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Thunderbird Prototype

The Thunderbird Prototype is a far-cry from the ship that Thunderbird RD brought to their first IAGL season. With more custom-designed components and a lighter chassis, this new craft is significantly faster than the original. The team have paid for this increased performance by reducing the strength of the shields, and replacing the weapons system with a lightweight training array that has a lower standard yield.

(Handles like Tenrai, does half damage.)


Full Team Name: Thunderbird RD.
Permanent Base: Thalmir, Planet Ardis.
Team Lead: Kal’sey.
Technical Lead: Ashi Saar.
Lead Pilot: Kat Sinclair.
Co-pilot: Ardus Saar.

Chassis: XL5-Thunderbird.
Main drive: Custom KyraTech® G700 AEIR engine.
Handling drives: Custom KyraTech® TB-IG fins.
Weapons systems: Custom in-house low-yield ‘Trainer’ system.
Shields: Stock Enemy-Cell® composite barrier.

Thunderbird started life as a student project set up by the Amateur Racing Society at the University of Thalmir. Under the name 'Wyvern', they competed in local events using a custom-built chassis and off-the-shelf vehicle parts. Though the ship they entered was impressive given their tiny budget, Wyvern was struggling to find pilots with enough skill to keep up with the other local teams competing in the circuit. The choice was soon made to partner with the student's union of the nearby Phoenix Flight School. Determined campaigning eventually won the support of the university at large - with Wyvern soon becoming an official sports' team for the two colleges.

This new Wyvern took the local circuit by storm, winning season after season. It was only a matter of time before the team started receiving sponsorship deals from local tech companies, and with prize money being funnelled straight back into research projects to improve the Wyvern craft, it soon became clear that the team had an opportunity to enter the professional circuit.

The team was reformed into the semi-independent Thunderbird RD, though it retained the close partnership with the schools to which it owes its creation. They enter the Interstellar Anti-Gravity League as somewhat of an underdog. Though the IAGL has never been about the cutting-edge of technology like the F-1K circuit, a team with such humble beginnings rarely sees a grid position in the league. While this makes them popular with the fans, only time will tell if Thunderbird are going to pose a threat to the more established teams in the IAGL.


This is a remake of my first BNG custom ship Thunderbird, made because I was no longer happy with the quality of that model and texture. As it is a complete redesign, I decided to upload this separately, because I know that at least some of you are going to prefer the original ;). The cockpit is the same however, as I think that's still pretty cool.

Regarding referring to the team as 'Wyvern' in the LORE, I designed the spiritual ancestor to this ship before playing BNG, and called the team Wyvern. Well, that's not going to work here, hence Thunderbird. I thought I'd put that in the description as a nod to my original designs. (STOP STEALING THE GOOD NAMES, NEOGNOSIS. (jk, love your game))


Special thanks to everyone at the BNG discord for putting up with my many questions. You're all the best!