All language subtitles for How.Tech.Works.S02E09.WEBRip.x264-ION10

[narrator] On this episode
of How Tech Works,

this man is designing a
high-speed rocket plane,

that can travel
to the other side of the planet,

in a matter of a few hours.

[intro music]

Hello and welcome
to How Tech Works.

My name is Dr. Basil Singer.

And you're in for
one high-speed,

high stakes,
high adrenalin show.

[narrator] We’ll
take to the skies,

in a world record breaking
paper airplane.

But first right now,

a lot of brains across the UK

are focused on making
a dream plane into reality.

It’s a passenger plane
called the A2.

And the engineers behind it

are saying that aviation
hasn’t been this exciting,

since the Concord.

I think it’s something to do
with the aircraft’s speed.

Over 3000 miles an hour.

[man] Three, two, one, now.

[narrator] It’s a powerful
rocket with a practical purpose.

In less than 15 years,

it might be powering the plane
for your family holiday.

This is to go say from
Brussels to Sydney.

And it can do that is just
over four and a half hours.

[narrator] The plane
is called the A2.

[James] It’s going to look like
a conventional airliner,

but a bit longer and sleeker.

With smaller wings, and it’s
going to have 4 engines.

[narrator] And it'll fly almost
3X the speed of the Concord.

If you imagine the Concord
could fly at Mach2.

So it could take you from London
to New York very, very quickly.

This is a stage beyond Concord
so we can go Mach5.

[narrator] That’s five times
the speed of sound.

3700 miles an hour.

James Macfarlane’s job
is to build the engines.

It’s called an air breathing
rocket engine.

[narrator] It’s
simpler and lighter,

than rockets built
for space travel.

Unlike the space shuttle,
it doesn't need to take its own,

oxygen with it because
it’s still operating,

just inside the atmosphere.

[narrator] And he’s testing
the engine here,

at Westcott's testing field
near Oxford.

So what testing
are we doing today?

[narrator] This
former military base,

has been home to most of
Britain’s rocket tests,

the past half a century.

Malcolm Paul has had
a hand in most of them.

[Malcolm] Oh I’ve been
here for 48 years.

[narrator] He’s tested
rocket engines for cars,

planes and satellites.

I retired from here
about 10 years ago,

and I come in to do odd jobs
for interesting guys like this.

[narrator] And he’s here today,

because he believes this project
is ambitious, but possible.

Technically yes, it’s a goer.
Yeah.

[narrator] Today they’re
firing a scaled down,

version of the rocket.

[James] The actual engine
on the aircraft,

is about 16 times bigger,
in terms of the nozzle diameter,

and the thrust is about 200-250
times higher than this engine.

[narrator] And the
toughest part of the test,

is simulating air coming into
the intake at Mach5.

At that speed air will heat up
as it’s forced into the engine.

They’re adding pure oxygen
to the fuel mix.

The reason we do that is
to actually simulate,

the effect of air being hot.

[narrator] That makes the rocket
burn more aggressively.

Temperature is
the most crucial factor,

in every stage of the engine.

The air comes in
down this pipe here.

Through a valve. And in through
this duct. Into the engine.

And then we’ve got
hydrogen coming down,

this through a flow meter.
And it comes in through here.

Into the pre-combustor.

[narrator] Most engines want
hot air for combustion.

But in this case
the air is too hot.

So they use something
called a pre-cooler.

[James]
The pre-cooler is a network

of very, very fine tubes.

And through the tubes
are flowing helium gas,

and the air is flowing
past the tubes,

so as it comes in very
hot the air cools down,

because it heats the tubes up.

This great big silver bit
here is the injector,

where the propellants are
sent through very small,

a series of very small holes
so that they mix,

evenly in the combustion
chamber.

[narrator] That’s another stage,

where James would like
to control the temperature.

When you burn air with
hydrogen in a rocket engine,

it burns very, very hot.

And above a certain temperature,

not just the oxygen
in the air burns,

but the nitrogen
in the air burns as well.

A chemical reaction occurs
which makes Nitric Oxide.

[narrator] And Nitric Oxide is
one of the key greenhouse gases.

So if we can tailor the
temperature of combustion,

to make sure it doesn’t
ever get high enough,

to burn the nitrogen,

then we can actually reduce
the emissions of the engine,

to nearly zero.

[narrator] High speed travel
to the other side of the planet,

with almost zero emissions
might seem like science fiction.

But James believes it’s
not that far away.

We could be talking about
one of these flying by 2025.

[narrator] But there’s a lot of
testing to do in the meantime.

Okay Andrew you can go
outside and raise the flag.

