on a wing and a prayer

Etymology
Describes a damaged warplane barely able to return to base, possibly originating in the film Flying Tigers (1942) in which the dialog refers to a flight as “coming in on one wing and a prayer”, made popular by the World War II song “” with lyrics by.

Prepositional phrase

 * 1) With the hope of averting disaster despite a desperate situation teetering on failure.
 * After seeing half the senior staff walk out, the school opened the new year on a wing and a prayer.

Translations

 * Russian: