All language subtitles for Impossible Engineering s01e06 Worlds Largest Plane.eng

Today on "Impossible
engineering," the Airbus A380,

the largest passenger plane
on the planet.

It took cutting-edge
aerospace engineering...

A massive fly-by-wire system
like this is an incredible tool

of safety
for the aircraft itself.

...And a revolutionary design...

Without those design features,

this aircraft
wouldn't exist today.

...To make
the impossible possible.

Captions by vitac
www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by
Discovery communications

since the birth of aviation
over a century ago,

air travel has been growing
exponentially across the globe.

Over 3 billion people fly
each year.

That's half
the world's population.

The challenge
for today's aerospace engineers

is to find a way to keep up with
the constantly growing demand

and design aircraft
that can accommodate

as many passengers as possible.

In order to reduce

the 100,000 flights
that take place each day,

aircraft designers
would need to think big.

What they came up with
smashed aviation records...

...the Airbus A380, an
ultra-high-capacity airliner,

the largest passenger plane
on the planet...

...an aircraft so big

that a giant building
had to be constructed

just to accommodate it.

This revolutionary
double-decker plane

has an almost 265-foot wingspan,

the largest
of any commercial aircraft.

It has almost 6,000 square feet
of usable floor space.

That's 40% more than
the next-largest airliner.

It can carry
up to 850 passengers.

And with its
state-of-the-art jet engines

and cutting-edge design,

it can fly nonstop almost
halfway around the world.

At a custom-built hangar
in Paris, this Airbus A380

is being stripped down

as part of its scheduled
four-year service,

revealing the secrets

behind this incredible feat
of engineering.

For maintenance manager
sylvain Fagot,

this incredible machine
never fails to impress.

The A380 is a colossal machine

that's the result of centuries
of innovation.

Man has been trying to fly
like a bird for quite some time.

But flight isn't
as easy as it looks.

11th-century
benedictine monk eilmer

reportedly strapped wings
to his back

and launched himself
off malmesbury Abbey...

Geronimo!

...but he glided out of control,
coming to a painful landing.

And in 18th-century Paris,
the montgolfier brothers

discovered that hot air
could make a paper bag rise.

This led them to build
a hot-air balloon,

making history
with the first-ever

lighter-than-air
manned flight...

Ah, très bien.
Magnifique!

Ugh!

But their design
had a few drawbacks.

To build a flying machine
heavier than air

that can take off
and remain airborne,

engineers would need
to figure out a way

to harness the forces of nature.

And in 1804, British scientist
sir George Cayley

finally unlocks
the mystery of flight,

earning him the title
the father of aeronautics.

Cayley discovered
that while in flight,

a bird's wing
has a curved shape.

This is now known
as an aerofoil.

Air passing over
the curved surface

speeds up, losing pressure.

The pressure of the undisturbed
air below remains high.

This creates upward force.

By turning the aerofoil
upside down,

aerospace engineer
Dr. Ben Evans can demonstrate

how Cayley's shape successfully
conquered the forces of gravity.

Now, in this experiment,
on one side, we've got weights

representing gravity, the force
that needs to be overcome.

And on the other end,
an aerofoil.

And as this spins,
the arm goes level.

The air passes over the aerofoil

and pulls it down
to counteract gravity,

which is what lift is trying
to do in an aircraft.

In 1853, at the age of 79,

Cayley put these ideas
into practice

when he launched
the world's first

heavier-than-air
manned glider.

Sir George Cayley had made
the impossible possible.

Cayley's achievements inspired

generations
of aerospace engineers

to reach for the skies.

Without George Cayley's
innovative wing design,

the gargantuan Airbus A380
wouldn't make it off the ground.

The A380's wings apply the same
principles that Cayley exploited

but on an enormous scale.

With an almost-265-foot span

and a surface area
of 9,095 square feet,

they're big enough to park 20
of Cayley's gliders on top.

But engineers needed
some serious power

in order to get

the world's largest
passenger plane airborne.

So they looked
to a revolutionary design

from the past...

What an incredible sensation.

I can feel the acceleration
pushing me back into my seat.

...To produce
more impossible engineering.

In a supersized hangar in Paris,

an Airbus A380
is being serviced.

Technician Charlie Jackson is
getting up close and personal

with this engineering
masterpiece.

