Tracy Island

Not to be confused with the 1965 version.

Tracy Island is an island situated in a remote sector of the central Pacific Ocean - midway between Australia and South America. It appears to the outside world as an almost-barren rock; nothing more interesting, surely, than just a tiny island, in the middle of a very big ocean.

Hidden away on that "tiny island," however - beyond sight or detection - are some of the most advanced technologies and vehicles in existence and the top-secret operations base of International Rescue.

Structure[]

Built on an extinct volcano, Tracy Island possesses enormous lava tubes and underground cave systems that provide a natural infrastructure for International Rescue. Cutting-edge technology is in use throughout, including a team of autonomous maintenance robots. A holographic and physical-cloaking device enables the island to create its own cloud-cover, rendering it undiscoverable to any observers. Thermal regulation hides the launch of the vehicles, and guards against scans showing signs of life. Underneath the main house are vast caverns, where the Tracy family can stockpile raw materials. They can even mine and refine metal ore from their island, to use in whatever experiment Brains is up to. Almost everything International Rescue could want is created on the island, usually using a massive fabrication device. There are even 'buildbots', which maintain the island without the need for other personnel.

Five of the six Thunderbirds are docked on the island (1, 2, 3, 4 and Shadow); and each of the Tracy brothers and Kayo can reach his/her vehicle using an individual launch-sequence route, which starts in the living room. These transport tubes cross the island, and mean the family can move from one place to another within seconds. After The Hood's second ship was destroyed by TB5, TB1 and TB2, its wreckage currently lies on the sea bed between Tracy Island and Mateo Island.

Mateo Island[]

Mateo Island lies adjacent to Tracy Island. It has been converted by the Tracy family for International Rescue's use in the event of emergencies and to provide additional service facilities. These include a back-up generator; and there's a underground tunnel link to the main island, which allows access and transportation of supplies without drawing attention to the organization's activities.

Base Construction[]

Following Jeff Tracy's purchase of the island, work quickly commenced to create an idyllic self-contained luxury retreat - indicating to the casual visitor that Tracy Island was nothing more than a lavish billionaire's paradise where the Tracy family could live a life of luxury, oblivious to everyday reality.

Thunderbirds Hangars[]

Thunderbird 1 Hangar[]

Thunderbird 1 is hidden in a re-fueling hangar, located directly below the main house. The rocket plane is then transported up the ramp into the launch bay, located under the swimming pool. The pool slides back and opens up to allow TB1 to launch.

Thunderbird 2 Hangar[]

Thunderbird 2 is the only Thunderbird with a completely-separate hangar - far from the other Thunderbirds - hidden behind a large door, disguised as a cliff-face, located at the end of Tracy Island's runway. While that runway would seem to be too narrow for a massive vehicle like TB2 to traverse, the palm trees that line either side of it will fall back to accommodate its wider wingspan so it can reach its concealed hydraulic launch platform.

Thunderbird 3 Hangar[]

Thunderbird 3 is hidden within its re-fueling hangar, located under the main house and nearby to Thunderbird 1. After a giant revolving metal door covers TB3 to contain its launch, IR's big red spaceship lifts off - straight through the middle of the Round House, and onward into space.

Thunderbird 4 Tank[]

Thunderbird 4 is stored in a flooded tank behind TB1. Whenever the yellow mini-sub is needed for a rescue, it's loaded into Module 4 (although, this action is unseen in the programme). Should TB2 require a different Module - or be completely unavailable - TB4 has an emergency launch tube, in which it can exit the island alone.

Thunderbird Shadow Hangar[]

Thunderbird Shadow's launch area is on a rock outcrop near TB1's refueling zone. It's carried backwards and up a wall on a yellow turntable, which flips around to take TBS outdoors. The stealth jet takes off from there.

Space Elevator[]

The Space Elevator is a space capsule used by John Tracy to travel from Thunderbird 5 to Tracy Island. Aboard TB5, the elevator is docked on the bottom of the space station. The journey takes 8 minutes from the space station to the island. When the elevator lands on Tracy Island, it docks in the refueling bay beside TB1.

The Holo-Table[]

The holo-table is where communication and other things are presented. Everything comes up as a hologram: the Tracy brothers and Kayo have large wall-hanging portraits for their holographic displays, Lady Penelope has a small photo frame of herself, and EOS's is on John's sash on his portrait.

Events[]

In Relic, Captain Lee Taylor is taken to the island after being rescued from the Moon. Scott offers him to join International Rescue, as he already knows of the organization and even helped develop it, but Taylor politely declines... for now.

In Legacy, The Hood discovered the location of the island and infiltrated it by faking distress calls to make the Tracy brothers leave in their respective Thunderbirds (including Kayo in Thunderbird Shadow). He was subsequently captured and arrested by the Global Defence Force - which means they now know the location of the island too.