- Jayne Middlemiss: "Now why have you decided to build all these robots, when you're supposed to be flying planes aren't you?"
- Peter Bennett: "We are indeed, but we're trying to interest young people in engineering, and that's the main theme in our project work."
- — During Typhoon 2's pre-battle interview in Series 7
Team Typhoon were a team of Scottish air cadets who competed in both series of Robot Wars Extreme, as well as Series 7. The team won the Middleweight championship three times, as well as winning the Lightweight championship and the Heavyweight UK championship, making them the only team in Robot Wars history to become champions in three weight classes.
The Team[]
The Air Cadets' crest
Typhoon Thunder's team with their trophy
Team Typhoon was a team made up of cadets of the 870 Squadron from the Air Training Corps who entered a number of different robots in Robot Wars. The aim of these machines was to raise interest in engineering among young cadets, with the various degrees of proficiency going in different weight categories: the least experienced would work on the featherweight, and the most experienced working on the heavyweight.
The team in Series 7 at the controls of the middleweight Typhoon
- "It all began in April 2001 when Squadron of Edinburgh Air Cadets were discussing what to do as a project for the next year. They wanted to build a robot to enter the TV programme Robot Wars and their Officer, who worked for an avionics company now called Selex ES, recruited six engineers to assist."
- — Team Typhoon website on entering Robot Wars[1]
Typhoon Cadet's team in Series 7 (right)
Various members of the Edinburgh Air Cadets
The team's robots were all cone-shaped full-body spinners, painted to resemble the RAF crest and featured a heavy steel outer ring with four claw-shaped hammer cutters on the side. All were devastatingly powerful, able to cause very high levels of damage when spinning at full speed, but were vulnerable at low speeds and none of them had a self-righting mechanism. Each robot was topped with a small flag that indicated forward-facing, and housed the safety link.
The various members of Team Typhoon were engineering students, whose proficiency level dictated the machine that they designed, built and fought with.
The series of Typhoon machines in Series 6
- Typhoon & Typhoon 2: Flying Officer Peter Bennett, Corporal Gary Cairns and Cadet Hazel Taylor were the team that drove Typhoon in the Middleweight Melee in Extreme 1. Hazel was replaced by Sergeant Graeme Horne, who joined the team (that drove Typhoon and Typhoon 2) for Extreme 2 and Series 7.
- Typhoon Twins: Neil Harrison, Alistair McLeod and Keri Scott drove Typhoon Twins, who faced Typhoon in the Extreme 2 Middleweight final.
- Typhoon Thunder: Keri was alongside Martin Armistead and Amy Drinkwater in the team of Lightweight champion Typhoon Thunder.
- Typhoon Cadet: Young female air cadets were in charge of the team's featherweight, with Amy Drinkwater being part of the televised team alongside Peter J. Bennett and Gary Cairns.
PP3D Robotics[]
PP3D Robotics in Series 8
PP3D Robotics in Series 9
Driver of Typhoon 2, Gary Cairns, went on to form his own team in 2016, known as PP3D Robotics, named after their heavy use of 3D printing, and Cairns' company PlastiPrint 3D. Consisting of Gary Cairns, Sarah Dennis and Jamie McHarg, the team entered the Series 8 of Robot Wars with their robot, PP3D. Gary Cairns drove the robot, while Jamie McHarg, a roboteer in his own right, was the weapon operator. According to the Robot Wars website, Sarah Dennis' role was 'design and aesthetics'. The robot reached the Head-to-Heads. PP3D has also returned for Series 9, having crowdfunded the cost of upgrades to their machine, but finished in the same position as last time - fourth place in the second round. Sarah Dennis was absent for PP3D's head-to-head battles in Series 9 while suffering from food poisoning.
In Series 9-10, Jamie McHarg entered Coyote under his own team, Team Coyote, otherwise known as Rogue Two Robotics. This team also included Rachel Gibson and Calum Jones, and also Tony Smith in Series 10. Team Coyote finished fourth in their heat in both Series 9 and 10.