As this aircraft is taking off
down the runway

and generating speed,

the tips of the wings
actually will raise up,

which is a sign that the wing
is generating the lift

it's going to need to carry such
a large aircraft into flight.

Creating a wing big
enough to generate lift

but small enough
to minimize drag

is an engineering conundrum.

On the A380,
special high-lift devices,

slats on the front
and flaps on the back,

allow the wings to increase
in size and curve

depending on how much lift
is needed.

But the wings also keep
the A380 airborne

in a more surprising way.

Inside of these wings
is the fuel,

which you need
to complete your flight.

The plane has 11 fuel tanks,

five in each wing
and one in the tail.

Fuel is stored
in the inner tanks

to reduce weight at the wing
tips, but after takeoff,

it's pumped to tanks
across the whole wing.

Throughout the flight,

the system constantly
adjusts the fuel

to maintain the center
of gravity.

This wing is
the product of good design.

If it hadn't been that way,

it just wouldn't be practical
to make an aircraft that size.

Well-designed wings
aren't enough

to keep this massive plane
in the air.

Creating engines powerful enough
to lift a 369-ton aircraft,

along with 200 tons
of passengers,

fuel and cargo almost 2½ miles
into the sky is a daunting task.

The engines are one of the most
important components

on this plane.

It's like the heart --

it doesn't beat,
the body doesn't live.

Powering the A380
would be impossible

without the brilliant work
of past engineers.

By the late 1800s,
aerospace engineers recognized

that power and thrust
were needed to fly.

Gah!

In 1874,
frenchman Félix du Temple

attached a steam engine
to a monoplane.

Et voilà!

But the engine was too heavy.

Sacrebleu!

And in 1903, American professor
Samuel Langley

tried using a giant catapult,

but the takeoff
didn't quite go as planned.

Aw, shoot!

Luckily, two siblings
from Dayton, Ohio,

were about to make

one of aviation's most
significant breakthroughs.

In December 1903,
wilbur and Orville Wright

launched the maiden flight
of the Wright flyer.

Two propellers driven
by a piston engine

gave the plane enough thrust
to take to the air.

Even though the flight
only lasted 12 seconds,

covering just over 100 feet,

it was the first
controlled powered flight

and is recognized as the birth
of modern aviation.

But getting a plane more
than 1,500 times heavier

than the Wright flyer airborne

would take an incredible
engineering breakthrough.

Through the late 1930s,

piston-engine, propeller planes
were the aviation standard.

They were limited in range,
speed and altitude.

However, a radical engineering
innovation was on the horizon.

Dr. Ben Evans
is experiencing firsthand

the power of britain's
first fighter jet,

the gloster meteor.

It's powered by
the first-ever jet engine...

...which was invented by British
engineer frank whittle.

Whittle's engines
were powerful enough

to lift the gloster meteor
over 7 miles into the sky

at a speed
of over 600 miles per hour.

As groundbreaking
as the jet engine was,

the engineering behind it
is surprisingly simple.

In essence, the way
the jet engine works is

you have suck, squeeze,
bang, blow.

You suck air in
at the front here,

and that passes through
a spinning compressor.

And that compressor
squeezes the air down,

increases the pressure
and the temperature of the air

before it passes into
the combustion chamber.

And this is the point where
the fuel is added and ignited.

This increases the temperature

and pressure of the gas
even further,

and then all of those
hot exhaust gases

have to expand, speed up
through the back of the engine,

and they pass through
this turbine.

And the turbine
is connected by a shaft

down the center of the engine
to the compressor at the front,

making that SPiN.

But what pushes
the engine forward,

what generates the thrust,
is the expansion

and the acceleration
of the exhaust gases

out of the nozzle at the back
of the engine.

Whittle's jet engine
allowed aircraft to fly faster,

higher and farther
than ever before...

...changing the face of aviation
forever.

To power the Airbus A380,
engineers would need to take

whittle's jet-engine design
and supersize it.

While this A380
is being serviced

in a giant, custom-built hangar,

technician Charlie Jackson
is getting the chance

to examine the jet engines
that power this massive plane.

The A380 has 4 huge engines,

70,000 pounds of thrust each.

Full of new technologies, it's
one of the most advanced engines

that's available
on the market today.

The A380's
four specially designed

GP7200 turbofan jet engines

are among the most powerful
ever built.

