Splitbrain,
I always preferred to gloss over the timing of TB2's lift engines ( maybe just the high power bit in the pure hover makes the noise & flame etc ? sadly more likely that's how long the effects flares lasted...)
When a lad, my cynical father always pointed at TB2 " they put the wings on the wrong way !" - so many years later I took great delight pushing pics of the X-29 under his nose.
Dyonsphere,
It seems TB1 has considerably more than 10 times Lighning range as it trundles across the Pacific / anywhere without refuelling - does 25,000mph too according to the 1st episode, which even
some ex-Lightning types would hesitate to claim.
Is it me or are the episodes of most G.Anderson series where it all goes wrong - TB2 shot at & crash landing, Cloudbase under mass attack & going down in C.Scarlet, Mass Attack in UFO, or the one in space 1999 where Alpha & it's Eagles are picked off by Hawks & giant bomber etc; A, a staple fall-back, B, the most exciting !
Having said that, I still think the 1st episode of Thunderbirds ( 'Stranded in The Sky ' ) is a classic at any level, landing the Fireflash wheels-up on 3 high speed trucks...
BTW A friend once saw a soft porn film with G.Drake
