Thunderbird 5 from ‘Thunderbirds‘ created by Gerry Anderson
Thunderbird 5 is International Rescue’s Space Station and is equipped with an array of powerful sensors and computers, monitoring every radio communication all over the World. The computer can highlight calls for help, and in ‘Cry Wolf’ we see that it is even able to pick up communication between two boys playing with toy walkie-talkies!
The Space Station is enormous, the main body is about 250 feet in diameter and the overall length, including the docking arm is 412 feet, making it the largest of the Thunderbird machines. It is in a locked, geo stationary orbit. John and Alan alternate duty, for one month at a time. Thunderbird 3 is used to transport personnel to and from the Satellite.
It is surprising that Thunderbird 5 is not seen in every episode. Sometimes the pace of the action is such that the story goes directly from the disaster area to the Island with John already relaying infomation to Jeff.
It plays a large part in the episodes ‘Operation Crash-Dive’ where Alan uses the tracking systems - the Automatic Fixer - to pinpoint the true location of the Firerflash airliner. In ‘Danger at Ocean Deep’ Brains travels to Thunderbird 5 to make high fidelity recordings, uninhibited by atmospheric distortion. In ‘Ricochet’ the systems are offline and while ona dangerous mission Thunderbirds 2 and 3 are unable to communicate with eatrh other or the Island.
A kit would be in white or grey plastic. Even in 1/350th scale the model would measure 14”. It would need a bespoke stand to support it as the central tower that sticks out the bottom would be about 5” tall and quite delicate.
Designed by Derek Meddings