Aerialbot (SG)


 * The Aerialbots are an Autobot subgroup from the Generation 1 continuity family.

The Aerialbots are the first Autobot combiner/gestalt/special team. They transform into Earth-style aircraft and combine to form Superion.


 * Silverbolt — Concorde SST (Super Sonic Transport) — acrophobic leader, and den mother
 * Air Raid — Boeing F-15C Eagle — impulsive and fearless close-quarters fighter
 * Fireflight — McDonnell Douglas F-4B Phantom II — daydreamer, dangerously absent-minded flyer
 * Skydive — General Dynamics F-16C Fighting Falcon — unassuming but gifted strategist, military history aficionado
 * Slingshot — McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II — insecure loud-mouthed jerk, VTOL capabilities
 * Airazor — fictional jet - small but fierce guy who occasionally replaces Slingshot

The Transformers cartoon
In order to fight the Autobots more effectively on the ground, in late 1985 the Decepticons built a combiner team that could convert into cars. However, in order to give these Stunticons life, Megatron had to take them to Vector Sigma, a megacomputer deep within Cybertron. Vector Sigma could only be activated with a circuit key, which was in the hands of the ancient Autobot Alpha Trion. Megatron stole the Key and succeeded in giving life to the new team. A group of Autobots had been following Megatron, and, to counter the Stunticons, they rebuilt some old, abandoned shuttles into the Aerialbots. However, without the Key, they couldn't activate Vector Sigma. Alpha Trion then revealed that, as one of the first Transformers created, he had the ability to interface his power supply with the megacomputer. Against Optimus Prime's protests, he merged with Vector Sigma, activating it, and his lifeless body fell to the ground. Prime asked Vector Sigma to "Let [the Aerialbots] think for themselves, to grow in knowledge and wisdom, and let them always value freedom and life wherever they find it." After the Aerialbots were programmed, Alpha Trion's voice came from the megacomputer; his mind had merged with Vector Sigma.

Once on Earth, the Aerialbots fought a brief battle with the Stunticons that ended when Megatron sent a message to his car warriors to return to base. Thinking that the Stunticons had retreated, the Aerialbots' egos soared; all, that is, except Silverbolt's. During the fight, he had discovered his fear of heights, which he guessed came from the fact that he was built from a low-altitude cargo shuttle. Prime helped him deal with the phobia by naming him Aerialbot Leader, thus giving him duties that would keep his mind off of his fear. However, he found his position a hard one to fill. The other Aerialbots, especially Slingshot, saw themselves as better than anyone else. They couldn't understand why the Autobots wasted their time protecting the foolish and inferior humans, and they eventually left the Autobots. Silverbolt, who didn't agree, merely promised Prime he would bring them back, then left with them. After a while, Silverbolt finally convinced them that they owed the Autobots their lives, and they decided to stay with the Autobot army.

Meanwhile, Megatron had discovered that the Key could "de-energize" Earthen matter, turning it to metal. Hoping to create a new Cybertron, he began sweeping through forests near the Seattle-Tacoma area, turning everything from trees to mountains into metal. The Autobots tried to stop him, but the Stunticons were unstoppable... that is, until the Aerialbots arrived. The two teams formed their gestalt modes, and, as the battle entered the outskirts of a city, Omega Supreme arrived and turned the tide. Megatron retreated, but he still had the Key. Silverbolt, braving his phobia, chased him down and destroyed it.

A few weeks later, strange energy readings were detected on Cybertron. A team of Autobots and the Aerialbots left to investigate. The Aerialbots, enamored with Cybertron, were on a patrol when they were attacked by three Decepticon jets. Curious, Slingshot surrendered and began to ask the Decepticons questions, like why Prime thought they were evil. All the other Aerialbots except Silverbolt did the same, and Silverbolt followed at a distance. Starscream, feigning friendship, led the naive team into the Kronosphere, a time machine that had been generating the unusual energy readings. As Silverbolt arrived, trying to convince his teammates that they were in a trap, Megatron activated the Kronosphere, intending to send them back to before the beginning of time. Outside of the timestream, they would be trapped in eternal nothingness. However, the other Autobots arrived and destroyed the machine before it could finish its work. The Aerialbots had been sent only nine million years into the past, during the Golden Age of Cybertron before the Great War had broken out.

In the past, the Aerialbots met a young Transformer named Orion Pax, who was working at an energy shipment facility. As they got to know each other, Orion soon told them about his admiration of a "new kind" of Transformer that had the ability to fly in robot mode. He was understandably awestruck when the leader of those robots, Megatron, arrived at his workplace under the guise of friendship. After Orion gave him a brief tour, Megatron ordered his disguised troops to attack the facility and take the energon. During the assault, Orion, his girlfriend Ariel, and his friend Dion were severely injured. The Aerialbots arrived at the scene just as Megatron was leaving. They took Orion to the young Alpha Trion, who was devising ways to fight the Decepticons. He rebuilt Orion into the first of a new breed that would be capable of standing against Megatron. He also gave him a new name: Optimus Prime. Alpha then rebuilt Ariel into Elita One, but it is unknown whether Dion was given similar treatment.

Prime inflicted severe damage on the Decepticon forces, but Megatron was still powerful. His raiders were starting to loot a fuel transfer center that would supply him with enough energon to win the war just as it was beginning. The Aerialbots realized this, and they set up explosives to destroy the energon. However, while they were inside, the Decepticons surrounded the facility, preventing their escape. Now fully aware of Megatron's evil, they set off the charges despite the danger to themselves. Just as the energon detonated, they found themselves being transported back to the present. When they arrived, they saw that the Autobots had repaired the Kronosphere but were fighting the Decepticons and a reanimated Guardian robot. The Aerialbots combined into Superion and destroyed the Guardian, and Megatron retreated. As the Decepticons flew away, Slingshot swore: "You'll never get away from us, Megatron! We won't stop fighting till you're finished!"

Since that time, the Aerialbots have been invaluable to the Earth-bound (and largely flightless) Autobots. When Megatron obtained the ultra-powerful Lightning Bug from the ruins of an ancient Autobot colony, it was Superion who eventually destroyed the weapon (after having defeated Menasor). Later, Slingshot and Skydive went undercover at a Middle Eastern airbase to investigate a rash of jet thefts. Late one night, men in laundry trucks began disassembling them and several other jets, carting their components to a car repair shop. There, the parts were jury-rigged into bizarre-looking cars and driven across the border to Megatron's secret base. The planes were then reassembled and used by the Decepticons as a remote-controlled drone armada. With the help of Hassan, a young human who was also investigating the smugglers, Slingshot and Skydive were rebuilt without being detected. The other Aerialbots soon arrived and began battling the drones, the Combaticons, and Megatron's sphinx-like airborne fortress. As Superion, they beat the Combaticons' gestalt mode Bruticus and destroyed the fortress by blowing up an oil well. After the Decepticons retreated, the Autobots discovered that Ali, the head of the smuggling operation, had become the ruler of his country by allying himself with Megatron and overthrowing a certain Prince Jumal. Megatron was going to use Ali's drone jets to take over the Middle Eastern oil fields, thus supplying himself with enough energy to conquer the world... and giving Ali a fair share of domination, of course. It was also revealed that the Aerialbots' friend Hassan was actually the deposed Prince Jumal in disguise.