Tornado

The Tornado is a red biplane in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It made its first appearance in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and has since featured in many other Sonic games. It is typically piloted by Miles "Tails" Prower, while Sonic or other characters walk on its wings. The plane is owned by Sonic himself, and as such he has also been seen to be the pilot at times. Often, it is shown towards the end of each game where it usually arrives just in time to save a character from falling to his or her death. It has since become a staple icon of the series.

The Tornado
The Tornado was first introduced to the Sonic series in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, where the plane featured prominently in the Sky Chase Zone stage. Consisting of only one act with no boss to fight, Sky Chase put the player in control of Sonic (or Tails) as he walked on the wings of the tornado, piloted by Tails. The Tornado was shot down by lasers while pursuing Dr. Eggman and his flying battleship, the Wing Fortress. It later reappeared, repaired and fitted with a jet engine which enabled it to reach Dr. Eggman's spaceship on his way to the Death Egg. When Eggman's spacestation was finally destroyed, Tails flew the plane to Sonic's rescue as he plunged from the sky (or the other way around).

Directly following Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the plane made a brief appearance in Sonic CD, where Tails is seen piloting it in the D.A. Garden / Play Music screen. It is then seen in the introductory cut-scene of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, as the duo landed on Angel Island and met with Knuckles the Echidna for the first time. At the end of Sonic & Knuckles, it is shown to have what is best described as a mechanical arm which catches the Master Emerald, as the plane rescues either one of the three characters (depending on which one was chosen).

The Tornado then appeared as the means of a Special Stage in Sonic Triple Trouble, and had a brief cameo appearance in Knuckles' Chaotix. It appears only in the good ending, and is shown in the background of the credit roll with Sonic on its wings and Tails as the pilot, hovering behind the Chaotix characters. The Tornado then made a very brief appearance in arcade game Sonic the Fighters, where it appeared in the opening clip as Sonic and Tails arrange the tournament.

In Sonic Adventure the Tornado got a slight remake along with the characters, getting some yellow stripes and getting the jet engine built into the plane itself. was used to chase down the Egg Carrier in another Sky Chase stage. This Sky Chase was very different from the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 one, as it involved shooting down robotic planes with the Tornado's machinegun and homing missiles instead of controlling Sonic to jump on them. After the stage was completed, the Egg Carrier fired a giant laser which blew off the Tornado's left wings, making it spin out of control and crash. It was apparently repaired as it was seen in the "The End" screen after Tails' playthrough.

The plane was next seen in Sonic Pocket Adventure, in another Sky Chase Zone, that played just like the one in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. It also appeared in Sonic Advance, catching the player after finishing a Special Stage and after finishing the game. Finally, the original Tornado made its last appearance in Sonic Adventure 2, where Tails' secret costume in multiplayer allows him to pilot the Cyclone walker form of the Tornado, which is much faster than the Tornado 3 but is less powerful.

The Tornado 2
In Sonic Adventure the Tornado was again made playable in a retread of the classic Sky Chase Zone, now in two acts instead of one. At the end of act 1, the plane was finally shot down by the laser cannon of Dr. Eggman's Egg Carrier. When Tails regained consciousness he went back to his workshop to finish the construction of his new blue-tinted experimental biplane, the Tornado 2. Unlike the original Tornado, it required a Chaos Emerald to work normally. After finding an Emerald and finishing the plane, Tails and Sonic went to chase the Egg Carrier yet again. This time they were more successful, as the Tornado 2 was capable of folding its wings into an X-shape to reach extreme speeds. After crashlanding on the Egg Carrier, it was found by Big the Cat and flown to Mystic Ruins, where it crashlanded again. After this, Chaos found it and stole the Chaos Emerald from it, largely wrecking the already damaged plane.

In Sonic Heroes (in the beginning of Team Sonic's story), Tails is flying the Tornado 2, with Knuckles in the (apparently new) back seat. The Tornado 2 is in its X-shape used to catch up to Sonic and give him an important message from Eggman. After Sonic throws away the message, Tails and Knuckles jump out of the Tornado 2 and follow Sonic on foot, with the Tornado 2 flying off-screen, possibly on autopilot. Due to the lack of a Chaos Emerald on the Tornado 2, it can be assumed that it no longer requires an Emerald to work correctly.



In Sonic Riders, the Tornado 2 is seen towards the end of the Hero Story, when Eggman steals the Babylon control box and flies to the Babylon Garden. Tails flies the Tornado over to the island, while Jet the Hawk controls the large Babylon Airship. Knuckles is sitting in the second seat, and Sonic is standing on the wings. Sonic heads down to catch Eggman, but Tails hands him a new gear first. The plane isn't seen again, though it can be assumed that Tails landed it on the Babylon Garden.

