Fireflash airliner from original TV Thunderbirds TV 21 artwork

[uk 75]

The Thunderbirds series from the 1960s featured in its first episode a wonderful airliner called Fireflash,
which was totally improbable but looked very cool.
In the series it crops up in a few episodes in the livery of "Air Terrainean", a sort of mixture of Pan American and BOAC.
However, in the TV 21 comic it was drawn in a yellow and green livery of an unspecified European airline.
The colours lend themselves to being replaced to give various 60s schemes like BOAC and TWA

 

[Hood]

I remember that comic strip from when they republished the TV21 stories in the Thunderbirds comic back in the mid-1990s.

I believe the airliner shown is a Bereznik airliner (Penelope is escaping with a defecting scientist). I always assumed it was a Fireflash-ski clone given that it lacks the leading-edge wing cabins and has thinner engine nacelles. Also, given the political background alluded to in the TV21 themes it seems unlikely the rouge Bereznik (USSR for the 21st century) would have been able to acquire Fireflashes.
*Supermarination geek mode off*

I've always wondered if Fireflash was partly inspired by the double-deck VC10 projects of the time. Some of the promotional artwork of the DB625 for example is reminiscent of the Fireflash's forward fuselage.
The comics also reflected the changing industrial landscape, the Fireflash's builders the New World Aircraft Corporation highlighted the future that major aircraft developments would be conducted by large multinational efforts.

 

[dogsbody]

A wee video:

https://youtu.be/EOCmI72eRh4



Chris