Original subtitles

[narrator] On this episode of "How Tech Works"

we're taking "Reduce, Re-use, and Recycle"

to a whole new level with jumbo jet airplanes.

[intro music]

Hello, and welcome to "How Tech Works"

the show that is jam-packed with the latest gear and gadgets

from the world of science and technology.

I'm Basil Singer.

On this episode,

we’ll take our best shot with the world’s most accomplished

slingshot hobbyist.

And...

we’ll get an ultra-high-speed chemistry lesson

with the man who fuels these dragsters.

But first!

Repainting commercial airplanes

is one way to give them a new lease on life.

But eventually, all planes come to the end of the road.

Or should I say, runway.

And when that happens, it’s time to recycle them.

So off we go to Southern England

to check out a rather interesting recycling facility.

[gentle pastoral music]

[narrator] Tiny Cotswold Airport

is a destination no plane wants on its flight plan.

Because when a plane lands here, it never leaves.

[machinery grinding] [hard rock music]

[narrator] This is Air Salvage International,

a place where perfectly good airplanes get ripped to pieces.

[Bradley] This is a Boeing 747.

It’s a 400 series, so it’s a fairly large aircraft.

When it flies in, it’s around 200 tons.

Then by the time we’re finished, it’s weighing around about 100.

[narrator] Everything of value is stripped.

The engines, all of the avionic items,

everything from the cockpit, the seats...

air conditioning, hydraulics, flying controls.

Nearly 2 000 parts.

They’ll be sent away. They’ll be tested...

made sure they’re perfectly air-worthy.

And then they’ll be installed onto other aircraft.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] That means the next plane you fly on

might have a used aileron, engine,

or even its landing gear salvaged from this one.

Let’s go up inside. [music continues]

[narrator] This plane is just 20 years old.

A month ago it was flying passengers around the world.

It’s worth ten million dollars to an airline.

Bradley values it a little differently.

The aircraft is worth more as spare parts than it is...

as a flying aircraft.

Already we’ve taken all of the instrumentation.

These were the high value items.

Still left to come out are the seats...

ten thousand dollars a piece,

and the screens.

They're anything between 25 000 and 50 000 dollars a piece.

[narrator] Bradley hopes it'll all add up

to 20 million dollars.

The bits we don’t use are the overhead lockers,

the insulation, the sidewall panels, floor boards...

the toilets.

[narrator] After that, nothing remains

but the aluminum body and wings.

[hard rock music]

Today we’re going to take the wings off three aircraft...

and then chew up the rest and put it in the bin.

[narrator] For that, they call in Andy.

My job?

Disposal of most of the aircraft:

airframes and what have you.

[narrator] The strongest part of a plane

is the metal that attaches the engines to the wing,

and the wing to the body.

Just in 25 minutes.

It’s off.

That signals the start of a busy day.

It’s dangerous work. [grinding]

Inside this wing is the fuel tank.

And cutting through metal makes sparks.

One of the tanks on the A320 hasn’t been drained properly.

[indistinct chatter]

[Andy] That means now we’ve got to climb inside the inboard hull

through the flap to drain them out

when they should have been piddle drained.

[narrator] Meanwhile, work on the 737 continues.

With both wings off, it’s time for the digger.

[Andy] We’ve done all the cutting we can do now.

Now we’re going to go and finish it off with the...

excavator.

[machinery grinding] [upbeat music]

[narrator] Now, it’s back to the cutting.

While the surface of a plane is soft,

the skeleton underneath is much more of a challenge.

It’s all ally. Just top skin ally.

There’s some... tough old bolts in here.

All these bolts. We try and miss these.

We try to get our cut lines to go between them.

Because they’re a mix of steel and Titanium.

[grinding] [narrator] In the final minutes,

Bradley salvages a few more windows.

Then it’s time to finish the job.

[Andy] Shall we?

-Yeah. -Yeah. We do use the machine.

[heavy metal music]

[narrator] One bite at a time, the three massive passenger jets

are transformed into a tangled mountain of scrap.

Even the reinforced joints between the wing and body

can’t withstand Andy’s punishing attack.

[noisy banging] It’s going pretty well.

It's over half way through the day.

Shouldn’t be too long before we’re done.

[narrator] The last thing to go is the tail section.

[Bradley] All of this metal will end up going to a...

scrap yard up north.

They fragment it, and then it could be coke cans,

alloy wheels... Anything you can imagine.

[narrator] And this is the final chance

to squeeze value out of these planes.

The 35 tons of aluminum littering the yard

will bring in 15 000 dollars.

