Original subtitles

[electronic music]

[narrator] On this weeks episode of How Tech Works.

A visit to the Lufthansa hangar for a whopper of a paint job!

And, we’ll meet the inventor of this labor of love.

It looks like a super car,

but it’s actually ultra-fuel efficient.

[electronic music]

Hi there, and welcome to How Tech Works.

I’m Basil Singer, and we’ve got a packed line-up of stories

about crazy inventions,

the latest in military intelligence technology

and a really big paint job.

Really, really big.

We’ll go for a spin on an electric unicycle,

think about that for a second.

Electric unicycle.

Plus we’ll experience some very cool virtual reality training

for fighter pilots.

But first, How do you give a makeover to an airplane

the size of three city buses?

I know, I know, that question keeps me up at night too.

Well, let’s visit the Lufthansa paint shop in Germany

and find out!

[narrator] In a huge hangar near the Hamburg Airport,

something mighty big is going on.

[electronic music]

An Airbus A330 is getting a makeover.

My name is John West. I'm a foreman here in

Lufthansa technik’s paint shop.

This is where we spray all the Lufthansa planes

and also a lot of different aircraft, different airlines.

[background upbeat music]

[narrator] The plane is longer than three city buses.

That’s about two thousand square meters of surface area

that need to be painted with speed and skill.

The biggest challenge for us is to reach the quality

at a reasonable price, and in the shortest time,

downtime for the aircraft.

My name is Maike Timm and I am the responsible

operations manager for the aircraft painting.

[narrator] Maike and John work at Lufthansa Technik,

owner of this giant paint shop.

It’s size of football field.

It has six telescoping platforms suspended from the ceiling,

and eight mobile ones on the floor.

So they can cover every surface on the jet.

[John] The color design of Lufthansa is white on the top

and grey underneath.

We will be applying the grey today.

[narrator] Planes need paint jobs every few years

because of wear and tear.

UV rays cause paint colors to dull and fade.

Take-offs and landings crack the paint,

and pressurized fuselages expand and contract.

[background upbeat music]

There is also movement in the wings.

On the ground they hang down, in flight they are up,

so the surface of the wings and the paint has to be flexible.

[narrator] So every five to seven years,

airliners come to the paint shop.

[Maike] After an incoming inspection,

we prepare for removing the paint.

On the fuselage, which is metal, aluminum,

we do a chemical stripping.

[narrator] They cover composite parts

like the nose and engine casings.

To protect them from the acid-based stripper.

All the composite parts on the wings and the engines,

we have to rub down the paint with sanding machines.

[narrator] The aluminium gets a special coating

to stop corrosion.

Then the primer goes on, followed by the top coat,

turquoise for this Boeing 737.

Today we will be spraying the underside of the wings

and the underside of the fuselage.

[narrator] They’ve got nine days to complete the A330 job.

The key thing is knowing how long it’ll take

for the paint to dry.

We can only influence the drying time in a limited way,

and so the down time of the aircraft is influenced by

the drying time of the paint.

[narrator] John’s job: mix the grey paint

so it’ll dry on time.

[John] The mixing of the paint is very crucial.

The paint is delivered in kit forms.

You mix two parts paint to one part hardener,

and one part the activator, what we used to call thinners.

Because we are spraying a large area today we’ll be using

a slow thinners,

which means that the drying time is a lot longer.

This enables us when we’re spraying, to always keep

a wet edge so we can apply wet on wet

so we don't have so much over spray.

If we use a quick drying thinners, it‘s basically drying

before we finish spraying and all of the over spray

goes onto the painted areas and is not absorbed into the paint.

It stays on the top and it just looks terrible.

[narrator] The whole job uses about 600 litres of paint.

A third of that paint is grey.

It’s a special polyurethane that flexes with the aircraft.

But before the paint can be laid down

John checks the thickness by timing how fast it flows.

I was just testing the viscosity of the paint

using this stop watch and a viscosity cup.

The manufacturer gives us a range and in this case

it was between 15 and 18 seconds,

and I had an average viscosity of 16 seconds.

The end result from the spraying

relies upon how thick or thin the paint is.

[narrator] Too thick, you get a dimpled paint surface

called “orange peel.” Too thin, and you get runs.

We now have the perfect viscosity for them

to be able to do a perfect job.

[narrator] The painters apprentice for

three and a half years to get that spraying motion just right.

Side to side

and up and down.

The trick,

is spraying a layer that’s only a tenth of a millimeter thick.

[Maike] The customer demands that the weight has to be

as low as possible,

so we have to spray as thin as possible.

[narrator] Once it’s dry the paint weighs just 400 kilos.

Then the finishing touches.

