They have a cunning plan...

[Marion]

While I was looking through the 1968 Captain Scarlet annual - looking for something starting with U for the Word Game - I came across an intriguing little snippet that I hadn't noticed before.
It said:
A Top Secret project still under discussion in the Spectrum Design Centre, in the event of a Mysteron attack on Cloudbase.
Being tested now is a Cloudbase decoy, hovering at 40,000 feet above the world. An exact replica of Cloudbase made of reinforced plastic balloon fabric, invented for Spectrum exclusively.
The decoy Cloudbase has several small refinements to duplicate the real Cloudbase. Transmitters and code sequences are radioed around the craft so any tracking device will pick up the soundwaves of the dummy Cloudbase before those of the real Cloudbase.
Visually, the craft is an identical duplicate of Cloudbase. Only detectable as a decoy from the height of one mile. If any craft passes within 15 miles of the dummy, a small photo-radio will photograph the craft, then the picture and all information will be relayed to the real Cloudbase immediately, and action will be taken.
Attached to the dummy Cloudbase will be three Angel craft decoys - exact replicas of the originals visually, but really deadly missiles, programmed to attack on the instant an enemy target is located.
The war-head is fitted into the nose cone of the decoy plane and is designed to explode on impact.

What were those guys on?

[hazel]

In all the times I've read and re-read that annual, I've never seen that! Bizarre... I can accept the SPJ with an ejectable passenger cabin, but not what amounts to a Bouncy Cloudbase.

[RhapsodyAngel8]

I’d not noticed that before either re: Cloudbase. It must have been great fun thinking up all these things.

The annual also mentions the SSC’s self-inflatable tyres – made of silicone plastic - in the event of a puncture/damage. I wonder whether that’s where the idea for the self-inflatable tyres in the Bond film ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ came from.
I can’t really see that the mention of the hollow tyres also acting as a reserve fuel supply is all that sensible though!

[Marion]

What makes me wonder is: balloons tend to deflate, even very big ones. So, who gets to blow it up again? You can see the colonel saving that for someone who has really loused up, can't you?
"Ochre and Magenta, you will scrub the hangar decks with toothbrushes until I can se my face in them! While you, Captain Scarlet, can blow up the decoy base.... all on your own."

[Shade]

I’d not noticed that before either re: Cloudbase. It must have been great fun thinking up all these things.

The annual also mentions the SSC’s self-inflatable tyres – made of silicone plastic - in the event of a puncture/damage. I wonder whether that’s where the idea for the self-inflatable tyres in the Bond film ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ came from.
I can’t really see that the mention of the hollow tyres also acting as a reserve fuel supply is all that sensible though!

Self-inflating tires appeared in 1966 in an episode of Batman; Better Luck Next Time, the second part of a Catwoman two-parter, where she'd mined a road that the Batmobile was expected to go.

[Captain Indigo]

I'm not sure about self-inflating, but I assume this is actually a reference to something that does, in fact, exist.

Keen off-road cyclists prevent dangerous punctures by adding a small amount of liquid silicon like this into their tyres/inner tubes. When a puncture occurs, the silicon flows into the hole and seals it up, stopping the air from flowing out.

There are also latex foams available in pressurised canisters that can 'inflate' a punctured tyre for long enough to drive to Kwik Fit, but these need someone to actually connect the canister to the tyre.

[gojohnniegogo]

I’d not noticed that before either re: Cloudbase. It must have been great fun thinking up all these things.

The annual also mentions the SSC’s self-inflatable tyres – made of silicone plastic - in the event of a puncture/damage. I wonder whether that’s where the idea for the self-inflatable tyres in the Bond film ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ came from.
I can’t really see that the mention of the hollow tyres also acting as a reserve fuel supply is all that sensible though!

But then the Original Captain Scarlet and Captain Brown wouldn't have crashed I'd imagine!

[Cat 2]

While I was looking through the 1968 Captain Scarlet annual - looking for something starting with U for the Word Game - I came across an intriguing little snippet that I hadn't noticed before.
It said:
A Top Secret project still under discussion in the Spectrum Design Centre, in the event of a Mysteron attack on Cloudbase.
Being tested now is a Cloudbase decoy, hovering at 40,000 feet above the world. An exact replica of Cloudbase made of reinforced plastic balloon fabric, invented for Spectrum exclusively.
The decoy Cloudbase has several small refinements to duplicate the real Cloudbase. Transmitters and code sequences are radioed around the craft so any tracking device will pick up the soundwaves of the dummy Cloudbase before those of the real Cloudbase.
Visually, the craft is an identical duplicate of Cloudbase. Only detectable as a decoy from the height of one mile. If any craft passes within 15 miles of the dummy, a small photo-radio will photograph the craft, then the picture and all information will be relayed to the real Cloudbase immediately, and action will be taken.
Attached to the dummy Cloudbase will be three Angel craft decoys - exact replicas of the originals visually, but really deadly missiles, programmed to attack on the instant an enemy target is located.
The war-head is fitted into the nose cone of the decoy plane and is designed to explode on impact.

What were those guys on?

Just google operation Mincemeat. A bouncy Cloudbase is hardly the weirdest idea that's being floated by the military.

[doc gold]

That is a very good idea too confuse the Mysterons!! But yeah, who thought off it, knows about details

[Cat 2]

I’d not noticed that before either re: Cloudbase. It must have been great fun thinking up all these things.

The annual also mentions the SSC’s self-inflatable tyres – made of silicone plastic - in the event of a puncture/damage. I wonder whether that’s where the idea for the self-inflatable tyres in the Bond film ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ came from.
I can’t really see that the mention of the hollow tyres also acting as a reserve fuel supply is all that sensible though!

Here, Here. There's enough worries about bioethanol fuels and crashes, without having to worry about the tryres exploding in the event of a crash. Plus, I'm fairly certain it wouldn't work unless there was a cooling system in place.

[Cat 2]

That is a very good idea too confuse the Mysterons!! But yeah, who thought off it, knows about details

Colonel White would presumably have to know about it. Apart from that...it might be need to know (and hope your aircraft remember where they were parked)