[narrator] With the dangerous
testing going on at Westcott,

they need a simple system,

to warn their neighbors
what they’re up to.

Flying a red flag means
you have explosives,

or rocket fuel on site.

A yellow flag means something
is about to go boom!

-You ready Malcolm?
-Yep.

Starting a count from ten.
Starting now.

Ten, Nine, Eight. Seven, Six,

Five, Four, Three, Two, One.

Now!
[loud explosion]

[narrator] It’s a big blast, but
really it’s just a small step.

Today is really exciting
but it’s just one test,

in a whole series of many tests.

So there’ll be another
test tomorrow,

another test next week.

I think we’re about 10 years
from a flying aircraft.

From a genuine Brussels to
Sydney in 4½ hour's ticket.

Wow! Small steps towards
a very large step in air travel!

And speaking of steps,

walking on two legs is something
we humans take for granted.

Most of the time.

But for a robot it’s
really quite difficult.

In fact, right now
all over the world,

robo-geeks are focusing
their energies,

on helping robots walk
in a straight line.

Without ever losing
their balance.

At the university of Michigan
they have a different approach:

They’re making great strides
by walking in circles.

[narrator] At the university
of Michigan.

Okay guys, let’s get
the robot calibrated.

- Can you measure it?
- [Prof. Jessy] Yes.

[narrator] Professor Jessy
Grizzle, and his PHD students,

Hae Won Pak
and Kourshil Sreeneth,

want to make robots
walk like people.

So they’ve been trying to
trip up a robot called Mabel.

Mabel is M-A-B-E-L.

Michigan, Anthropomorphic,
Biped, with Electric, Legs.

That’s MABEL.

[narrator] First
they’re making sure,

Mabel’s legs are straight
and level.

- You guys ready?
- Yes, switching on power now.

-[Jessy] Power on.
-[Kourshil] Enabling the motors.

[Kourshil] Posing the robot.

[narrator] Precision
is essential.

Sensors on the robot’s body,

have to tell it the starting
position of every part.

Okay, well let's,
let's continue.

Okay, launch MABEL.

I would like a robot that
could serve as a rescue robot.

That could go into a building
that is with uncertain ground,

be able to walk and do
things like a human.

It should be able
to run if necessary.

If it's in a hurry.

[narrator] Mabel
doesn't have cameras.

So she’s got to blindly correct
herself with every step.

Sensors detect
movement and feed data

into a computer
which adjusts the gait

to keep the robot upright.

It’s supported by a boom.

Because the researchers are
focused on up and down motion,

not side to side.

So you notice that the feet
are terminated in points.

One of the things we
are really trying to prove

is that we can design
gaits that are so stable

that the robot can be
walking like a ballerina,

as if it’s up on
her tip toes en point.

[narrator] And they made
Mabel powerful.

Because they want a robot
that’ll eventually run fast.

In experiments,

the researchers have been
pushing her to the limit.

Hop.

until she flops.

[Jessy] It’s at
that failure point

that we really will learn
something new.

We will have predicted from
our mathematical algorithms

approximately where that
failure point should happen,

but those are points where
either the leg is slipping,

or our model of friction
is not perfect.

[narrator] In one of their tests
they lay out a circle of steps

made from plywood boards,
they try and trip her.

And that last step is
a tricky one for a blind robot.

Today they want to make
the drop even higher,

and go for a record.
Time for a warm up.

We’re going to deliberately
trip the robot.

We have these obstacles here
they're just made of plywood.

They're cut so
they stack nicely.

I’m just going to toss them on
in some sort of random location.

She ate that one up.

I need some more boards, guys.

[laughs]

Come on girl!
You're supposed to fall!

[Jessy] Oh!

[narrator] After a bit
of tinkering,

they manage to get
her walking again.

And now it’s time to go for that
record-breaking step-down test.

The height will be
upped gradually.

Now four inches,
or about ten centimeters.

[Jessy] Okay Mabel is coming
up the platform,

we're approaching
the four inch drop off here,

we’ll see how she responds
to this plot.

Recovered quite nicely.

[narrator] Now they’ve
got a big decision.

Should they go for the record,

and risk breaking a robot worth
over 50 thousand pounds?

They add the final level.

Which is five inches
or about twelve centimeters.

Okay so this is for the record

we’ve never tried
this one before.

Wow! Yes! [laughs]

[applause]

We clearly have some crazy
hardware issues going on here,

but despite all that,
that was amazing!

After all the problems
we’ve had today

this was a very nice way to end.

[narrator] Jessy
and his team has plans

for an advanced robot that’ll
walk and run without a boom.

