- "Spoiling your plans is the best part of my job."
Tanusha "Kayo" Kyrano is a character from the Thunderbirds Are Go! television series. She is the pilot of Thunderbird Shadow, and head of security and covert ops for International Rescue. Also, as an expert in the Wing Chun form of kung fu, she's a force to be reckoned with.
Kayo’s signature colour for her iR uniform is turquoise.
Personality & Traits[]
Kayo was born in England to Mr. Kyrano and an unknown mother. At some point, she was taken in by Jeff Tracy, and raised on Tracy Island. Her father, who was a close friend to Jeff, asked him to take in his daughter and allow her to live on Tracy Island with him and his family.
She grew up alongside Jeff's five sons and with their caregiver, Grandma Tracy. While not a Tracy by blood, she's treated as a sister by the boys, and a member of the family.
Kayo's much more than a pretty face: she's an integral member of the IR team, and serves a variety of roles usually attributed to someone of older age - in particular, her position as chief of security, a role she inherited from her father. When not participating in stealth missions in her own personal Thunderbird craft, she has been seen training the Tracy brothers in self defense, specifically Wing Chun.
Kayo believes that there's more to International Rescue than just saving lives: she reckons that disasters should be prevented before they can happen; whereas Scott believes that International Rescue only gets involved where there is a current situation. Kayo's stubbornness sees her defying orders on a regular basis - whether it be making contact with villains in Thunderbird Shadow, or straying off to catch the people behind global disasters. This results in her clashing with Scott now and then, but Scott yielded nonetheless seeing her effectiveness at doing so. Kayo's determination to take down villains is largely due to the fact that her own uncle, the Hood, is a major criminal and the sworn enemy of International Rescue.
She goes on quite a few missions with Alan, which she refers to as "babysitting" (Ring of Fire Part 1), although she does volunteer to go with him in Slingshot.
Like her five adopted brothers, despite being assigned her own Thunderbird craft, she has the basics for handling any of the Thunderbirds she gets her hands on. As seen in City Under the Sea, despite not being usually assigned on underwater missions (given her role, she hardly needs to), she's very capable of piloting Thunderbird 4 on her own - even pulling moves Gordon never knew the submarine was capable of - suggesting that, between the two of them, she might actually be the better pilot of the craft!
Duties[]
Tanusha Kyrano is primarily Thunderbird Shadow's covert operator, which allows her to be International Rescue's head of security. Her role as one of Thunderbird 3's primary co-astronauts also helps Kayo with her organisational role (as shown in Ring of Fire Part 2, Slingshot, Falling Skies, Signals Part 1 and Icarus), and has also been able to take over the rocket's flight controls (as seen in Icarus). When required, Kayo is also able to co-pilot Thunderbird 2 (as seen in City Under the Sea and Venom). Kayo has also been able to expertly operate Thunderbird 4 (as seen in City Under the Sea).
Along with her roles in the Thunderbirds, Kayo can operate some of the Pods. Using the Earth Pod chassis in Thunderbird 2, Kayo can operate the Dragonfly Pod (Venom). Using the POD and Space Pod chassis in Thunderbird 3, Kayo can operate the Rescue Pod (Falling Skies and Break Out).
Equipment[]
During rescue missions, Kayo wears a specialised fully pressurised high altitude flight suit with carbon-nonfiber body armour, all turquoise in colour and has a Thunderbird S badge on the right shoulder. Along with the flight suit, Kayo wears turquoise gloves and a pair of black gauntlets, the right gauntlet containing a turquoise wrist mounted holographic communicator. Kayo also wears a pair of black boots. Kayo’s suit also contains a black jacket containing a dual high resolution camera and holographic display. She also has a black adaptable harness with a rappelling pack. When required, Kayo can use her halo glider, a black and red glider used either to break her fall when she drops from Thunderbird 3, or as a method of flight where Thunderbird Shadow would be unsuitable. To protect her head and give her safe air to breath, Kayo wears a black and turquoise helmet with a black ‘S’ in a red triangle on both sides and an ‘iR’ on the left in white.
Suit Up Sequences[]
Primary Suit Up[]
Kayo sits on the co-pilot seat in the lounge, with the pilot seat on her left. The two seats lower to the Thunderbird 3 and Thunderbird S launch tube, which Kayo is taken along via a trolley. At the end of this launch tube, the seats are rotated 90° clockwise so that Kayo is facing the two separate launch tubes at the end of the one she is currently in. The pilot seat is taken into the launch tube on the left, while the co-pilot seat is taken into the launch tube on the right. With Kayo now in her own launch tube and wearing her flight suit, her boots are attached to her by robotic arms with her personally clipping in her belt and putting on her jacket and gauntlets, all while the seat is rotated 180° so that she exits the launch tube backwards. The co-pilot seat is lowered in the Shadow Bike’s storage room.