[upbeat music]

A couple of lorries in tomorrow, and we’ll get rid of that.

[narrator] Because the only way these planes will ever leave

the Cotswold Airport, is on the back of a flatbed truck.

[gentle music]

Think of this this next story as a primer in all things parkour.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term,

"parkour" is also known as “free running."

It’s an urban sport that involves jumping over walls,

flying from one roof to another,

and pulling off impressive stunts

using only your own body strength.

Well, we go now to a parkour group in Los Angeles

called “Team Tempest”

that decided to open a free-running gym

for the masses.

You’re going to flip when you see the results.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] While you’ve probably never heard of Gabe Nunez

and his Team Tempest pals, you’ve probably seen them.

[Gabe] "You don’t mess with the Zohan" with Adam Sandler,

"Expendables" with Sylvester Stallone,

television shows such as "Heroes", or "House."

And I've been able to do music videos

like 3 Doors Down, "It's not my time."

[narrator] Using only their arms, legs

and fearlessness to propel themselves,

they jump, flip, dive and fly through the air.

[Gabe] The most difficult thing...

that I’ve learned how to do...

is... a 360 precision onto a railing.

Jumping from one railing, with a 360 spin,

and landing on another railing a certain distance away.

Just so you know, this is not normal.

Nobody else that I know can do it as well as he can.

He's ridiculous actually.

It's way harder than he makes it look.

And that’s kind of my...

I would say my favorite trick to do.

Or my favorite technique to do.

And it's also probably the one I’m the most scared of.

We are at the infamous ninja warrior warped wall

inside the academy,

and we’re going to try to make it to the top.

It’s the same one as in Japan,

and of the 30 or so athletes that make it that far...

only five or six actually make it up.

[narrator] They make it look so easy.

But, for these guys, free running

is about far more than having their name in lights.

[Gabe] You don’t have to be able to do a front flip

off a nine foot wall in order to be called a free runner.

You just have to be able to experiment

with your own body and your environment.

And... be willing to explore your boundaries and your limits.

And that to us is what free running is all about.

[narrator] It has its roots in the urban jungle

where obstacles are seen as mere challenges

to jump higher or vault further.

And until now, it was something you learned on your own,

by trial and error.

[Gabe] The academy was built

to take the most exciting parts of the outdoor world...

that are used for free running and parkour

to train getting over obstacles.

[narrator] Creating a one-of-a-kind gym

required a one-of-a-kind designer. Nate Wessel

is one of the hottest course builders in the world.

[Nate] I do so many different kinds of things, like,

with design I do things for skateboarding, BMX,

snowboarding... motocross.

In general I'm kind of a...

stunt coordinator/designer/ ramp builder.

[narrator] And this is one of his craziest designs,

a mega ramp for pro-bmxer, Travis Pastrana.

[Nate] It's pretty much one of my favorite things

I’ve ever done.

I got to pull out a lot of ideas that...

I’ve never been able to do.

Some of my favorite things on this ramp

are how the whole thing is incorporated as one piece,

where, on his front doorstep,

is where this ram actually starts at his house.

And you come down an entire hill,

and there’s a concrete path jumping a huge jump

over the entire ramp.

You hit an 18-foot tall quarter pipe, and you come back,

and then you can go up into the ramp from there.

Basically this whole ramp can be ridden...

hundred different ways.

Nate Wessel clearly knows BMX ramps,

but a parkour gym is another matter.

[Nate] I would say the biggest challenges and differences I had

between BMX and the parkour thing

were I know BMX and I know what decisions to make

when a problem arises and with parkour...

I just needed a little bit more consulting

because the only things I didn’t understand

were how high certain obstacles needed to be,

and the gaps between them.

[vibrant upbeat music]

Here we have gymnastics floor, it’s a spring floor.

One really cool thing about bathrooms there,

we built couple of levels on the bathrooms

so you can jump of. And this is a foam pit here.

And there’s a high bar on the foam pit

so you can swing and do a bunch of stuff and land in the foam.

Along with the foam pit, we have trampoline.

My favorite obstacle in the entire building

is what they call the David Bell Wall.

It's supposed to imitate a parking structure

with stairs up and down.

[sawing]

[narrator] A couple of months of planning...

then building...

And Tempest Free Running Academy is ready.

[Nate] Instead of just jumping over a plywood wall or...

grinding a plywood ledge,

or making it look like a skate park,

what I try to do is make it look like it's either art,

or make it look like it's part of the city.

