Thunderbirds

[GordonL]

Are the Thunderbird craft as featured in Gerry Anderson's classic childrens series aerodynamically feasible designs?

[kags]

The engineers working on Concorde calculated that TB2 would actually have been able to fly, even with forward facing wings. Apparantly the first public unveiling of Concorde was accompanied with the Thunderbirds theme tune. As for TB1 and TB3, I hope that some clever people can provide you with the answers whilst not shattering my childhood illusions at the same time. (ps - when I saw the cinema trailer for the new film with the CG craft, I was literally gobsmacked - I am not at all sure about having humans in the film, but the craft look awesome)

[GordonL]

To follow on from the informed comments by kags... I feel relatively certain Thunderbird 2 would fly in HTOL mode but the use of rockets/jets for hovering in VTOL mode would be very unworkable - especially for a heavy transporter type aircraft. I think the Harrier can only hover for a few minutes because they have to rip the engine so hard that with no forward air cooling it overheats very quickly and exhausts a limited supply of onboard cooling. water

[kags]

I knew there were some clever people around - unfortunately I am not clever enough to understan whether my childhhod illusions have been shattered or not ;-)

[forged_steel]

Russion Aeronautical Engineers on a shoestring budget and without access to "Thunderbirds" on re-run actualy built and flew a model aircraft of very similar design to T3? (the green one) basically the whole shape of the craft provides lift, not just the wings... they are looking for the next generation of mass cargo/passanger aircraft. Check out pics here :http://home.dmv.com/~tbastian/russ.htm