Why is there a lifesize Thunderbirds model at Humberside Airport?

The owner of a massive Thunderbird 3 space rocket parked outside Humberside Airport allegedly thought he was buying a model, it has been revealed.

Former airport worker Andrew Bellamy said the son of one of the site’s former owners made the Spinal Tap-esque error in 2008 when they bid on the replica.

The original Thunderbirds, a classic kids’ puppet sci-fi series, is being remembered to mark the 60th anniversary of its first TV broadcast on 30 September 1965.

Mr Bellamy, who worked at the site in Kirmington, North Lincolnshire for 20 years, said when his team was sent to Blackpool to collect what they thought was a model, they were asked if they had a lorry and directed towards the promenade.

“It was quite funny because we heard that he’d bought a model – didn’t even bother checking,” he said, adding it had been used in the Blackpool illuminations display.

Thunderbird 3 was the primary spacecraft of the show’s international rescue, piloted by Alan and John Tracy.

Mr Bellamy, from Epworth, said staff had gone to pick it up in a Land Rover and “a chap came out and went ‘alright, well, where’s your lorry?’.

“And they went ‘well we haven’t got a lorry, it’s only a model isn’t it?’

“They turned round and went back to Humberside Airport, organised the lorry and I had the fantastic job alongside the airlines carpenter joiner to repair it.”

The oversized purchase is reminiscent of the mockumentary Spinal Tap in which the band ordered what they thought was a life-size replica of Stonehenge but instead received a miniature.

The Thunderbird 3, which belongs to Eastern Airways who have their headquarters at the airport, measures 60ft (18m) and is a well known local landmark.