[Gabe] The response we’ve gotten so far

since the opening of the academy...

actually even since before...

since we put out the video of the academy,

we've had a huge response.

Positively overwhelming is how I like to describe it.

I think it's the first time

people have seen their dreams realized.

And for us it's the same.

[narrator] It’s an adult playground

that beginners and pros can flip, jump,

and train in 365 days a year.

Because even the pros need to keep challenging themselves.

[Gabe] The three things I would tell somebody

that are very important to the practice of free running...

would be...

One: You have to be...

constantly willing to strengthen and maintain your body.

[fast uplifting music]

Two: You have to always be willing to progress

and try new things.

Three: You have to learn to listen to your gut.

[narrator] And if your gut is telling you to walk,

that’s okay too.

We’ll be right back with more “How Tech Works.”

[futuristic music]

Welcome back to “How Tech Works.”

I’m Basil Singer.

Now the fellow at the center of this next story is...

how do it put it... protected

for just about any kind of battle.

His weapon of choice? The slingshot.

Now I know what you might be thinking.

But his creations are hardly the stuff of childhood toys.

Meet Jörg, a full-grown man and YouTube sensation,

also known as the slingshot guru.

[tranquil sounds]

[narrator] Burgkunstadt.

A sleepy little town of six thousand people.

It’s really quiet here.

But one of its residents... is making an impact.

[thudding]

Hello and welcome to the Slingshot Channel.

[thwacks] Now, time for the bone crusher.

[thwacks]

Let’s look at that in slow motion.

[slow whooshing]

[Jörg] The Slingshot Channel

is just my personal YouTube channel,

which deals exclusively about rubber-operated weapons.

I designed a stake that can be shot from a slingshot.

[thudding]

I never expected it to be that big

but now I have more than seven million views

and have about 20 000 subscribers.

And the growth rate is phenomenal.

If it continues this way, then I will probably...

then one day be able to have my old television show.

[narrator] Viewers challenge him to make elaborate slingshots.

[Jörg] I'm going to show you one of the craziest slingshots

I’ve ever made.

It's a machete-shooting slingshot.

This time you won’t see me shooting in a T-shirt

because that happened.

[thudding]

[narrator] Jörg’s day job is managing an electronics company.

But today is a day off.

He’s working on a new challenge from a viewer.

[Jörg] That's a slingshot that fires iPhones.

We are going to test fire real iPhones at a few targets.

And in the end we're going to find creative ways

how to destroy it. [chuckles]

This pouch has been designed to hold the iPhone.

And it is holding it in place with rubber...

so that it's not falling out.

[twangs] [exciting music]

By the way, this is a dummy iPhone. It’s the real deal.

It is simply too expensive for me

to fire iPhones during the test phase.

[rattling]

The hobby gives me total freedom.

I have no boss that tells me:

"Now do this, do this, and now do that."

When I wake up and want to do a beautiful slingshot,

then I make a beautiful slingshot.

When I wake up and want to do a crazy slingshot,

then I do a crazy one.

[narrator] No point watching paint dry.

Time to show off some slingshots.

[Jörg] A slingshot is a converter

for your muscle energy, for your muscle power.

When you draw out the slingshot bands...

then you invest energy into it, and when you release,

what you get is kinetic energy.

This is the most basic slingshot you can possibly make.

It is made from a standard Y-shaped tree branch.

And I attached bands that are made from training bands.

That is a band for gymnastics.

[narrator] The ammo is huge ball bearings.

[thud]

They’re stopped by an old toolbox

that’s seen a lot of abuse.

Slingshots can be very dangerous.

They can be dangerous to the shooter

if you do not take the necessary precautions.

And of course, if you hit someone with a slingshot,

that can be fatal.

This is ballistic gelatin.

And it emulates the behavior of human flesh.

So you get an idea about how heavy that impact was.

[thud echoing]

[narrator] And now the heavy artillery.

[Jörg] Someone challenged me on the internet... and said:

"Why don’t you go ahead and build a slingshot

that is fully automatic."

And I thought very hard about this,

and came up with the Gatling idea.

[narrator] The paint is dry on the iPhone launcher.

[Jörg] Now it is ready for shooting.

First we are going to test how much pain it could inflict

if we shoot it against a ballistic gelatin block.

The goal is to attract as many people on YouTube as possible.

[narrator] The iPhone will probably tumble,

so Jörg shoots close up.

[elastic stretching]

[thuds]

Oh, it is still working.

It obviously... hit the target with a lot of energy

because it toppled the entire block of ballistic gelatin over.

