The ''Orbit Jet'' was a fictional spaceship in the 1954

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Rocky Jones, Space Ranger ''Rocky Jones, Space Ranger'' is an American science fiction television serial originally broadcast in syndication from February to November 1954. The show lasted for only two seasons and, though syndicated sporadically, dropped into obscurity. ...

''. It strongly resembled a

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in overall form, with a very prominent exhaust plume when flying, but had wings in addition to tail fins (even its radio call sign, "XV-2" relates it to that

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design). There were references in the dialog to the engines being "atomic". The ''Orbit Jet'' had a crew of two (pilot and copilot), but often had three or four others on board depending on the mission and destination. It often flew from Earth to inhabited moons of

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and

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, which it seemed to reach in hours or days of time within the story. Later in the series, another ship, the ''Silver Moon'', was used, but it appeared almost identical to the ''Orbit Jet''. The ''Orbit Jet'' introduced many features that would become standard equipment on later TV and movie spaceships: * An electronic viewscreen (instead of a simple window or porthole) * A fantastically complicated control panel (''without'' an airplane-styled control wheel or stick) * Power doors opening side-to-side as one approaches * Subspace radio (the "Astrophone") that allowed instantaneous communications over interplanetary distances * Artificial gravity as an explained feature and plot element *Tractor beams *Personal communicators (very similar to the pen communicators used later on

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' is an American spy fiction television series produced by MGM Television, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television and first broadcast on NBC. The series follows secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who wo ...

) * A

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device that rendered the ship invisible.

References

John Kenneth Muir's Reflections on Cult Movies and Classic TV: CULT TV FLASHBACK # 18: Rocky Jones, Space Ranger: "Escape Into Space"
*http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=6018 {{italic title Fictional spacecraft