Because of dangerous materials employed, all the visual effects teams are required to have fire fighting experience.
The magnificent Zero X model took many weeks to construct and just two days to destroy in varying stages.
Deputy Managing Director of Century 21 Organisation. Producer of Thunderbirds television series.
Using the gantry of a power station in addition to the studio's visual effects stages became necessary to make the Zero X crash look realistic.
Electronic detonators set off the cordex explosive, often used by safe breakers. The fantastic fireball type explosion suggesting the igniting of gallons of petrol was made with naphthalene. Gunpowder, magnesium and petrol gel were also used.
Explosion rips the sky! As motors scream their shattered protest the Zero X heaves convulsively. Streamers of spitting fuel and exploding components trace their fiery fingers in all directions. The Zero X, her main body a mass of wind whipped flames, plummets earthwards, smashes deafeningly into the ground,
bounces, then thrusts her massive bulk into the air again. Almost as quickly she is down again, scything a path of destruction through shops and factories. More explosions tear the already shattered body, breaking off whole sections and hurling them like huge incendiaries in all directions.
