Shane Pickering – Supercar Cutaway Take Two

Shane Pickering, a graphic artist and private pilot in New Zealand, in the late 1990s worked on schematics and internal details for Supercar compatible with the TV shows and annuals. Details in this blog post (20-Jan-2016). We had a lot of exchanges about plausible internals for Supercar taking into account many references in the TV shows and (mostly) using plausible aerospace concepts with a bit of advanced technology known only to the research community of the time. Remember the late 1950s and early 1960s was the age of the hypersonic X-15 rocket plane, Harrier VTOL Jump Jets and the SR-71 Blackbird!

Now Shane is carrying on the work he started two decades ago by producing a technical “cutaway” based on the detailed schematics.


Supercar Cutaway – Solid Shell Base – Work in Progress – Shane Pickering 2021


Preview of Wing & Fin Framework – Work in Progress – Shane Pickering 2021


Preview of Supercar Cutaway – Nose Cone – Work in Progress – Shane Pickering 2021

Shane’s Modifications to Supercar Model

Shane has modified the details of the Supercar model based on improved resources, and these largely coincide with similar improvements in accuracy compared to the puppet-scale studio model as incorporated by Mick Imrie in his “Take Two” Supercar 3D model as described in this blog post (23-Feb-2021).

  • Nosecone enlarged and intake fins straightened and skinnier (I haven’t reduced the width of the front intake as that is fairly major and would need some major “redrawing”.
  • Nosecone spike corrected for a closer match to Mick’s model – spike is straight not tapered as per my notes (Mick corrected me there).
  • White/silver upper panels lengthened and reshaped towards the front, front lights enlarged, more curvature added, rotated and moved forward.
  • All of the chrome trim changed to gold and dash trims either side of the Clear-Vu made the same length.
  • Windscreen rubber seal straightened over top of the Clear-Vu and more rounded running off to the side to connect to the front canopy frame.
  • Right-hand corner of the Clear-Vu rounded off a bit and the shape altered based on frame grabs.
  • Thin grey line added onto the top FlexiGlass to explain the “seam” – those little canopy supports (added to the rear frame) can be explained as part of the seal mechanism (this is sitting on a separate layer so it can be removed if you prefer).
  • Interior and rear seat inserts changed to similar dark grey; (I now know the rest of the interior incl. the bask seats are actually blue – I experimented with that and frankly it looked awful (what were they thinking)??? As it was in B/W, I guess no-one would notice. 🙂
  • For the sake of consistency and accuracy, I’ve reshaped the back seats and removed half the “buttons”, again based on frame grabs. I’ve curved the white front seat strips a little to give the illusion of them having more shaped padding rather than flat), again based on the frame grabs.
  • Not too sure about adding the exposed piping/tubing visible in some interior shots (between the front and back seats on the sides) – I can show that as part of the cutaway for a bit more interest (I can see they lifted a lot of that straight out of old fighter jets of the period). Ugh – hide it behind some panels.
  • Left front hull contour slightly “straightened” from the side intakes forward, but I haven’t altered it heading rearward. Instead, I’ve reshaped and flared out the lower part of the side intake where it connects to the hull. The lower step has been slightly altered but the upper step and heat extractor vanes are unchanged.
  • Stretched the line of the wings a little where they go into the hull to create the illusion they’re a little higher and thinned down the “hole” they slide into, also to make it look as they’re on the upper curvature of the hull and also a tighter fit; I haven’t repositioned the wings but just added a little more onto the rear of the wings.
  • Wing pods completely redrawn to more closely match Mick’s new model; they’re shorter with flattened ends and the spike is a closer match.
  • Four rear jets have been slightly reshaped (more curve on the top).
  • The left tail fin strake thickened a little near the rear cockpit frame to give it a more uniform shape than what I drew previously.
  • Second fuel filler added to right hand side and redrawn the left as domed rather than the octagonal shape I had earlier.
  • Trim across the top of the front seat back widened.
  • Now I haven’t touched the canopy/frame (for good reason); Mick and I concluded that was quite a bit off in the original but would require a major redraw at my end (i.e. its longer and shorter towards the rear frame).

Overall, about 70% of this rendering has been altered compared to the original, and much more carefully drawn. Overall, I think it’s a big improvement and a more accurate representation over the original.

Supercar Fuselage Side Logo

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