Cloudbase and Skyship One

by **Parker Gabriel** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 3:46 am

The question is hereby raised regarding how much Cloudbase owes to Skyship One in terms of the technology that keeps it aloft.

by **chrisbishop** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 6:12 am

Only speculating here: maybe the name Hiram Hackenbacker appears on the blueprints of both ships?!

A fanfic plot bunny that's been hoping in my head for some times now...

by **Marion** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 8:10 am

Is Skyship one the plane Lady P goes traveling on in Thunderbird 6?
I can't remember... :oops:

by **Parker Gabriel** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 11:40 am

Marion wrote:Is Skyship One the plane Lady P goes traveling on in Thunderbird 6?
I can't remember... :oops:

Yes. But it's not a true plane per se; it's something quite different.

by **Captain Indigo** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 2:53 pm

I think that the original proposal was for an airship, but unlike the blimps and the Hindenberg, it isn't a great big gas-bag with a cabin on the underside, but kept aloft by 'gravity compensators'.

There are a few similarities between Skyship One and Cloudbase, now that you mention it, although I think that the engines for Cloudbase are a little more traditional in terms of how they operate.

As for the features of the Skyship, the engine room did make a reappearance in CS, but as the interior of Eskimo Station in 'Noose of Ice'.

by **DartBrat701** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 9:20 pm

*After consulting Cloudbase's technical data;*

Cloudbase utilizes a fixed-mode antigravity generator, which in conjunction with the 4 vertical-thrust hover engines help keep it aloft. Proper sound-proofing is vital to help keep engine noise to a minimum.

There is also a variable-mode antigravity generator, which produces force fields and heat shielding.

(As you can tell, I love to delve into the technical aspects!!

)

by **Parker Gabriel** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 7:33 am

DartBrat701 remarked: "Cloudbase utilizes a fixed-mode antigravity generator, which in conjunction with the 4 vertical-thrust hover engines help keep it aloft. Proper sound-proofing is vital to help keep engine noise to a minimum. There is also a variable-mode antigravity generator, which produces force fields and heat shielding."

This possibility would probably mean that Skyship One had both fixed-mode AND variable-mode antigravs, but also that they were interdependent. That meant, in Thunderbird 6, that when the one antigrav was shot out and rendered inoperative, the other antigrav was instantly deprived of the power it needed to compensate.

That would mean that the builders of Cloudbase had learned trememdously from what Thunderbird Brains had done wrong when he had originally designed Skyship One.