Dark blue for the Lufthansa lettering

and the tail logo.

Details like that are stenciled on.

You can see the process up close on this Boeing 737.

It all happens according to a graphic plan

for the whole aircraft.

The backing is peeled off.

The paint is sprayed on

and viola!

This plane gets a wild new paint scheme.

As for the Airbus A330, work is coming along.

With forty people working three shifts a day,

This paint job is ahead of schedule.

It's a nice feeling when you've turned out

a good job and everybody is happy.

[narrator] And when the A330 goes back into service,

another customer rolls in

and the clock starts ticking once again.

Now we’re shifting gears from a gazillion gallons of paint

to a single gallon of petrol.

And just what kind of mileage can you get

from this one gallon?

The chap in the next story is working on a car

designed to squeeze as many miles

from as little fuel as possible.

It’s called a ‘Zoleco’. Let’s see how he does it.

[electronic music]

[narrator] It’s blue like water

and shaped like a droplet.

Zoltan bod designed this one of a kind car

to look unique and run on the cheap.

[Zoltan] My main interest was always performance

and that shifted to where I wanted to see how much

performance you can get with the least amount of gas.

[narrator] He calls his car: "The Zoleco".

'Zol' from the first part of his name,

‘eco’ as in eco friendly.

Zoltan is not a car designer, he’s just someone with a dream.

[Zoltan] I have always had this passion to be creative

and this is my outlet.

[narrator] And his dream started with this.

A turbo forsa that gets about 25 miles per gallon.

He wants to double that performance.

[buzzing] [Zoltan] I took that car and I

incorporated a teardrop shape around it.

As I was getting my teardrop shape created,

then I started cutting out parts of the car I didn’t need.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] Zoltan’s using a teardrop design

to make this vehicle as aerodynamic as possible.

[Zoltan] The air flowing over the surface as it is streamlined

does not detach.

So as a result there is minimal turbulence

and not that much drag created.

At the back of the car the teardrop shape comes to a point

so that the air coming over the body comes back

into a stream and doesn’t create any turbulence in the back.

[narrator] It’s sleek but Zoltan wants it to be comfortable too.

[Zoltan] The greatest challenge it to take that

tear dropped shape and make it practical.

I don’t want to have to lay down in this car

that's extremely aerodynamic but you've got to lie down

and use a periscope to see where you're going.

[friend] Hi Zoltan how’s it going?

[Zoltan] Hey I'm laying out the back seat in this thing.

It’s got more room than I thought it would have.

We can sit side by side in here no problem and stretch out.

It has 10 inches more leg room than my Mustang has.

For the size of the car, it's amazing.

So four guys can sit in there just perfectly.

[Zoltan] Yeah four guys in a tear dropped shaped car.

Who would have thought it?

[narrator] To put four guys in this car

means zoltan needs to make the car stable.

[Zoltan] Now this body shape requires three wheels.

It has got to have one wheel in the back to allow the point

but as I was designing the interior I realized

I have room for two guys my size in the back

so it is going to be a little bit tipsy so I went with

the dual wheels in the back. That will have superior handling

compared to the one wheel in the back and that will allow

it to go around corners really nicely.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] Zoltan believes the teardrop shape of this car

will help make it super fuel efficient.

[scraping]

[narrator] That is once he gets the engine working.

[upbeat music]

[Zoltan] Right now we're looking like we're pushing

three horsepower.

[music continues]

[laughing]

[Zoltan] It is a labor of love.

I‘ve got 18 hundred hours into it so far now and I figure

to have a completed proof of concept

where you can drive it, skid pads and all.

That kind of testing is another five thousand hours

because this car I am creating right now is just the plug.

Off this you have to build the molds to make the real body.

[friend] A beautiful day to have your car out.

[Zoltan] It is. Let’s take it to the top of a hill and try a

bigger hill this time.

[narrator] But for now, seeing this car fly down a road

means finding a good hill.

[Zoltan] It’s time we started to conserve energy.

We should still be able to have a beautiful exotic car

but not be throwing

energy out the window like there is no tomorrow.

[narrator] A droplet car running on just a few drops of petrol.

One day, it could be a reality.

[electronic music]

Coming up on How Tech Works.

We’ll experience the thrill of being a jet fighter,

thanks to the latest in virtual tech-training for pilots.

And,

we’ll take a test drive on this amazing ‘Ryno’ micro-cycle.

It's half a motorcycle... literally!

[electronic music]

Welcome back to How Tech Works I’m Basil Singer.

When it comes to action, there's nothing quite like a good,

old-fashioned dog fight in the air.

I’m talking pilot v. Pilot, plane-to-plane battles.