But up next, feet with running
shoes built by students,

for a robot that was made
for walking.

Don’t go too far.
We’ll be right back

with more How Tech Works.

[intro music]

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

Now the gadget
in this next story

is the result of one
man’s determination

to capture messages left behind

by allied troops
of The First World War.

You see it’s one thing
to simply photograph

these incredible images.

But quite another to get
all of the equipment

to the bottom of the caves

where the soldiers
were hiding for their lives.

Take a look.

[narrator] In his garage
in London Ontario,

Zenon Andrusyszyn is building
something for the history books.

I call this Le Gizmo.

[narrator] Yes it looks
like a guillotine

but it’s not for beheadings.

It’s for photographs.

The whole reason why I built
this unit, for this camera.

[narrator] Zenon and Le Gizmo
are going to a cave in France

to capture something few
people have ever seen.

Its significant because a lot
of our world war one soldiers

were housed in it prior to going
into battle for Vimmy Ridge.

In the caves itself,
there are a lot of carvings

that were done by the soldiers.

And their names
are written on the walls.

[narrator] That was in 1917.

And almost a century has passed

since anxious young men waited
for their marching order.

Leaving their mark
in the nearby cave.

Zenon wants to photograph
these moments in time.

Now usually he’d
use a camera boom

to move his camera up
and down the walls,

but he can't find one
that fits the cave entrance.

To get it down the stairs
we needed to make sure that

the whole unit was
able to be taken apart

and put together quite easily
in the dark as well.

So it had to be very simple,
it had to be very effective.

[narrator] To capture as many
of the images as they can,

Zenon and his friend
Graham Mould

need a hassle-free boom.

We didn't look at batteries

because we did not want to run
into any kind of a problem

with the batteries or any else
like that motorized units.

So it had to be totally manual.

[Graham] Okay ready?

[narrator] It’s got to
be portable and narrow,

but also stable enough
to extend up high.

Let's do it.
Alright let's see how it goes.

Alright, nice and smooth.

-Nice smooth action.
-[Graham] Oh yeah really good.

-[Graham] There.
-That's the full extension.

[narrator] It might
seem like a lot of work

for a few photographs,
but there are a lot of carvings,

in a lot of odd places.

In order for a camera to take
the appropriate sequences

we use these lasers to line up
where the initial wall begins

and the overlap for photographs.

So in other words
this is going to be the area

where the photographs
will not overlap

and the top 3rd, bottom 3rd,
left and right will overlap.

[narrator] Le Gizmo
is ready to capture history.

So it’s off to France.

[Jessy] When we first
went to the cave,

it's on the ground, it's covered
with what they call wiggly tin,

which is like corrugated iron,
you'd walk right by it.

You open it up and then you go
down this long steep stairwell

that is made of bricks and it is
only about maybe 2 feet wide

and you walk down and you see
all this garbage on the bottom,

because the farmer
used it as a refuge pile.

and then you crawl
underneath this buttress

that's hanging off the ceiling

and then you get on the other
side of that and it opens up

and it's about 13 feet high

and it is about the size of two
football fields, side by side.

[narrator] Before they set-up
the Gizmo,

Graham explores the cave.

I am by myself and it is dark
and I am using my miner’s light.

And it's this little heart
that was carved by this soldier.

He's got his sweetheart's
and his initials on it.

And above it there is
a spike that was in the wall

which I assume was
for the bunk beds.

and what's happened
over the years,

is that the spike has rusted,

and it has bled rust right
through the center of the heart.

And it's cracked, it looks
like the heart is broken.

And you can’t help
but be affected by it.

Like you think okay, this guy
who's in that environment

for that length of time thinking
about his sweetheart still.

Sorry.

[narrator] It’s this emotion
and connection to the soldiers

that Zenon hopes to capture.

And in this cave
near Vimmy Ridge,

his home-made device
is making that possible.

[Zenon] It’s a matter
of remembering

that they are the ones
that actually forged

Canada’s identity on the
international scene

through this particular battle.

[somber music]

[narrator] Zenon still has
lots of work ahead of him,

but one day he hopes he’ll
be able to share the story

of these soldiers
with all Canadians.

[Zenon] What we’re hoping to do

is put all the information
together and have an archive,

then what we’re going
to do is choose 30

for travelling across
Canada to exhibit.

It’s important
and it’s significant.

It has to be remembered.

It has to be brought
to the Canadian people.

and I think that if
we didn’t do it,

it would be, it would
be an injustice.

Earlier we kicked off the show

with a story about a man’s
plan to build an airplane

that will break all sorts
of speed and distance records.

Well now we move from
rocket planes to paper planes,

and we’re still looking
to break some records.

