The Neutralizer Tractor is a small vehicle that is equipped with an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) generator, which is used to disable the radio control signals and electronics of explosive devices. It is also used to disrupt computer systems by overriding incoming data signals transmitted by carrier waves from external source.
To accomplish this, the Neutralizer Tractor utilises its transmitter dish to send a beam. Due to its small size, the Neutralizer Tractor can travel to many different areas for operation. It featured in Move And You're Dead, where Brains used the tractor to disable a movement-sensitive explosive device. Its front-mounted dish is also seen briefly in Sun Probe when Brains enters Pod 6 with Virgil to find a mobile computer.
Design[]
On the front part of the Neutralizer Tractor is the EMP dish/neutralizing dish which uses sonic beams to render devices inactive. Inside, below the dish is the tractor's power source - a 200 bhp power turbine. At the rear end of the vehicle, behind the dish, is the operator's seat. Inside the tractor, below where the operator sits, are the fuel tanks.
The Neutralizer in Action[]
En route to the San Miguel Bridge with Virgil aboard Thunderbird 2, Brains devises the best way to save Alan and Grandma Tracy, who are trapped high on the girders of the recently-completed bridge - with a bomb that will detonate, if either of them move! With no time to locate the bomb itself, Brains uses the Neutralizer Tractor to immobilize it, so Virgil can safely venture out onto the bridge with the Jet-Air Transporter, and rescue his brother and grandmother...
Cutaway Drawing[]
- Main article: History of the Cutaway Drawings (Classic Thunderbirds)
As far as is known, only one cutaway drawing of the Neutralizer Tractor exists. Illustrated by Graham Bleathman, it features in the Haynes Thunderbirds manual.
Trivia[]
- It is carried in Pod 1.
Gum card
- The Neutralizer Tractor appeared on a 1966 gum card, issued by Somportex.