Woodstock recently flagged up something to me about the Nuclear Ferry, which I had noticed years ago, but had failed to pick up on at all when I eventually got the toy. If you look at the drawing from the SWORD advert in Tv21, above, you will notice on the shuttle a small oval on the side. Woodstock theorised initially that this was a sticker of sorts and asked if it was present on the toy. Apart from a chequered band and the usual SWORD logos, there arent any unusual decals on the toy.
I then looked back at all the previous pictures I could find of the Ferry - including the Spacex version and the oval appears present in almost all of them. Its only when we look back to the source image, Robert McCalls beautiful painting - that its apparent that the oval was originally intended as a bubble canopy for a side window or port.
Ron Embleton drew a shot of the Ferry in the TV21 1969 Annual for Battle Breakdown and the port is very visible here (see b/w pic above left). Most Sword drawings have the port included, including the toys box art (which itself is a direct lift from McCall). As if it wasnt abundantly clear where the image on the 'space watch' backing card came from, the red and white ferry illustrated here (above right) also includes the ports.
Robert McCalls awesome painting was almost slavishly copied for the box art for the Century 21 Ferry toy and the actual toy also mirrors the design almost exactly, even to the astronaut ascending the docking collar to the cargo shuttle.
One final point of interest on the TV21 advert at the top of this article is the radar booms on either side of the cargo unit - theyre on backwards! Judging by the fairly accurate representation on this ad, its probably fair to say that it was drawn with the actual toy being present but assembled slightly wrong!.
Looking at the cutaway I would have said that was an intake for a jet engine for return to Earth base power. The stripe seems to make more sense to me if the curve was concave not convex(am I saying that right?). Just asked the wife and she agrees with me!
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Barry Hinchliffe
Fascinating piece Wote and a great comment Barry. I've looked at the original 1964 NASA design [posted by Wotan in 2009] and I can't see the intake holes. But it's not a detailed diagram.
ReplyDeletehttp://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2009/02/stop-press-nuclear-ferry-definitive.html
I imagine the first appearance of the intakes is as Wote says the McCall painting. Nice.
Very true Barry, it does look like an intake. As far as im aware, the personnel shuttle doesnt have airbreathing engines and would have returned to earth like the current shuttle, on a glide path.
ReplyDeleteIt would be launched from Earth on top of a Saturn based booster section and hook up with the Nuclear drive in orbit.
If you look at the b/w painting by Ron Embleton on the bottom of the composite diagram, hes drawn it as a definite bubble and this seems to have been used in the Sword manual too.
Mcalls painting is a little misleading - its a bit of an optical illusion!