English Electric Thunderbird The English Electric Thunderbird was a British surface - to - air missile produced for the British Army . The Thunderbird was primarily intended to attack higher altitude targets at ranges of up to thirty miles or so . AA gun s were still used for lower altitude threats . They were the Army ' s only heavy surface to air guided weapon and were not replaced ( by another heavy guided SAM ) when they left service . History . The Stage Plan . The Thunderbird originated in a proposal to English Electric in 1949 to develop a missile to provide ground based air defence to the British Army in the field . As such , it was intended to replace the 3 . 7 - inch heavy anti - aircraft gun that fulfilled this role during World War II . Like the 3 . 7 , the new missile would be operated by the Royal Artillery . English Electric created a Guided Weapons Division to work on the project . While the project was starting , the Ministry of Supply ( MoS ) began work on what would become known as the " Stage Plan " , which envisioned a multi - stage program to provide an integrated air - defence network including new radars , interceptor aircraft , and missiles . As the missiles were the least understood technology , the MoS decided to implement their deployment in two stages . " Stage 1 " called for missiles with a range of only 20 miles with capabilities against subsonic or low - supersonic attacking aircraft , which were assumed to be at medium or high altitudes . The Stage 1 missile would be used to protect the V bomber bases in the UK , as well as the British Army in the field . The Stage 1 missile would be later replaced with a much higher - performance and longer - range " Stage 2 " system in the 1960s , based on the " Green Sparkler " missile . The Stage 2 missile was to have greatly increased range , speed and altitude capabilities . Two entries were accepted for the original Stage 1 proposal , English Electric ' s existing project under the name " Red Shoes " , and Bristol ' s " Red Duster " . Bristol ' s efforts were fairly similar to EE ' s in most ways , although it was somewhat less mobile while offering somewhat better range . As both designs were generally similar in performance , a single set of radars was developed that could be used with either design . This consisted of a Ferranti developed search radar and the target illuminating radar was the RRDE ' s " Yellow River " fire control radar built by British Thomson - Houston . Development . EE ' s design quickly developed into a fairly simple cylindrical fuselage with an ogive nose cone , four cropped - delta wings just behind the middle point of the fuselage , and four smaller control surfaces at the rear , in - line with the mid - mounted wings . The fuselage had a slight boat - tail narrowing at the extreme rear under the control surfaces . The sustainer was to be a liquid fuel rocket developed for the missile , and was launched by four large " Gosling " solid fuel rocket boosters lying between the control surfaces and wings . The boosters featured a single oversized fin of their own , and are particularly easy to spot due to a small flat surface at the end of every fin . This surface provided an outward drag component that help pull the booster away from the main body when released , helped by the booster ' s asymmetrical nose cone . Guidance was via semi - active radar homing , the Ferranti Type 83 " Yellow River " pulsed radar serving both as an acquisition and illumination system . The same radar was used with the competing Red Duster . The test programme used development vehicles D1 to D4 . The D1 and D2 established some of the basic configuration issues , whilst the D3 and D4 were used to test the aerodynamics of the design . The Army rejected the idea of using a liquid fuel rocket because of the difficulty in handling the highly reactive fuel in the field , so a solid rocket sustainer had to be chosen instead . Several different models of sustainer were tried , most of them known as the " Luton Test Vehicle " , or LTV . While testing of the Red Shoes was underway , the " competition " in the form of Red Duster was also entering testing . Red Duster demonstrated several serious problems , and the Army ended any interest in it . In the end the Red Duster problems were sorted out fairly quickly , and it entered service slightly before Red Shoes , as the Bristol Bloodhound , Mk . I . The production Red Shoes missile was officially named Thunderbird . It entered service in 1959 and equipped 36 and 37 Heavy Air Defence Regiments , Royal Artillery . It was the first British designed and produced missile to go into service with the British Army . Further development . While development of the Stage 1 missiles was still ongoing , work on the Stage 2 systems was proving to be too far in advance of the state of the art to realistically enter service while the Red Duster and Red Shoes were still useful . In the meantime , advances in radar technology were proceeding rapidly , so it was decided to produce interim designs using new continuous wave radar s which would dramatically improve the performance of the existing missiles . In the case of the Thunderbird , the " Stage 1½ " design utilized the new Type 86 " Indigo Corkscrew " radar . As this was developed it changed names several times , becoming " Green Flax " , and after some paperwork with that name on it was lost and assumed compromised , " Yellow Temple " . In service it was known as Radar , AD , No 10 ( fire control ) . The new radar greatly improved performance against low - level targets , as well as providing considerably better performance against electronic countermeasures . To support Thunderbird operations in the field the regiments were equipped with the new Radar , AD , No 11 ( tactical control , usually called ' big ears ' ) and Radar , AD , No 12 ( height finder , usually called ' noddy ' ) radar , giving them a longer range surveillance system . These radars were also known to Marconi as the S303 and S404 , or to the RAF as Type 88 and Type 89 . After leaving Army service in 1977 they were turned over to the RAF who used them for tactical control . Several changes to the basic missile were undertaken as well . Although the size remained the same , the new version featured much larger boosters , mid - mounted wings with sweep on the front and back , and a new nose cone with a much higher fineness ratio . The boosters lost their asymmetrical nose cones , but the surfaces on the end of their fins grew much larger . Overall the missile still looked much like the Mk . I version , as opposed to the Bloodhound which became much larger as it was upgraded . The improved missile was known in service as Thunderbird 2 . They entered service in 1966 and were removed in 1977 . Survivors . Thunderbird remains a popular museum item in the UK . One of the missiles is now displayed outside the Midland Air Museum , Warwickshire , England . Another example on a launcher is displayed in The Royal Artillery Museum , Woolwich , England . Two of the Finish missiles survive , one missile is located in Artillery Museum , Hämeenlinna , another in the Anti - aircraft Museum , Tuusula .