Elevator Car

Here are the Canon Foundry facts about the pod vehicle called ‘Elevator Car’, all taken from the International Rescue Thunderbirds Agents’ Technical Manual written by Sam Denham (2012):

• Designed specifically to provide aircraft suffering from undercarriage failure the means of effecting a safe and controlled landing using a conventional airport runway
• Up to three remote-controlled cars operated by a manned master vehicle can be pre-programmed into a moving formation to create a cushioned mobile platform configured by a target aircraft’s airframe specifications through the use of a car-to-car infrared beam positioning system
• Each car is based on an articulated chassis with high velocity diesel electric motors powering the forward and rear units
• Capable of accelerating to a top speed of 180mph within 30 seconds
• Each car is fitted with high density Plasma-Mould tyres
• The rescue platform is fireproof
• Each car has front and rear diesel engines
• The outer access hatch is on the back of the dome where the driver sits
• The control console is ergonomically simplified, allowing the driver to manually operate and monitor up to three Elevator Cars at once using the steering wheels, foot pedals and voice commands
• The Master Elevator Car foot pedals control all steering functions
• The side-mounted steering wheels are used to manually control secondary as well as a third Elevator Car manually if required
• LCD monitor screens display images from onboard cameras in the remote-controlled Elevator Cars (or other sources)