Seen here is the incredible craft Zero-X which featured in the Gerry Anderson film "Thunderbirds Are Go". The craft was probably created by Anderson's design wizard Derek Meddings and his assistant Mike Trim. Trim would go on to design the Martian war machines which featured in Jeff Wayne's musical version of the H G Wells book "War of the Worlds". The Zero-X or ZX as it was sometimes referred was made up of six sections - at the front end of the craft was a command module called the Martian Excursion Vehicle or M.E.V. or simply MEV, which could detach from the Main Body of the craft and land on planetary surfaces using a combination of horizontal and vertical engines. After touch down the craft would transport the crew over the surface using tracks similar to tank tracks. Behind the MEV came the Main Body of the craft which featured two large sets of wheeled landing gear and the crafts main engines. For take-off's the craft featured a forward Heat Shield which attached to the front of the MEV and detached from the craft as it reached Earth's lower atmosphere. To assist in take-off's and landings the craft also had two sets of Remote Control Lifting Bodies, an upper forward one (Lift-Body 1) and a lower one mounted at the rear of the craft (Lift Body 2). The Lift Bodies, like the Heat Shield would also detach and return to the Zero-X's home base of Glenn Field, as the craft reached Earth's upper atmosphere. The final section of the Zero-X was an Escape Unit which could blast the crew clear of the craft if it was in danger using powerful rocket motors with retro-rockets and parachutes for touch down on land or at sea. This fantastic computer model featured in the picture and others I plan on creating was designed and built by Neiwil who has my thanks for producing a model I have been looking for since starting to create my own pictures. the model is available in the "Free Stuff" section here at Renderosity. As always I hope you enjoy the picture.