Robots[]
| Name | Weight Class | Series |
|---|---|---|
| Typhoon | Middleweight | Extreme 1-2, Series 7 |
| Typhoon 2 | Heavyweight | Extreme 2, Series 7 |
| Typhoon Twins | Middleweight | Extreme 2 |
| Typhoon Thunder | Lightweight | Extreme 2 |
| Typhoon Cadet | Featherweight | Series 7 |
Wins/Losses[]
- Wins: 13
- Losses: 4
NOTE: The wins and losses of PP3D Robotics are not included
Series Record[]
| Main Series | Team Typhoon Series Record |
|---|---|
| The First Wars | Did not enter |
| The Second Wars | Did not enter |
| The Third Wars | Did not enter |
| The Fourth Wars | Did not enter |
| The Fifth Wars | Did not enter |
| The Sixth Wars | Failed to qualify with Typhoon 2 |
| The Seventh Wars | Grand Champion with Typhoon 2 Middleweight Champion with Typhoon Featherweight Championship, Round 1 with Typhoon Cadet |
| Series 8 | Heat Round 2, Fourth Place with PP3D (Gary Cairns) |
| Series 9 | Heat Round 2, Fourth Place with PP3D (Gary Cairns) |
| Series 10 | Did not enter |
| Robot Wars Extreme | Appearances |
| Series 1 | Middleweight Champion with Typhoon |
| Series 2 | Middleweight Champion with Typhoon Middleweight Championship with Typhoon Twins Lightweight Champion with Typhoon Twins Annihilator, Sixth Place with Typhoon 2 |
Outside Robot Wars[]
The Team Typhoon football team together
Like many Robot Wars competitors, the Air Cadets also entered Robot Wars' sister show Techno Games. For Techno Games, the team built Typhoon Rover, a small box shaped robot. Typhoon Rover won The Assault Course, beating World Record breaker Mighty Mouse in the final. The team also entered the football event with Typhoon Rover and a modified Typhoon called 870 Squadron which acted as the goalkeeper, losing in the semi-finals to Team BB. The team also competed in the Cycling competition in 2003 with Byphoon. Typhoon Rover is still in one piece, and is currently stored in Gary Cairns' parents' shed.
While Robot Wars was on hiatus, the team built a new heavyweight robot, an invertible 2-wheeled robot with a large horizontal spinning disc called Swarm. Gary Cairns built a heavyweight called Hive, and in March 2012, purchased Robot Wars veteran S.M.I.D.S.Y. from Team Troublesome but due to having a lack of time, sold it again to Team ACE. Gary Cairns briefly joined Team Honeycomb during this time.
- "The Rampaging Chariot is a powerful, radio controlled featherweight sporting robot that is used by schools and youth groups to compete in an annual Robotic Games to determine the National Champion. It is a project aimed at interesting young people in engineering organised by the Rampaging Chariots Guild."
- — Team Typhoon website on Rampaging Chariots
In 2005, the team set up a company called the Rampaging Chariots guild. This was a company that deals in kits for building featherweight robots called "Rampaging Chariots". These kits can be hired by school or youth groups of teenagers, with the aim of getting young people interested in engineering. The robots can be used for sumo, football, assault course and sumo events, and each year the team hold the annual Scottish Robotic Games.[2]
Team Rogue Two Robots built a featherweight replica of Typhoon Rover, called Bullseye, which later changed hands to Tony Smith.
Crossfire, entered by PP3D Robotics (Team Far North) into King of Bots
In 2017, Gary and Sarah Cairns, and Laurence Caie Hosie of PP3D Robotics (now Team Far North) entered the Chinese show King of Bots. They competed with Crossfire, a unique X-shaped robot with a huge horizontal bar spinner in the centre of the robot, creating a symmetrical design with 360 degrees of defence. Also armed with a flamethrower, Crossfire fought Team Big Brother's The Grubs in the first round, but lost after getting thrown by one of the floor flippers and having two of its support arms broken, leaving it stranded on its weapon assembly. Regardless, it received a wildcard to be reinstated during the third round of the competition, where it fought Spin Doctor, built by the founder of RoboGames. Crossfire was immobilised by a hit from Spin Doctor's drum, and it was eliminated at this stage. Crossfire also competed in a nine-robot Rumble shown at the end of Season 1, which it also lost.
008, Team Far North's entry for This is Fighting Robots
For the associated TV show This is Fighting Robots, Team Far North built a new robot, 008. Like PP3D, it was armed with an undercutting spinner, which previously served as PP3D's spare disc, as well as four rear flamethrowers. Although it was not initially selected by the celebrity team captains prior to and during its preliminary battle against Saturn, Ninja and Xiake, it was later selected by Sa Beining, who added 008 to his team and allowed it to advance to the main bracket. Under his captaincy, 008 fought Cat King, Weber and Red River Hong. 008 lost full mobility and the use of its weapon over the course of the match, but although it survived to a Judges' decision, this was won by Weber. Nevertheless, 008 progressed to the Tag Team round, where it was partnered with Greedy Snake in order to battle Xiake for the second time, alongside its teammate Vulcan. 008 was immobilised by big hits from Xiake, but its teammate Greedy Snake was able to win the battle on a Judges' decision by pitting Xiake and holding Vulcan aloft, allowing 008 to progress in spite of its immobility. 008's place on Sa Beining's team was then challenged by Formula, and 008 fought the fellow UK team to stay in the competition, but despite causing major damage to Formula, 008 lost the use of one wheel, and was counted out, eliminating 008 from the competition.
Trivia[]
PP3D, 008, Typhoon Rover and Typhoon 2 in June 2019
- Team Typhoon are the only team in Robot Wars history to enter four weight classes.
External Links[]
References[]
Honours[]
[]
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||