In Sonic Advance 3, the player rides atop the Tornado 2 in the special stages, maneuvering up, down, left and right to collect the required number of rings. The plane can also temporarily transform into its X-winged configuration by flying through blue portals, increasing the plane's speed, increasing the value of each collected ring times two, and leaving the player's character comically holding onto the plane for dear life. Failure to collect enough rings at either the halfway mark or at the end results in the Tornado throwing the players' character off and spinning off the screen out of control.

The Tornado 3
In Sonic Adventure 2, Tails has built a new plane similar to the Tornado 2 named the P-3a Tornado 3. Unlike the previous Tornados, it is a monoplane, and carries a large missile launcher behind the single seat. Most notably, the Tornado 3 can transform into a walker mode and a car mode. The walker was Tails' main mode of transportation and offense in the game, and was called the "Cyclone". The Cyclone was armed with a lock-on missile launcher very similar to that of E-102 Gamma along with a powerful gun known as the Volkan Cannon. It could also be upgraded with several new features, including the Laser Blaster, which increased the firing radius and missile explosion sizes, the Booster which allowed the Cyclone to slowly float downwards and hover for short periods, and the Bazooka which makes the Volkan Cannon stronger.

In Shadow the Hedgehog, Tails is looking for a Chaos Emerald near Eggman's "Circus Park" base when he is spotted by Shadow. Shortly after, the Tornado 3 is shot by one of Eggman's missiles, and it crashes. After starting the level Shadow finds Tails, but there is no sign of the Tornado 3. In the intro movie before the "Space Gadget" and "Lost Impact" stages, Shadow meets up with Sonic, who is going to the Space Colony ARK. Shadow agrees to come with him, and they take off in a large spaceship which is built around the Tornado 3, with the blue plane body visible at the front. Much like the early Tornado 2, this spaceship is powered by a Chaos Emerald.

Comic books
The Tornado has appeared in both the Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Comic comic books, where it plays the same role as in the games.

Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie
In Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, the Tornado is used to enter the Land of Darkness, where it crashes. Tails somehow takes it back home, where it is repaired and used to go to the frozen icecaps where Sonic and Metal Sonic are fighting. After arriving, the Tornado is destroyed by a rabbit-shaped missile fired by Eggman. It can be noted that Tails uses a pilot helmet in the movie.

Sonic X
The original Tornado appeared only briefly in the anime series Sonic X in one of Tails' flashbacks in episode 18. After seeing it, Tails refitted and repainted it, making it the Tornado 2.

The Tornado 2 is used in the first few episodes until it is rebuilt as the X-Tornado in Episode 8. In Episode 52, it is rebuilt again when Tails and his friends go back to their world, but with the ability to transform into a powerful jetplane known as the Hyper Tornado.

The X-Tornado


In Sonic X, the Tornado 2 was quickly replaced by the X-Tornado, a much faster fighter jet. The X-Tornado altogether abandons the biplane type of the original Tornado. Built in cooperation between Tails and Chris' grandfather Chuck, it was used to catch up with Eggman's E-90 robot in Episode 8. It soon became the main source of transportation for Sonic and his friends through most of the series. Just like the Tornado 3, the X-Tornado can transform into a walker mode, which references the Tornado 3 by being named the X-Cyclone. It can also transform into a mecha-like mode armed with a sword and shield. The X-Tornado is gold colored in the third season, where is part of the fighter group aboard the Blue Typhoon when it goes into space to oppose the Metarex.

Hyper Tornado
An upgraded version of the Tornado 2, the Hyper Tornado was modified in secret by Chuck Thorndyke in Sonic X. In Episode 52, Tails discovers this during a late night battle with Eggman's Grand Egg Imperial battleship, along with a message from his friend Chuck explaining the modifications. The Hyper Tornado is about the same size as the X-Tornado, but only holds a single pilot. The Hyper Tornado also appears in the third season of Sonic X, where it is piloted by Chris Thorndyke.

Trivia

 * The original Tornado was Sonic's plane, although the subsequent Tornado II and III are owned by Tails.
 * There is an actual fighter/bomber/electronic warfare aircraft series called the Panavia Tornado.
 * The original Tornado's design doesn't seem to come from a specific aircraft- however, following its redesign from Sonic Adventure onwards, the Tornado II bears a striking resemblance to the Polikarpov I-153, a 1930s Soviet biplane fighter.
 * At the end of Sonic & Knuckles, the Tornado is shown with "Sonic" written in reverse due to it facing the opposite way it usually is. This is because the sprite is simply flipped horizontally, instead of entirely new art being created.
 * The X-Tornado may have been modeled after the X-Wing starfighter from Star Wars, and the X-Cyclone looks remarkably similar to the GERWALK mode of the VF-1 Valkyrie from The Super Dimension Fortress Macross/Robotech.
 * "Wing walking" is an actual stunt that is historically associated with biplanes.