Ryland Park Thunderbird

An extreme cruiser made by the Maveggan Flight Vehicle Company. Like most of the company's more famous models, the Thunderbird was designed by owner/entrepreneur Wald J Maveggan.

The first Thunderbird was built in a workshop on Rylands as Wald's private cruiser. However, after test-flights over Ryland Park were observed by other rich playboys, the design was taken into full scale production, and 303 of these vehicles were produced over the course of a year. The 'Ryland Park' logo, and the hand-painted numbers over elaborate airbrushed hull-art, became a traditional mark of the company's limited edition ranges.

The Thunderbird's nacelle engines and main hull are taken from a more sedate cruiser model, the FVC Jupiter. The main changes are in the tuning of the fuel mixture, and the additional engine (from an FVC Europa carrier) which replaces the rear passenger seats. Although hard to maneuver, the power of this fusion vapour pile, attached to a ship much smaller than the one it was designed for, allows the Thunderbird to reach incredible speeds, maintaining its maximum accelleration of 24g for up to 6 minutes even in a planet's gravity field.