Cloudbase

Spectrum Cloudbase, often shortened to Cloudbase, is the fictional skyborne headquarters of the international security organisation Spectrum from Gerry Anderson's science-fiction television series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967–68). In the 2005 computer-animated remake, Cloudbase is re-imagined as Skybase. In both series, the base's design is that of an airborne aircraft carrier, stationed in either Earth's high troposphere (in the original series) or low stratosphere (in the remake). Background While developing the series in 1966, Gerry Anderson remembered that during the Battle of Britain the RAF had found it difficult to counter the Luftwaffe due to the delays caused by having to launch fighters from the ground. In his biography, he recalled that "it took [the Spitfire squadron] about 20 minutes to climb high enough to intercept the bombers that were already at 16,000 feet." It was for this reason that Anderson decided to make Spectrum's headquarters a hovering airborne aircraft carrier: "This could launch aircraft that would then climb to 100,000 feet and intercept extraterrestrial invaders within minutes." In a separate interview, he noted that Captain Scarlet was made during the Cold War, "when world leaders held conferences on aircraft carriers, and bomber pilots were constantly in the air waiting for attack orders. So I was thinking along the lines of a wartime setting, and had the idea for Cloudbase, a giant flying aircraft carrier, and the Angels, fighter pilots ready for take-off at any time. The Andersons' original script for the first episode stated that the base is kept airborne by "powerful jet engines that are pointing downwards and are obviously powered by atomic energy".