Launch Sequences
J. Lester Novros II
in one of the countless British annuals [lucky fellas, they] appeared a feature on the launch sequences of the Thunderbird machines — it was later reprinted in the third
.
Events were presented in drawings that were alleged to come straight from
Brains'
desk. This was borne out by the page layout which showed a veritable jumble of papers, blueprints and scraps of computer punch tape with notes scribbled on them ['C2X alloy — alter molecular structure to give low friction coefficient', 'Ring O.M.C. engineering — get Mr. Tracy to do from Washington next trip', &c.].
According to the first of Brains' pages in the annual:
The ingenious launch sequences of the Thunderbird craft, worked out by Brains after months of planning, are shown here as they appeared on the brilliant scientist's drawing board.
Brains planned to the last detail the sequences shown on this and the following pages, so that the craft could be launched from the organisation's secret base on Tracy Island at a moment's notice. The precious seconds saved in a launching can mean the difference between life and death in a rescue.
It is, of course, a wellknown fact that in reality the designer of the launch sequences was none other than the incomparable
Derek Meddings
but it is another nice indicator of the lengths to which the
TV21
staff went to create a believable future world, yet another trestle undeniably propping up the
Anderson Universe.
In order to keep the original layout intact and still cater for as large a segment as possible of the myriad different internet enabled devices there are nowadays, I decided on the following setup. Each page shows the original as it appeared in the annual which can be enlarged in two ways: by viewing the drawings of the separate stages of the launch individually by tappclicking on them or by zooming the complete drawing by long tappingclicking, holding and dragging.