They're nearly 50 times
more powerful

than whittle's jet engines...

...and draw in enough air

to inflate a hot air balloon
in three seconds.

But for the engineering team
behind this colossal plane,

it wasn't just about power.

Thanks to
its state-of-the-art design,

the A380 burns 22% less fuel per
seat than the average 747 jumbo.

These fan blades
have been designed specially

for this aircraft.

They have a very revolutionary
new shape

to increase the airflow
through the engine.

70% of the thrust
from the engine

actually comes from these blades
and not from the motor itself,

which is burning the fuel and --
and turning these blades.

The 24 hollow titanium
blades are boomerang-shaped

with a reverse sweep at the tip.

This shape slows the air from
supersonic to subsonic speeds,

making the A380 more
fuel efficient per passenger

than a car
and also much quieter.

This aircraft is well below
the limits of noise

for the size of the aircraft,
really setting the standard.

The Airbus A380

is the biggest passenger plane
ever built.

Capable of flying nonstop
for almost 10,000 miles,

it's a triumph
of aerospace engineering.

Getting an aircraft of this size
off the ground

to fly practically
halfway around the world

is an engineering feat.

The aircraft's huge
traveling range

is mind-boggling.

It also presents designers
with a unique challenge.

The A380 is capable of flying
from Dallas to Sydney nonstop.

These lengthy flights
require extra provisions

for passenger comfort.

Its two passenger decks

provide almost 6,000 square feet
of floor space.

That's about three
tennis courts.

At a custom-built hangar
in Paris, this Airbus A380

is being stripped down as part
of its scheduled service,

revealing
its engineering secrets.

But designing an airplane
for comfort isn't a new idea.

One of aviation's earliest
and most successful innovators

set the bar.

Early aviators who took
to the skies had little choice

but to bundle up
and brave the elements.

But one man
had a different idea.

In 1913, Russian engineer
Igor sikorsky

built the ilya muromets,

a plane designed specifically
for luxury travel.

It was the world's
first airliner.

He used a wind-driven generator
for electricity

and ran pipes of hot air

from the engine
through the cabin for heat.

There was also a bedroom,
toilet and comfy seats.

16 passengers could travel
up to 370 miles in style.

The ilya was redesigned
as a bomber

to fight in the first world war,

but its luxurious legacy
lives on

and has led the way to a new
world of aviation possibilities.

Just like the ilya muromets
over a century ago,

the Airbus A380
has redefined air travel

with its ability to carry
hundreds of passengers

in supreme comfort
for over 10,000 miles.

But for a plane
as immense as the A380,

traditional building
materials won't cut it.

If the whole airplane

had been made
from the traditional aluminum,

it would have been catastrophic
to the design.

So engineers

had to revolutionize
this approach, too.

The Airbus A380

is one of the most
technologically advanced

commercial airliners
in the world.

But for its design team,

redefining the limits of modern
aviation meant overcoming

some seemingly impossible
engineering challenges.

And one of their biggest
challenges relates

to the plane's
record-breaking size.

The forces that an
airplane are subjected to on --

on any flight are severe
because it's having to expand.

It's having to contract.

It's having to deal with
extreme temperatures.

Even, the aircraft
is actually getting

torsional effects on itself

while it's flying through
turbulent situations.

Since the 1920s,

aluminum has been
the material of choice

for aircraft skins --
it's flexible, strong and light.

But when you're building
the largest commercial airliner

in the world,
every ounce counts.

Just the paint alone
weighs half a ton.

If the whole airplane

had been made from
the traditional aluminum,

it would have been catastrophic
to the design as --

as it would be way too heavy.

They would have had
to have bigger engines.

They would had to have
bigger wings.

It would have burned
a heck of a lot more fuel,

and it wouldn't fly very far.

Decreasing the weight
by reducing the thickness

of the aluminum skin
wasn't an option.

Engineer Ben Evans
demonstrates why

in his lab
at Swansea university.

This gun is gonna fire
these baseballs at high speed

at our target in the stand,

and we'll find out
how much damage they do.

This aluminum sheet is
approximately half the thickness

of a traditional aircraft skin.

Ooh.

Oh. Wow.

Let's have a look,
see what's happened.

And there is the damage.

It's deformed this by a good
5 centimeters or so.