But with modern weapons technology, those are

a thing of the past, right?

I want to introduce you to a new piece of pilot training gear

that not only puts you right in the cockpit,

it brings new meaning to the words “if looks could kill”.

[rock music]

[narrator] At BAE Systems, this team is assembling

one of the most sophisticated helmets ever built.

[rock music]

[narrator] Packed with an arsenal of electronics,

it’s about to take the edge

off one of the world’s toughest jobs.

[rock music]

[Paul] You’re operating a number of different radios.

You have a number of other aircraft on the mission,

there’s guys on the ground you've got to talk to.

There’s bad guys in the air. You have all this going on,

plus you’re flying a helicopter or a jet.

[laughing] You’re trying to do all of it

at once.

[narrator] At the company’s flight simulator lab, today,

Paul Cooke is putting the Striker helmet to the test.

A former Apache pilot for the US army,

Paul knows how difficult flying into combat can be.

[Paul] All the information you needed was down on gauges

and dials in the dashboard area.

You get distracted, you look up and you’re drifting,

you’re climbing, you’re descending, you’re very close

to an obstacle or another aircraft and it scares you.

[narrator] With Striker, a special visor-mounted display,

takes all those worries away.

[Paul] You have an attitude indicator, radar altitude,

your barometric altitude, ground speed, your airspeed,

your trim, your heading.

It’s all right there in front of your eye.

[narrator] If the pilot flies too close to danger,

a built-in proximity warning goes off.

[simulator] Obstruction!

[Paul] It’s telling me there’s an obstruction and it’s

advising me which way to turn.

[narrator] The system can even make the aircraft invisible.

[futuristic music]

I’m not limited by any of this structure.

I see through all that structure like it’s not even there.

I can see the rotor blades turning above me.

[narrator] With no blind spots, the pilot’s attack capabilities

are greatly improved. And Striker can control weapons too.

[Paul] As I turn, the gun follows where I go,

and I simply look at the target, put the crosshairs where I want

the bullets to go, and pull the trigger.

[explosion]

[narrator] To understand how it works,

check out the back of the helmet.

Paul calls it frogskin,

but each one of these bumps is an infra-red LED.

There’s a specific number of LEDs and they’re arranged

in a very specific pattern.

[narrator] At the factory, a special system calibrates

every helmet, memorizing the exact layout of the LEDs.

In the cockpit, mounted cameras use that same data to track

the helmet everywhere it moves.

Here, the virtual and real world become one.

I still have all my peripheral cues

but I have that symbology set right in front of my face.

I can use that to maintain my situational awareness,

fly and operate the machine safely.

[narrator] Without doubt, the Striker is a high-end

piece of kit. But built specifically for top level

fast-jets like the eurofighter typhoon,

its price-tag puts it out of reach for most.

For all other aircraft, BAE has a different solution.

This is the Q-sight.

[Paul] Whatever helmet you already have,

we can clip onto. This is a standard HG-56P.

It’s representative of an in service helmet.

[narrator] LED stickers can also be added for head tracking

giving this system striker-like capabilities,

in a much cheaper package.

To test the Q-sight,

Paul’s about to land in one of the toughest situations

for any chopper pilot. A brownout.

It’s been compared to parallel parking for a car

with your eyes closed.

In an empty desert it’s bad enough. But today...

[Paul] For tactical reasons I’m going to have to land

in a very precise spot, in the middle of all

those buildings that I see out to my front.

[narrator] Luckily, Paul has a secret weapon.

[Paul] There’s a radical that I can see here in the Q-sight

that I can put right on the exact spot that I wanna land.

I hit a button here,

and I designate that as my desired landing point.

So now if all the sand and things blow-up

and I go into a brown out, I can still use the symbology

that I see here on the Q-sight to land safely at that exact

point in the middle of all those obstacles.

Alright Dan, you can, unlock me.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] As the mission begins

the outside world is crystal clear.

[Paul] About 130 feet now. Descending and decelerating.

[narrator] But soon…

[Paul] I can see sand coming up on my left. Now on my right.

Now in front of me. So I'm starting to brown out.

I’m at 40 feet. Coming forward and down.

I can see everything I need to see on my Q-sight.

Forward and down. Eighteen feet.

Fifteen feet.

And i’m on the ground!

[sighs] Safe and sound.

Mission complete.

[narrator] With their advancements in

helmet technology, BAE is pushing the capabilities

of fighter pilots and their aircraft to the next level.

More than that,

they’re making the job safer for all.

And on those days when this is your morning routine,

a little extra safety isn’t a bad thing.

We’re finishing up now with a cool piece of tech

that looks a bit like a Segway,

but only has one wheel.

