If they'd had some of these at Hendon I'd have out-geeked even swisstone

[major_clanger]

I love it when someone takes a silly but simple idea and logically works it out to its end. Such as, for instance, "wouldn't it have been cool if 1970s TV sci-fi had been filmed with real spaceships rather than models, and they now appeared at air shows".

Thus: the Sci-Fi Air Show.

Read about the Orion (since Pan-Am went bust, now operated by United, hence the new paint job). Or the Eagle Transporter, kept flying by the large pile of spares procured from BAe to cover the frequent crashes during stunt flying. (The AAIB report on this incident is legendary in flight safety circles.) And it's worth pausing the slideshow to see some other craft creeping into the background here and there. (Look in the background to the right here.)

It's a lovely joke. But I want this picture to be real so much it hurts.

Comments

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Great stuff. Thanks for the link.

*Geeks out at the sight of the Flying Sub*

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, that is so wonderful. Thanks for that.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Wow -- that would be a super amazing thing to be at.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

Whoever put this together gets a virtual standing ovation from me!

Thanks for pointing it out, it's F-A-B!

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Lovely - took me a moment to identify the SHADO interceptor, but it was nice to see it.

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

Most excellent! But where's Thunderbird 5?

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

In orbit, of course. Where do you think the Orion does pleasure-flights to?

(I like to think that in this world there's been some typical inter-museum scrap that has resulted in SkyDiver being split between Duxford and the Submarine Museum at Gosport; meanwhile there's a SHADO Mobile at the Blandford Tank Museum whilst Fireball XL5 sits at Bruntingthorpe in the hanger alongside XH588 waiting its turn to be restored to flying condition.)

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

Doh, did I really type 5? Yes, I did... I'm actually picturing a close-up fisheye view of Thunderbird 3 seen from the ground close up, bathed in spotlights on a launch pad against an evening sky.

This is a small trip back into a childhood fantasy world... As a teenager I used to have a fleet of three Airfix Orion IIIs with Pan Am decals hanging in formation from the bedroom ceiling, somewhere above my Saturn V. I have no recollection of what happened to them all, yet they were once my pride and joy.

I've gone for that excellent Night Eagle wallpaper... my previous favourite Eagle image was this:

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks Simon. This made me laugh out loud, then get rather envious. Would love to see the Orion operative.

[sbisson.livejournal.com]

Beautiful work.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

What a neat idea!

[ben-jeapes.livejournal.com]

I want an Angel flypast.

I also want the Zero-X doing orbital trips alongside the Orion.

And Cloudbase as a kind of Duxford overflow. In fact the whole airshow could relocate to Cloudbase and tour the planet.

Curse my puny Photoshop skills.