Now I admit it’s not easy
to throw something light,

and make it travel very far,

but if you’ve got
the right design,

and you call yourself
‘The Paper airplane Guy’,

maybe you’ve got a shot.

[narrator] You are
witnessing history.

Guinness World Distance Record
for paper airplane throw,

which is 226 feet and 10 inches,
69.338 meters.

Almost the length
of a football field!

Breaking a record that
stood for nine years

is the end of an epic journey
for one very passionate,

and aptly named, hobbyist.

I’m John Collins.
I am the Paper airplane Guy.

[energetic music]

[narrator] And because he’s
so addicted to flying them,

Paper airplane Guy
is going to try

and break that record today.

What we’re going to do, we're
going to take this plane

back to McClelland and we’re
going to try and recreate

breaking the record
for you guys!

[narrator] John’s passion
with fancy fliers

started at a young age,

but became really serious
through Origami.

You don’t really need a plane
with a swan’s head stuck to it.

Right? But if you could and get
it to fly. That’s not bad.

[narrator] John is
a true showman.

With a genuine love for science.

The more I learned
about the physics,

you know the more Maths
and Science you take in school.

The more interesting
it became to me.

How things fly? Why things fly?
It’s endlessly fascinating.

[narrator] And he sees paper
airplanes in everything.

This is a really fun plane

because nobody ever
thinks it flies,

it’s the tube and it’s
made to spin as it flies,

it’s not something you want an
ordinary paper airplane to do.

It gets directional stability
by how fast it’s spinning,

the faster it spins the
straighter it flies,

a little bit like
a bicycle wheel.

[narrator] Like a magician,

he can keep things in the air

with nothing more than
slight of hand.

It’s so light weight,
I can keep it aloft

just by generating a wave
of air with my hands.

[narrator] John literally
juggles his aircraft

by controlling how the air
travels over a wing.

Now this one does something
most paper airplanes don’t do.

Which is circle back.

Now it does that because
the wings are drooping

as they leave the body
of the plane.

[narrator] But knowledge alone
can’t beat the distance record

of 207 feet set in 2003. John
needed to recruit some muscle.

My name is Joe Ayoob
and I played quarterback

at the University
of California Berkeley.

[John] Until now,
the world record holder

has been using a plane that’s
really like a ballistic dart.

They throw it at about
a 45 degree angle

and they just put Newton
in the driver seat.

That wore my arm
out very quickly.

I think the first day
I was out there

I had a total of ten throws
before I was done.

[narrator] And that’s when
John had a stroke of genius.

Simply design a plane to do
what it was meant to do.

[John] It just literally does
something no other

distance world record
holder does.

It flies.

[narrator] To do that,

John’s first step was
to redesign the wings.

They have to fly pretty fast...

to keep going and
bigger wings like this...

can fly a lot slower
to do the same thing.

[narrator] In the end,
the winning design

has only got eight simple folds.

I’m not going to show
you the whole plane.

[narrator] Throwing something
100X lighter than a football

Joe had to change his technique.

A lot of the fundamentals
are the same.

The big difference is instead
of having your elbow up,

at about a 90 degree angle,
I drop my elbow down.

[narrator] Constant
on the fly adjustments

were also key
to sustained flight.

Let's throw this one right
down the pipeline.

A little harder
at the same angle,

- It doesn’t want to stay up.
-Ok so a little more left rudder

to we get curving on
the end so I can fix that.

Once you master those
control surfaces,

you can really figure out
whether you have a good design.

[narrator] And that’s exactly
what they had in Sacramento

on February 22,
on their fourth declared launch.

[Joe] When I threw it,
it just took off.

[John] And once it started
its downhill run

at the angle it was
going I knew we had it.

[Joe] Get up there! Get up!

[screaming]

[Joe] It was just
a great feeling,

kind of a validation
of those 18 months

that we put in to finally
break the record.

[John] My wife she has suffered
through this thing for years now

that’s why the plane
is named after her.

It’s called the Suzanne.

[narrator] Unfortunately
for Suzanne,

John isn’t about to retire
his airplanes anytime soon.

[laughing and clapping]

With an unlimited ceiling,

we don’t really know
how far that throw could go.

There is plenty of distance
left in this plane

There you go.

[narrator] To prove their point,
John and Joe attempt

to break their newly set record,
for us!

An on their 26th unofficial
attempt. It happens.

[laughs]

[John] That’s almost
30 feet past the mark,

past the old world
record of 207.

Not a bad job.

Thanks very much for watching
How Tech Works .

I’m Basil Singer.
I'll see you next time.

[ending music]