a new trope to submit to ATT's Trope Workshop, but although I know I've Seen It A Million Times, I'm blanking on all but one example of it in use.  Below is a copy of the proposed trope; if anyone can recall any other instances to add to it, I'd very grateful.

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Dawn of Flight Failures Montage

{{trope}}
{{Tropestub}}
Sp7MHZY2ADI

This montage of early-20th century black-and-white assorted [[Those Magnificent Flying Machines|Magnificent Flying Machines] failing rather spectacularly at actual flight is such a common piece of [[Stock Footage] that it counts as a trope in its own right.  While the exact contents of the montage may vary from use to use, it will almost always include at least some of the following:

* A fragile-looking craft with seven wings stacked on top of each other, like a metastasized biplane, rolling for a short distance alongside a warehouse or hangar before the whole thing suddenly collapses and its wings fold in on top of it
* A wheeled vehicle that appears to be an early attempt at a helicopter, with a spinning conical fan-like wing/propeller atop it, bouncing futilely in place
* Another prototype helicopter with two counter-spinning propellers, which nearly decapitates its would-be pilot before he runs off and it falls over on its side
* A device that looks like it a converted threshing machine which promptly tears itself apart as soon as it starts up
* A mustachioed gentleman leaping off a rock while wearing what appears to be a large rocket-propelled model airplane
* At least one pedal-powered contraption with bicycle wheels and flapping wings
* A substantial-looking "airplane" with flapping wings that simply falls apart, starting with its propeller
* A man wearing ice skates and a rocket pack on his back, who ends up being knocked on his butt instead of propelled across the ice
* At least one man with wings attached to his arms, trying to fly simply by flapping them
* A glider (?) falling down the side of a cliff and smashing into the rocks below
* A biplane plowing into the side of a house

There are other clips beyond these which may appear in the montage, including different angles and alternate footage of some of the events above; these are simply the most recognizable.

One of the most common collections of these clips was originally a Pathe [[News Reel].

While it can still seen played straight in documentaries on early aviation pioneers, it is more likely to be encountered in a humorous context.  (And sometimes ''both'' at the same time.)  

{{examples}}
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== Anime and Manga ==

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== Fan Works ==

== Film ==
* In ''[[Airplane!]'' as part of Ted's PTSD flashbacks, when he runs out of actual WWII stock footage for his memories.

== Literature ==

== Live-Action Television ==

== Music ==

== Myths and Legends ==

== Newspaper Comics ==

== Oral Tradition ==

== Pinball ==

== Podcasts ==

== Professional Wrestling ==

== Puppet Shows ==

== Radio ==

== Tabletop Games ==

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== Western Animation ==

== Web Animation ==

== Web Comics ==

== Web Video ==

== Other Media ==

== Real Life ==

{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{BASEPAGENAME}}]
[[Categoryages Original To All The Tropes]
[[Category:Film]
[[Category:Montages]
[[Category:Flying Tropes]
[[Category:Tropes On a Plane]
[[Category:Vehicle Tropes]
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Whoops. Didn't intend for the commented reference links to end up live here, but hell, I'll keep'em in place. Not that I think anyone wouldn't know the clips in question.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Anime and Manga:
* Many of these flying machines appear in the first episode of ''[[Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water]'', taking part in a competition to see who can go the farthest before crashing. They have the same success rate that they had in Real Life.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Thank you! I had quite forgotten about that. Obviously.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

I don't know whether this should count as "Literature" or "Other Media," and I'm not even sure it quite fits what you had in mind, but Playboy in the 1960s ran a humor article by Brock Yates (of Car and Driver magazine) and artist-writer Bruce McCall depicting several deliberately silly designs, "Major Howdy Bixby's Album of Forgotten Warbirds."   
These included a Japanese pedal-powered papier-mâché "bomber," known to Americans as the "Shirley" and intended to drop a rabid dog on a Yank ship; Britain's Humbley-Pudge Gallipoli Heavyish Bomber; an Italian Caproni-Moroni design built so it could reverse course without turning in order to more quickly join the forces it'd been sent to attack; and the Soviets' Snud U-14 transport, constructed with a bent fuselage due to the blueprint being wrinkled.
Letters to the editor pretending to take this seriously (and praise it) came in from John W. R. Taylor, then-editor of Jane's All the World's Aircraft, and from Ray Wagner, author of American Combat Planes (1960), who even joked that he'd seen "the Humbley-Pudge leading an R.A.F. review given by Prime Minister Churchill in honor of Neville Chamberlain and Sir Oswald Moseley."
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Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.

While that's an immensely amusing read (it reminds me of a half-remembered pictorial on similarly improbable race cars from long ago), no, it's not what I'm looking for -- I'm looking for specific instances of the footage in the YouTube links. Or obvious references to it, as in Rob's example.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

IIRC, there's that in "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines" (Film)

Thank you!
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.