Iron Vulture

The Iron Vulture is an airship in Disney's TaleSpin. Like a vulture, she swoops out of the sky to prey upon the defenseless and unwary. Her ominous profile is a familiar and dreaded sight to cargo pilots. An airship of titanic proportions, the Iron Vulture belongs to the fearsome Air Pirates of Don Karnage, who plunder the skyways at will from their fortress-like flagship. Even the largest cargo planes pale in comparison to this enormous vessel. A quarter mile in length, the Iron Vulture is without doubt the largest airship ever built — as well as the most infamous airborne vehicle in history.

Description
Mystery surrounds the origin of the Iron Vulture. Some believe that the Vulture belonged to another pirate band until Don Karnage "liberated" the airship and overthrew her former captain. Others rumor that Karnage constructed the Vulture in secret and used it to turn other pirates to his side — although such an undertaking would have been hideously expensive and impossible to conceal. Besides, Karnage is the sort of pirate who would rather steal something than build it. Of course, it is also possible that the Vulture belonged to Karnage's family and was merely passed down to him by a relative.

According to one account, the Iron Vulture was produced in one of the most ambitious projects of the Great War. During the War, an alliance between Usland and Thembria culminated in plans for what were destined to be the greatest airborne fighting machines of all time — the "air carriers." Designed by Cape Suzette engineers and built by the massive Thembrian labor force, these airships — a quarter-mile long, carrying powerful weapons and whole squadrons of planes — would lead a massive assault on an oppressive expansionist nation which was a mutual enemy of both the Thembrians and Uslanders.

After many months of construction, the air carrier was completed and prepared to enter service. However, an unexpected coup overthrew the enemy government before the carriers ever saw combat, and the Great War itself ended soon thereafter. Finding the air carrier too expensive to maintain now that active military ventures had ceased, Cape Suzette and Thembria were forced to retire the idea prematurely.

Over a dozen years later, a daring raid by a ragtag squadron of Air Pirates — led by a young brigand named Don Karnage — led to the theft of the Iron Vulture, one of the forgotten airships. The incident raised a few eyebrows among authorities but failed to generate widespread concern. After all, the carrier had not been maintained for over a decade, and its technology was woefully crude compared to the advances in aviation design made since the Great War. Where could a lunatic band of pirates succeed where Cape Suzette and Thembria had failed?

The secret lay in Don Karnage's ability to manage his resources. Karnage hid the Iron Vulture in a secret base, revamping and refurbishing it to suit his piratical purposes. The ship's already-considerable firepower was bolstered by the addition of freshly-stolen CT-37 attack fighters to the ship's complement. Now the Iron Vulture is the flagship of the Air Pirates, striking fear and panic into the hearts of cargo pilots everywhere. Far from being obsolete, the Vulture can hold its own against a whole squadron of fighters — although Karnage seldom fights when he can flee.

The Iron Vulture is a staggering feat of aircraft design. From bow to stern, the Vulture spans an incredible 1,200 feet! The rear tail fin adds an extra 300 to this, bringing the Vulture's overall length to a grand total of 1,500 feet. To enhance the Vulture's already-intimidating presence, the Air Pirates crafted a look for the ship similar to that of a monstrous bird of prey. The Vulture's prow is shaped like an enormous beak, while her towering stern sail and the protruding designs behind the bridge vaguely resemble giant feathers. The gaudy purple and gold color scheme of the airship, personally selected by Don Karnage, further establishes the Vulture's resemblance to a bird of prey.

The Vulture's beak contains a mechanized "jaw" platform which lowers to provide access to the interior of the ship. The main hangar, which makes up most of the Vulture's interior, is a cavernous bay capable of holding three full squadrons of fighter planes as well as several cargo aircraft.

The jaw itself acts as a runway extension; it is usually closed while traveling or landing (often to prevent captured planes from escaping) and opens to dispatch fighters. A manually-operated gear system originally served to raise and lower the jaw — when it proved too slow and cumbersome in emergencies, Karnage replaced the gears with hydraulics.





The Iron Vulture's original beak mechanism was manually controlled; the jaw platform was quickly lowered, but raised slowly by cranking heavy gears. Now the system works through a control box (shown above).

As mentioned above, the Iron Vulture can hold up to thirty planes in its main cargo bay. Most of the fighters are usually stored out of sight in smaller adjoining hangars, cleverly concealed behind wall panels. Two large bomb bay doors in the floor of the hangar can be opened to jettison cargo, dump plundered aircraft, or launch fighters. For some operations like deploying submarines, a smaller circular port within the bay doors themselves can be used. Controls to release the bay doors are located in the bridge and at key spots in the hangar; all are linked to an alarm system throughout the ship that sounds when the doors are opened.

Should the flight deck become too crowded for safe takeoffs or landings, a hydraulic lift platform carries planes from the hangar to the upper deck of the Vulture. Other means of access into the ship are two one-man hatches in the upper deck of the Vulture, leading to catwalks suspended at dizzying heights above the hangar floor.

Numerous concealed doors are also installed in the sides of the Vulture's outer hull, though their exact locations are unknown. These hatches, all but forgotten by Karnage and his crew, open directly to the outside and must have been originally designed as emergency escape routes.



Two other large cannons cover the aft section of the Vulture. For broadside attacks, the Iron Vulture deploys six medium cannons hidden behind concealed panels along the sides of the ship. Other weapons aboard the Vulture include numerous small machine guns scattered across the lower hull, as well as a rarely-used topside cannon.

Defensively, the Iron Vulture is one of the most well-armored ships in the air. The strength of the vessel is a testament to its solid construction. Several layers of bolted metal plates and armor form an extremely resilient exterior impervious to most attacks. Vulnerable points include the propeller engines and the bridge, as well as the dozens of portholes scattered across the airship's hull. And even the massive Iron Vulture is no match for a full-scale barrage from fighter planes or cliff guns, a fact which makes Don Karnage particularly inclined to run from a fight once the enemy starts shooting back.

When attacks fail, Karnage commonly employs subterfuge to mask the Vulture's presence, with varying degrees of success. Schemes to sneak the Iron Vulture into Cape Suzette have ranged from the barely plausible to the outlandish — including disguising the ship as an ocean liner, covering it with a blanket of smoke to resemble a storm cloud, and painting it 'invisible.' In one notable incident, the Vulture masqueraded as a Broccoli Day parade float! Each attempt suffers the usual failure attributable to either poor timing or just plain bad luck.

Clockwise from left: Depicted here are only a few of the ways that Don Karnage has tried to masquerade the Iron Vulture: as an ocean liner, as a storm cloud, and as nothing at all!

The Air Pirates make it a point to avoid direct confrontation with the authorities whenever possible. Due to this and the irregularity of the pirates' attacks, authorities are hard-pressed to determine the Iron Vulture's location with any certainty. The laws of international airspace also complicate the Air Police's attempts to apprehend the pirates over "free waters." Considering the number of chance encounters and close calls the Vulture has had with coastal fighter planes over the years, it seems only a matter of time before Karnage and his men are caught. But as long as the Iron Vulture roams the airways, the skies will never be truly safe.