Thunderbird 3 Suit Up[]
To launch in Thunderbird 3, Kayo sits in the co-pilot seat in the lounge, with Alan in the pilot seat on her left. The two seats lower to the Thunderbird 3 and Thunderbird S launch tube, which Alan and Kayo are taken along via a trolley. At the end of this launch tube, the seats are rotated 90° clockwise so that the two are facing the two separate launch tubes at the end of the one they are currently in. The pilot seat is taken into the launch tube on the left, while the co-pilot seat is taken into the launch tube on the right. With Kayo now in her own launch tube, her flight suit and boots are attached to her by robotic arms with her personally clipping in her belt and putting on her jacket and gauntlets, all while the seat is rotated 180° so that she exits the launch tube backwards. Alan and Kayo rejoin and exit the launch tube.
Launch Sequences[]
- Covert Operator of Thunderbird Shadow
- Co-Pilot of Thunderbird 2
- Co-Astronaut of Thunderbird 3
- Co-Aquanaut / Reserve Aquanaut of Thunderbird 4
Notable Episodes[]
- Main article: /Missions
Kayo has the least amount of appearances; however, she does tag along on quite a lot of missions with Alan, and has some solo time when International Rescue is in need of someone who can perform a job incognito.
Fireflash[]
Kayo's flying from England to Australia on the hypersonic plane, the Fireflash, when it's hijacked by The Hood. After confronting him (and his inevitable escape), Kayo has to try and land the plane with a leaking tank of fuel, and no landing gear, in the middle of the desert.
Touch and Go[]
After arriving at the CATCH facility, Kayo discovers the Hood had disabled the flight navigation system so he could preform an elaborate heist of liquid alsterene. She then chases after him to try and recover the stolen fuel.
Legacy[]
After realising they'd all been set up, Kayo makes a dash back to Tracy Island - to find an unwelcome guest who wishes to take the island, and the Thunderbirds, for himself. She then tricks the Hood, by taking him to Mateo Island - and, for a brief moment, letting him think he has control over all the Thunderbird craft.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- While Kayo was one of the first 'new' characters revealed for the series, her origins stem back to the original classic Thunderbirds: she's in fact a modernized version of Tin-Tin Kyrano. The name change was due to potential copyright issues in respect of the Hergé comic book character Tintin.
- At present, Kayo is one of the only three female members of the team.
- The team only discovered that she was related to the Hood in Legacy. Prior to this, only Grandma and Jeff had known the truth.
- The events in in Legacy are not the first time that the International Rescue team discovered that The Hood has had a niece: in the 2004 Movie, Tintin discovered she was his niece.
- In Falling Skies, Kayo's eyes are briefly blue when she exits Thunderbird 3.
- It appears that Kayo wasn't aware that Grandma knew about her relationship with The Hood until Grandma mentioned it in Ring of Fire Part 2.
- Like Alan, Kayo doesn't remember when the Tracys came to the Gran Roca Ranch when they were kids because both she and Alan were in school.
- She is the only Thunderbird pilot who doesn't have a designated exo-suit of some sort. In its place, she is the only Thunderbird pilot with her own land vehicle -- her cockpit motorcycle.
- Of all her adoptive brothers, Kayo is seen to be closest to Alan. It's also hinted at in Home on the Range that she may have feelings for Alan, which would serve as a reference to her original counterpart(Tin Tin)'s relationship with Alan in the original series.
- Of her adoptive brothers, Kayo appears to clash with Scott the most due to their differing views on how iR should operate when it comes to bad people.
- Kayo confirms in Signals Part 1 that her father is still alive and in retirement.
- In Venom, Kayo reveals that she suffers from lepidopterophobia (fear of butterflies), which unfortunately for her, Scott found this amusing despite the fact he said he wouldn't laugh. Even more unfortunate is the fact that he managed to tell it to Virgil, who also found it amusing.
- In Ring of Fire Part 1, Kayo's suit has her ship logo printed on her right shoulder, similar to all the brothers despite the fact that Thunderbird Shadow was still a private project being built by Brains.
Foreign Names[]
- Japanese: ケーヨ (Kēyo)
- Chinese: 凱優 (Kǎiyōu)
| International Rescue |
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 Primary Operatives: Field Agents: |