cloudbase cutaway drawing
Helicopter landing platform
Observation tube
Control tower
Radar
Main flight deck
Spectrafan – lifts hydraulically
for landing of Angel craft
Angel flight deck
Escalators in tower support-arms provide access to
main body via a covered catwalk at the rear of the
main engines and further escalator to the motor
support brackets
Motor support brackets containing
passageways and service ducts, &c.
Nacelle containing twin stabilizer jets
Electrically driven fan complex plus huge twin jets
in the main nacelles provide the hovering downdraft
The two jets can be used with the down deflectors
cut out, to drive the base to a new position
The vast area under the flight deck is used for a variety
of purposes, including maintenance, crews quarters, games
and cinema, and hangars and workshops for servicing other
than Angelcraft, and a hospital
Lower deck contains engine rooms, main and
auxiliary, stores and repair facilities
Giant tubes beneath the deck contain fuel and water supplies
Slung beneath these is the atomic generating plant
Refrigeration unit
Intakes and outlets of air conditioning system
Vent for expulsion of wastes
Angel craft service bay
Lift to carry craft from flight deck to bay
Angel craft ready for take off
Catapult system
Amber room where Angel pilots stand by
Lift carries Angels up and into their aircraft

Technical specifications originally published in TV21 #158

  1. Headquarters of Spectrum, nerve centre of the World's security. The personnel of this revolutionary structure are ready night and day to combat any Mysteron threat
  2. Formerly designed as a submarine; a floating island and then a space station. But at last the idea of a floating headquarters on the edge of the Earth's atmosphere was devised and put into operation.
  3. The hive of activity – the Control Room in the centre of which is Colonel White's desk – itself a vast complex of computers, communication cells, and film files. On the control room wall is the Communications Console, where, at the flick of a switch, the position of every Spectrum agent can be pin-pointed. Four more telescan sets constantly watch the huge engines which power Cloudbase. With the aid of these telescanners a fault can easily be found.
  4. The Monitor Room – where every piece of World information is sifted through vast computers that line the walls. Lights flash continuously, recording, receiving and transmitting information to all parts of the world
  5. The observation room houses the Spectagram, the videoscanners, astroscopes, spacemascopes. From this room, at the flick of a switch, any minute part of the earth can be scanned in every tiny detail.
  6. The Spectagram is the radar defence of Cloudbase. Registering any object coming within a 500-mile radius of Cloudbase.
  7. Keeping Cloudbase moored in position, are the vast Hover Combines. Air is sucked into the engines and pressurised to create enough force to keep Cloudbase moored in place.
  8. The Engine Room is a vast complex of enormous engines, each working on one unique principle – the sun's rays. They are converted into energy giving the Cloudbase engines power.

SPECIFICATION REVISION

Cloudbase decoy illustration Cloudbase decoy illustration

Decoy
A Top Secret project still under discussion in the Spectrum Design Centre, in the event of a Mysteron attack on Cloudbase.

Being tested now is a Cloudbase decoy, hovering 40,000 feet above the world. An exact replica of Cloudbase made of reinforced plastic balloon fabric, invented for Spectrum exclusively.

The decoy Cloudbase has several small refinements to duplicate the real Cloudbase. Transmitters and code sequences are radioed around the craft so that any tracking device will pick up the soundwaves of the dummy Cloudbase before those of the real Cloudbase.

Visually, the craft is an identical duplicate of Cloudbase. Only detectable as a decoy from the height of one mile. If any craft passes within 15 miles of the dummy, a small photo-radio will photograph the craft, then the picture and all information will be relayed to the real Cloudbase immediately, and action will be taken.

Angel Decoy
Attached to the dummy Cloudbase will be three Angel craft decoys — exact replicas of the originals visually, but really deadly missiles, programmed to attack on the instant an enemy target is located.

The war-head is fitted into the nose cone of the decoy plane and is designed to explode on impact.

additional specifications published originally in Captain Scarlet 1969 annual

cloudbase
Technical Specifications
name: Cloudbase
length: 630 ft.
width: 330 ft.
height above sealevel: 40,000 ft.
propulsion: atomic jets powered by air intake hacelle jet cloud-conversion engines
location: variable
crew: 600
armaments: defence strike craft; eiectron ray dischar'ge anti-aircraft missile guns air-to-air missiles i hyprosanic paralysing cannons
description: Cloudbase. Heart of Spectrum. Headquarters of the new and most efficient security force in the World. Here the hard core of this massive organisation lives – constantly on the alert for a call to danger that may send them to the farthest corner of the world. Here Colonel White, with a massive complex of computers and video-scanners, watches the Earth, and within seconds, he can mobilise teams of skilled and daring men and women and direct them to any spot on the globe where danger or trouble threatens. Cloudbase itself, a masterpiece of functional design and technological complexity, hovers 40,000 feet up in the sky, location unknown, watching and waiting, forever guarding the Earth.
designer: Derek Meddings