Better yet, this home-made invention

doesn’t topple over when you come to a complete standstill.

Sounds impossible, I know.

But you’ll believe it, when you see it.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] riding a unicycle takes a lot of practice

and a certain finesse.

If you want to make it easier, just put a motor on it!

[Chris] I know it sounds crazy. And everybody says: "huh?".

And they try to get a mental picture of what that is.

A unicycle comes to mind

and I say no: "it’s like half a motorcycle".

You just chop the front off and throw it away,

but keep the handle bars!

[narrator] Chris Hoffmans was hooked by the idea

on a fishing trip.

[Chris] I was just driving out to go fishing with my

thirteen year old daughter.

There’s this long period of silence and out of that

silence she says: "Hey Daddy.

I saw this one wheeled motorcycle in a video game.

Could you actually build that?"

There’s this moment of silence.

I guess you could, what would that look like?

She takes out a piece of paper and scribbles out this sketch.

So we took about half an hour to break it down.

[narrator] After that first crude drawing on the shore,

Chris went home and tried to crush his daughter’s dreams.

[Chris] You know at this point in my life as an inventor,

I’m more about how do I kill this thing right now,

So I can move on to the next idea.

So I tried to kill it really hard.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] But the more he learned,

the more it made sense to him.

[Chris] Pretty soon I thought: "I’m just gonna take a machine

shop class and make the sheet metal parts!"

[narrator] The first prototype

was pretty much an oversized paperweight!

[Chris] We tried to ride it and it was totally un-ridable.

[narrator] But still, the idea wouldn’t die.

Chris and his software engineer took one last crack at it.

[Chris] I said let’s just stick some steering on it

like off the front of a motorcycle.

Let’s just put some forks on it, and see what happens.

And he said that was crazy!

So a month and a half of up at the shop and welding

some crap together. Which is actually inside that bike.

We actually wrapped some cooler stuff around it.

I was riding that thing around my neighborhood in 5 minutes.

Our mouths just hung open.

How’s that possible?

So now we’re thinking: " now what do we do?”

[narrator] It’s now selling for over £15 000 a unit.

But with mass production,

Chris hopes to get the price down to £2 500 next year.

I've got probably two or three hundred dealers

waiting to adopt the bike. I mean everywhere.

It’s going to be crazy. Once we’ve got product to sell.

You could be Ryno guy.

I mean they yell at me: "Hey Ryno man!"

I don’t even know these people!

[narrator] Alright then “Ryno guy “ give us the specs

[rock music]

First of all it’s all electric,

Battery powered, 20 miles an hour,

We’ve got electric motor inside the wheel and then

drivetrain braking system.

Then as far as the controls,

it’s a standard twist throttle, like a motorcycle, and a brake.

The batteries in this case are in the wheel in this version.

It recharges in an hour and a half .

You can actually pull out the battery

and carry it like a suitcase so I can take it to my apartment.

I can take the whole bike up to my apartment if I want.

[narrator] The tricky part was designing it to stop

without doing a face plant.

We use the same balance technology as a Segway scooter.

Using these little accelerometers that are

so common now, and through a lot of sophisticated software

you can get these vehicles to be really reliable.

[narrator] The Ryno also has three gyros in it

to save you from road rash, no matter what you do to it.

It’s a little tuning fork

the size of a human hair vibrating in a magnetic field

knows where the center of the earth is at all times.

So our processor is looking for a tilt angel.

If it deviates it simply drives the bike underneath

the center of gravity.

It’s a sensor that costs a dollar!

and you end up with a product that looks like

you’re riding a magic carpet.

[narrator] Right now it’s all about proving it’s safe to ride.

[Chris] Do you guys wanna try this?

-[men] Sure. -[Chris] Who’s first?

[narrator] Chris invites a local unicycle club

to take the Ryno out for a roll.

[Chris] These guys are bruisers. They’re a blast

[electronic music]

[narrator] They’re daunted at first, but within a few minutes,

they’re addicted.

[music continues]

[Chris] Nice!

I was starting to get it at the end.

- One more time? -[Chris] Yeah, go ahead!

That’s actually the thing that’s kept me going the whole time.

There’s something about this engagement with this machine

that is going to appeal to people.

There’s this whole landscape that unfolds

because I have this piece of machinery.

[narrator] Chris, you’re awesome.

It’s looks like his father daughter fishing trip

wheeled him in the catch of the day.

[electronic music] It makes you wonder doesn’t it?

A man driven to create a seemingly impossible vehicle

just because his 13 year old daughter asked if it could work.

As they say: “kids these days”.

That’s all we’ve got time for today.

Thanks very much for watching, until next time,

I’m Basil Singer.

[ending electronic music]