[narrator] The next target is... not quite so soft.

Let’s make sure this is not my everyday phone.

No, it’s not.

No SIM card,

because I don’t think it's going to survive this.

Everybody ready?

Okay! Fire!

[elastic stretching] [thuds]

So I always wanted to know how an iPhone looks from the inside.

[chuckles] Now I know.

Rest in peace! [laughs]

[narrator] Jörg still has one more old iPhone.

[Jörg] I love destroying things.

[thwacks]

So it looks like someone really wanted to dial the nine.

It dented the entire back side as well.

But the funny thing is it's still working.

[narrator] IT’s time to edit the video and upload it.

[Jörg] I'm excited. YouTube is going to love it.

[narrator] There’s a good chance that this one...

[explosion echoes] will be a hit.

And finally.

In the world of high-speed race cars,

nitro methane is the fuel of choice

that sends these 8000 horsepower machines

down the track at blistering speeds.

Our fearless reporter, Alan Nursall,

goes to the track for a hands-on demo of this explosive fuel.

[engines roaring]

-And what do we have here? -Nitro Methane-CH3NO2.

This is the fuel that makes that thing go?

[revving]

The biggest thing that really makes it fast

is it’s 66% oxygen.

[upbeat music]

CH3NO2. And it’s the 02 that makes it go.

So the beauty of this fuel, the thing that makes it special,

is that it supplies some of its own oxygen.

As you know from racing,

the air is the hardest thing to get in the engine.

It's easy to squirt fuel in there.

It’s hard to get the engine to have air in it.

That’s what makes it such a good motor fuel,

is that we can put like...

tons more oxygen into the engine in liquid form

than we can in gas form of what’s around us.

[Alan] Now you want me to do something crazy with this.

[Jim] If you strike a match and just drop a match in it,

after it’s burning, it will just put it out.

-Really? -[mechanic] Yup!

-[Alan] Can I trust you? -Sure.

-[Alan chuckles] -[Jim] Famous last words.

[Alan] I just want to be straight on this.

You, the experienced crew chief,

are telling me to put a lit match into the fuel

that makes that thing go 350 miles an hour.

[Jim] Just toss it in there.

[Alan] It went out!

Yup, that’s what it’s supposed to do.

It's not very flammable, just powerful.

[Alan] That’s not what I expected at all.

I'm going to try it one more time.

Throw it onto the nitro methane.

[upbeat music]

-No burning! -Nope.

[Alan] Jim, what happened?

[Jim] The liquid nitro put the match out

because liquid nitro will not burn.

Nitro won’t evaporate as easily like gasoline

and turn into vapor.

And as you know in gasoline,

even liquid gasoline doesn’t burn.

Only the vapor burns because it has to mix with oxygen.

And, as far as the capabilities for it to explode,

it needs to have compression or a concussion to set it off.

To actually squeeze the oxygen out of it to help it go.

Because as soon as the oxygen starts to come out of it,

then it will go and it'll go big.

Okay. So...

there’s a lot of compression and concussion

inside a top fuel engine. [engine roaring].

[Jim] Oh yes sir, it will get cylinder pressure high enough

that it will push the heads up right up off the block.

So, is there a way to get this nitro methane

to give us a little explosion?

The old guys in the old days, I call them the old guys,

the guys that ran in the sixties and stuff,

they use to take the beer lids or pop bottle lid,

you know the little tin lid?

And they’d get the nitro in and get it burning,

and get it going really hot, then hit it with a hammer,

and it’d go POW like a fire cracker.

We can attempt to do that here.

We’re gonna put a little bit in this water bottle cap,

and we’re going to light it and get it hot,

and when it’s boiling,

we’re going to take this hammer and act like a piston.

We’re going to slap that burning nitro and it’s going to go POW.

[upbeat music]

[bangs]

[Alan] That was a bang.

[bangs]

It vaporized it.

Yup, because it melted the thing.

Jim, that was crazy.

We got a real sharp bang.

I felt the Nitro.

It blew out on me. I could feel it.

Because when it blows up, it’s some pretty violent stuff.

[Alan] So when you add compression,

you get a great explosion.

[Jim] You get it lit and you compress it,

and it will explode.

And it’s a fairly big explosion for the amount of it there is.

This is actually a solvent.

The biggest use for this in the world

is to fertilize strawberries.

So if you eat strawberries, you eat nitro.

Thanks for the chemistry lesson. That’s very cool stuff.

Thank you so much for watching “How Tech Works.”

I’m Basil singer. See you next time.

[futuristic music]