It's really quite
a lot of damage

with that impact
on the aluminum sample.

The designers
of the A380 needed a material

that was as strong
as traditional aluminum

but lighter.

They needed to find materials

that could create
such a large aircraft

that wouldn't weigh like a tank.

Solving
this engineering conundrum

would have been impossible

without the trailblazing work of
a great engineer from the past.

In the 1930s, American engineer
virginius e. Clark

created an alternative
to aluminum.

He infused birch board
with phenolic resin

and laminated it
under extreme heat.

He called this new material
duramold.

Used in Howard Hughes'
enormous Spruce Goose seaplane,

duramold was one of the earliest
and most successful examples

of an aviation composite.

Composites are made up
of more than one material

and take advantage
of the best of both worlds.

What we're going to do to prove
this is the case

is impact-test a composite.

This composite
is a woven carbon fiber

infused with epoxy resin,

the same thickness as the
aluminum Ben tested earlier.

Whoo!
Literally nothing.

So that impacted right here,
bang in the middle.

In fact,
there's absolutely no sign

that any damage has been done.

So these are the results.

This is the composite.
This is the aluminum.

The same impact force, but look
at the damage on the aluminum.

So that is a result
for the composite --

a lighter material
and a stronger material.

And that is why this stuff
is being used

by aerospace engineers today.

To build the world's
largest passenger plane,

engineers took virginius Clark's
innovations with composites

to the next level.

They developed
a brand-new material

for the Airbus A380 -- glare.

Reinforced with glass fiber,
it's thinner than aluminum.

The composite materials
that make up this aircraft,

they're as strong
as the traditional materials,

and they're as flexible as the
traditional materials as well.

To give an example
of how sturdy they are,

there's more than 1 ton of air
pushed inside this aircraft

when it's flying,
when it's pressurized.

The use of glare reduced
the overall weight of the A380

by 15 tons,

allowing this massive plane
to be light enough to fly.

If they hadn't used
glare or a similar composite,

the aircraft that we have today
probably wouldn't exist.

The A380 may be able to fly,

but its ideal wingspan is too
large for the world's airports,

so designers had to take a
classic engineering solution...

Often in engineering,

the simple solutions
are the best solutions.

...And give it
a 21st-century twist.

The Airbus A380 is a triumph

of 21st-century
aerospace engineering.

It's the largest commercial
airliner in operation today.

At a state-of-the-art,
custom-built hangar in Paris,

this A380 is undergoing its
scheduled four-year service...

...giving technicians a chance
to get intimate

with this colossal machine.

It's not just the materials
on the A380

that make it stand out
from the crowd.

Even the method of construction
is groundbreaking.

Sections of the A380

are built in France, Germany,
the u.K. And Spain,

then transported to Toulouse
for assembly.

Moving these parts
requires custom-built ships

and the use of Airbus'
a300-600st beluga

super transporter plane.

Each A380 contains
4 million individual parts,

which, once assembled,
create an airliner

of record-breaking proportions.

The ideal,
most efficient wingspan

for this massive aircraft
is 270 feet,

but aviation regulations state

that all planes must be able
to fit into a 262-foot box.

If engineers didn't come up
with a way

to shrink the A380's wings,

it would be too large
for the world's airports.

Their solution was found

in a great aircraft innovation
from the 1970s.

In 1973, the world
was in an oil crisis.

An embargo on sales to the west
saw prices quadruple over night.

The aviation industry
was paying the price.

A solution
was desperately needed

to improve
airplane fuel efficiency,

and aeronautical engineer
Richard whitcomb found one

while working on NASA's aircraft
energy efficiency program.

Aerodynamicists are always
trying to improve

the efficiency of wings,
which really means

trying to improve the ratio
of the lift

to the drag of the wing.

One of the things
that was causing a lot of drag

and dropping the lift
on the wing

was what's called
a wingtip vortex.

This wind tunnel

is simulating
an ordinary wing traveling

through the air
at a typical cruising speed.

In the central
section of the wing,

you can see that the smoke
is very smooth

until it reaches
the tip of the wing.

And once we're at the tip
of the wing,

you can see this
vortex pattern forming.

A wingtip vortex occurs

when high-pressure air
under the wing

spills upwards at the tip
to meet low-pressure air above.

This leads to turbulence
and drag,

forcing the engine
to work harder.

