HELIJET AIRCRAFT

From Gerry Anderson’s 1960s TV series ‘Thunderbirds’.

Another ‘What If’’ artwork’.

There were several Helijets featured in this incredible series - the chunkier, more powerful looking freight or cargo versions (seen in ‘Pit of Peril’ and ‘End of the Road’ among others). This is a more sleek, passenger-type aircraft and is seen in several episodes and really helps to flesh out the world. It appears in ‘City of Fire’ and ‘The Imposters’ as part of a TV News team. It also appears as the crooks getaway vehicle in ‘30 Minutes After Noon’.

It is shown here in New York City with the Empire State Building being prepared for it’s move (a key storyline in the episode ‘Terror in New York City.).

This is a really beautiful, highly credible design. A variant of this ship (possibly the same model) appeared in ‘Joe 90’, with large pontoons in place of the landing skids.

This model features ‘kit-bashed’ parts from an F104 Stargfighter as well as the Testors Huskie helicopter model kit. I read somewhere that the rule of thumb is that is that if it has intakes it is a Derek Meddings design and if it has probes it is a Mike Trim design this has both!