Category: Thunderbirds

Imagine this. Tracy island on a sunny afternoon. Jeff is reading the paper (how did that get there?), Virgil having a cigarette, Scott doing who knows what. There’s a call from John: disaster in London.

So, they discuss it, Scott takes his time, gets into T1, takes off and heads to the site. Thunderbird 1 is fast, 7500mph, or is it 7000mph, or 6500? It’s streamlined, designed for speed.

Why would he not fly at the fastest safe speed?

How does he get permission for the flight? He might cross the flight paths of other aircraft…

He gives Jeff his ETA. He says what pod will be needed. How does he know this when he hasn’t got there yet? Couldn’t he know that before they left? Couldn’t someone else do that?

OK says Virgil. He gets onto his wobbly ramp thing, gets to T2, spends ages loading the pod and getting to the take off point, but take off he does.

T2 is a big tanker of a ship. It’s not aerodynamic.

Scott’s there already. How long will you be, Virgil?

There in nine and one half minutes, says Virgil.

What? How did Thunderbird 2 get there so quickly?

Have fast can it fly? It’s carrying all the equipment, it’s not streamlined, its wings are on backwards.

Doesn’t it take hours to get to London? Even at those speeds…

If T2 can fly that fast, why can’t T1 fly faster?

Scott is the oldest of the brothers, the pilot of Thunderbird 1 and the man his father turns to when he goes off with Lady Penelope.

Is Jeff also having an affair with Lady P?

What does Scott actually do, besides unload a mobile communications centre (or other people do that for him) and occasionally help with rescues?

Why are the Thunderbird craft so simple inside? Why don’t they have lots of controls? Why don’t they have computer systems and fly-by-wire?

How old is Scott?

Scott is the public face of IR, so how is that secret?

We have never understood how T2 was supposed to fly. Even the designers admitted that the wings are on backwards, because it looks cooler.

Usually, when T2 comes into land, it flies horizontally until it finds the right spot, and it hovers, however briefly. So, what is it that keeps the craft in the air? Anti-gravity?

It then fires its engines downwards and this causes it to descend. So, how does that work? They are the same engines it uses to take off, and they move it upwards at that point.

Anyway, T2 goes down until it is nearly on the ground and the engines cut off. This causes it so slow down and come to a very soft landing.

Isn’t this all just backwards?

How does not firing an engine make something drop more slowly?

When Thunderbird 2 returns to base on Tracy Island, it hovers above its taxi way, fires its downward engines and this allows it to rotate. Huh?

And they fire the exact same engines to take off…

When T2 backs into its bay on the island, what is powering it? Why does the steam go backwards when Virgil does this?

T1 is also pretty bad at this…