A few years ago we presented evidence for large scale radio structures around most superluminal radio sources (Schilizzi and de Bruyn, 1983). The extended emission is relatively faint and, in at least two cases (3C120 and 30345), exhibits a rather complex morphology. Although the sample was small, the conclusion seemed inescapable that the largest angular sizes (LAS) of the superluminals do not permit a large deprojection factor due to foreshortening, without making these sources exceptionally large intrinsically. That is to say, they would be exceptional within the context of the unified scheme (US) which interprets superluminal sources as favourably oriented, strongly beamed, core components of classical double radio sources. To save the US, we concluded that the ejection axes of these sources must undergo a large (≥ 30°) change of direction in the period between the creation of the outer and inner emission regions. Superluminality would then be a temporary phase (although possibly recurrent) in the lifespan of a large fraction of the parent population of classical doubles.