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Description
"Miss Tintin Kyrano? This is your flight. You're lucky; it's the maiden flight of the new atomic-powered Fireflash."

"Isn't that the new aircraft that flies six times the speed of sound?"

"That's right. But don't worry, it's perfectly safe."

It was not perfectly safe.

Ever since I first saw Thunderbirds on a Saturday morning on BBC Two (this was reruns during the early 2000s), I have been in love with the Fireflash supersonic airliner. Something about the design has always stuck with me, to the extent that I would almost consider it the most iconic vehicle of the show, and certainly the most iconic guest vehicle. With commercial airliners and Virgin Galactic seriously looking at the concept of supersonic civilian transports, I got an itch to imagine what Fireflash would look like if it were designed today, trying to keep as many of the distinctive features of the original aircraft as possible.

Firstly, let's appreciate the quote above. Tintin is informed she'll be aboard the new atomic aircraft and it's the Mach 6 airspeed she's worried about. Obviously, there is a myriad of reasons why a real supersonic aircraft wouldn't use a nuclear reactor as it's power source (size, cost, radiation exposure, etc.)

The concept above envisages Fireflash with the distinctive cylindrical fuselage slowly coming to a pointed nose as with the original aircraft from the show, but almost every other aspect of the aircraft had to be re-imagined to end up with something reasonably practical. I decided to implement a V-tail pair of vertical stabilisers as a nod to the engine nacelles of the original, and because they are an efficient design for aircraft operating at supersonic speeds. I then moved the engines to the top of the fuselage between the tailfins. It would be more realistic to place them beneath the fuselage to reduce disruption of airflow over the tailfins, but this way it links back visually to the large observation deck built into the tail of the show's Fireflash, and functionally references the placement of the engines as well.

The wings have been changed from the 60's style swept wings to a more modern cropped delta-wing. I've tried to keep the wing-tips as close to the original position as possible, but this was where I felt it looked most functional and like the original Fireflash design.

This is just a quick top-down concept, without window details and rendered in a letterless interpretation of the Air Terrannean livery.

Let me know what you think, and what you think I could/should change.

Description
"Miss Tintin Kyrano? This is your flight. You're lucky; it's the maiden flight of the new atomic-powered Fireflash."

"Isn't that the new aircraft that flies six times the speed of sound?"

"That's right. But don't worry, it's perfectly safe."

It was not perfectly safe.

Ever since I first saw Thunderbirds on a Saturday morning on BBC Two (this was reruns during the early 2000s), I have been in love with the Fireflash supersonic airliner. Something about the design has always stuck with me, to the extent that I would almost consider it the most iconic vehicle of the show, and certainly the most iconic guest vehicle. With commercial airliners and Virgin Galactic seriously looking at the concept of supersonic civilian transports, I got an itch to imagine what Fireflash would look like if it were designed today, trying to keep as many of the distinctive features of the original aircraft as possible.

Firstly, let's appreciate the quote above. Tintin is informed she'll be aboard the new atomic aircraft and it's the Mach 6 airspeed she's worried about. Obviously, there is a myriad of reasons why a real supersonic aircraft wouldn't use a nuclear reactor as it's power source (size, cost, radiation exposure, etc.)

The concept above envisages Fireflash with the distinctive cylindrical fuselage slowly coming to a pointed nose as with the original aircraft from the show, but almost every other aspect of the aircraft had to be re-imagined to end up with something reasonably practical. I decided to implement a V-tail pair of vertical stabilisers as a nod to the engine nacelles of the original, and because they are an efficient design for aircraft operating at supersonic speeds. I then moved the engines to the top of the fuselage between the tailfins. It would be more realistic to place them beneath the fuselage to reduce disruption of airflow over the tailfins, but this way it links back visually to the large observation deck built into the tail of the show's Fireflash, and functionally references the placement of the engines as well.

The wings have been changed from the 60's style swept wings to a more modern cropped delta-wing. I've tried to keep the wing-tips as close to the original position as possible, but this was where I felt it looked most functional and like the original Fireflash design.

This is just a quick top-down concept, without window details and rendered in a letterless interpretation of the Air Terrannean livery.

Let me know what you think, and what you think I could/should change.