Richard whitcomb's idea
was to change the design

of an aircraft's wingtips
into vertical winglets.

The winglets create less drag
and burn less fuel.

As I move the smoke trace

towards the end of the wing
this time,

instead of having a single
strong vortex

that we saw in the case
without the winglets,

what's happening now is that
the flow is smearing out,

almost into a sheet,
making the wind more efficient.

Adding a winglet

prevents the mixing
of the two airflows

above and below the wing,
reducing the vortex.

The A380 has specially designed
aero-shaped winglets

called wingtip fences.

These allow the wings
to be shortened

to just under the maximum
allowed 262 feet

without compromising
the aircraft's efficiency.

Without those design features,

this aircraft
would be way too big.

It wouldn't be practical,
and it wouldn't exist today.

The Airbus A380

is the largest passenger
airplane in the world.

It's equipped
with some of the world's

most powerful jet engines
and has a skin

made out of a cutting-edge
lightweight composite.

Specially designed winglets
make it fuel efficient enough

to travel almost 10,000 miles
nonstop,

but how is it possible
that a human can steer a plane

this large and powerful?

By the 1960s, the age of
the jumbo jet was in full swing.

Transcontinental travel
had never been easier or faster.

But a group
of audacious engineers

believed it was possible
to take a jet supersonic.

There were
a lot of engineers who said,

"well, this isn't possible.

What you're proposing here
is just too ambitious."

The result of the work of those
pioneering engineers is this --

concorde.

Launched in 1969,

the concorde could reach speeds
of over 1,200 miles per hour.

That's more than twice
the speed of sound.

Flight times between New York
and London were cut in half.

But flying a supersonic jet
would be impossible

using traditional
aircraft controls.

Concorde needed
an innovative new system,

a system now known
as fly-by-wire.

Former chief concorde pilot
Mike bannister explains

using a simulator
at brooklands air museum.

You could fly
at 1,350 miles an hour,

faster than a rifle bullet.

Concorde wouldn't have been
possible without fly-by-wire,

because some
of the control forces

at certain
flight conditions --

really
would have been huge.

What exactly is
fly-by-wire?

Fly-by-wire is computers
telling systems

what I want to do.

On a conventional
airplane,

when I want to turn left,
I do that,

and some pulleys and wheels
and cables move the controls.

On this aeroplane, when
I want to turn, I do that.

It tells a computer that tells
the controls what to do.

That means the aeroplane's
far more responsive.

It can be
far more efficient,

and it's capable
of being flown

by ordinary human beings.

Concorde was the first
commercial jet

to use
fly-by-wire technology.

What did it feel like
to fly the real concorde?

The airplane's
a delight to fly.

It's like a thoroughbred
racehorse

rather than
a riding-school hack

or a sports car
rather than a truck.

It is so responsive.

You can fly it
with your fingertips.

Why don't you have a go?

Very nice.

Keep it coming.
That's perfect.

Right through the bridge,

London assembly building
to the left,

the shard to the left.

Fabulous.

Well, concorde clearly
is a remarkable aircraft.

Not only is its exterior
breathtakingly beautiful,

but underneath the skin,
there is some technology

that really revolutionized
the aviation landscape

and has made
what we can do

with modern aircraft
today possible.

Since its first application
on the concorde,

fly-by-wire systems
have become industry standard.

And on the Airbus A380,

a highly sophisticated
digital system

makes flying the world's largest
passenger plane possible.

For an aircraft this size,

this aircraft is relatively
a simple aircraft to operate.

For flying the aircraft is here,

and it is completely
electronic.

I mean, there's no cables.

It's all generating
electrical inputs,

which are sent to a computer,

which then sends the signal on

to the flight control
surfaces to move.

The design and
development of the Airbus A380

ranks as one
of the aviation industry's

greatest achievements.

Today, A380s are operated
by airlines all over the world.

One takes off and lands
every four minutes.

By drawing on the innovations
of the past...

...adapting...

Improving them...

And making groundbreaking
innovations of their own...

...aerospace engineers overcame
extraordinary challenges...

...and succeeded in making
the impossible...Possible.

It was quite difficult
to imagine 20 years ago,

that kind of machine you have
here was gonna exist.

But it's now reality.

So, what about the future?
Who knows.

Maybe going to the space
with an aircraft.

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