Discovery Industrial Revelations Best of British_2of6_Planes
Transcript
00:00Who is the best in the world at engineering?
00:28Well, the British invented the steam engine, the internal combustion engine, the propeller,
00:32the jet engine, the train, the hovercraft, cast iron, iron bridges, the suspension bridge,
00:37lawnmowers, umbrellas and cat's eyes.
00:41Our enthusiastic experts have pointed me towards their favourite engineering icons,
00:45which they think reflect the best of British.
00:48When it comes to planes, what a fantastic list we've got for you.
00:56I learn how to fly without a plane,
01:00how not to fly without a plane,
01:03and I finally get to throttle the crew.
01:08As anyone who knows anything will tell you, the father of modern flight was British,
01:12George Cayley, who invented the glider way back in 1853.
01:17The early history of flight, of course, was rather checkered,
01:20and for all the sopwith camels and such stuff, our experts have skipped the preliminaries.
01:24They've gone straight for a plane which, its admirers claim, altered the course of history.
01:34If some idiot tells you that engineering lacks romance or heroism,
01:38then you must twiddle your moustache, laugh at them scornfully,
01:41and direct their attention to one of the most important aeroplanes ever built.
01:46There are very few pieces of engineering which are so familiar, so beloved,
01:50that there's no guarantee to bring a lump to the throat as the magnificently named Spitfire.
02:00Today is a special day.
02:02It's exactly 70 years since the very first Spitfire, affectionately known as K5054, took its maiden flight.
02:15Now, this aircraft still clearly means so much to people.
02:18We turned up just to stand here in the car park at Southampton Airport to watch.
02:23The British loved this plane for good reason.
02:25We owe the engineers who built the Spitfire and the brave pilots who flew her an incalculable debt,
02:30for they played no small part in keeping Britain free from Nazi tyranny.
02:36The plane itself, I am told, is a genuinely brilliant bit of aeronautic engineering,
02:40which still captivates pilots like squadron leader Charlie Brown.
02:45Well, the Spitfire is the ultimate carefree handling aeroplane.
02:48It's got performance, but at the same time, generally you pay a price for performance,
02:52which is sort of maybe finicky handling at the margins.
02:55Spitfire, no, I promise you, it is absolutely carefree.
02:59So what made the Spitfire so fast and agile?
03:03She was designed by R.J. Mitchell, a young British engineer who had recently won the coveted Schneider Trophy,
03:09with a seaplane that reached a record-breaking 341 miles per hour.
03:15But when he was asked to design a world-beating plane for the Royal Air Force,
03:18Mitchell knew there was more than a trophy at stake.
03:24Mitchell understood that if the British were to stand a chance in the looming war with Germany,
03:28they had to dominate the skies.
03:31And so he designed for the RAF a fighter which was at the cutting edge of aviation technology.
03:36His single-shell alloy fuselage made the plane strong and light,
03:40and its distinctive, elegant wings made her incredibly manoeuvrable.
03:44The novel wing shape was especially hard to mass-produce,
03:47but it put the Spitfire in an aerodynamic class of its own.
03:53The Messerschmitt 109 was the German answer to Mitchell's plane.
03:57It has flat, oblong wings which just look stuck onto the body of the plane.
04:02Rubbish.
04:06Now compare the elegant wings of the Spitfire.
04:09They're not small. They're big enough to accommodate retractable wheels and heavy guns.
04:14But they are delicately moulded, seeming to grow organically out of the fuselage.
04:20They rise gracefully at an angle from the body of the plane.
04:23In outline, they look like a nicely rounded half-moon,
04:26and they're tapered to be thinner at the tips.
04:29This created the famous elliptical shape, and this was the key to the Spitfire's success.
04:34It meant that the angle of airflow over the wing of the fuselage was greater than at the tip.
04:38This gave the pilot plenty of warning of a stall.
04:41The plane would start to talk to the pilot through feedback to the controls.
04:44Basically, the stick started shaking.
04:46And in combat, the Spitfire had to be kept very close to the edge of stalling
04:50to achieve the minimum turning circle.
05:04The wings made the Spitfire infinitely more agile than the Messerschmitt.
05:07What made it faster was the most famous aviation engine of the war,
05:11the legendary 12-cylinder, 27-litre Rolls-Royce Merlin,
05:16which Sir Henry Royce based on that of Mitchell's Schneider seaplane.
05:20The Merlin enabled the Spitfire to fly fast and carry more guns and ammunition
05:25and still be highly manoeuvrable with a steep rate of climb and a tight turning circle.
05:30It was the perfect plane.
05:33One of the original test pilots, Alex Henshaw,
05:36is today celebrating the anniversary of the first Spitfire's maiden flight.
05:40He says he's still in love with her, even though he's 93 and she's only 70.
05:48When you first flew one, did you think this is something special, this is out of the ordinary?
05:52Oh, yes. Yes, not only just for performance, but for handling qualities,
05:56not only in the air, but for landing.
05:58I mean, there isn't an easier aircraft in the world to land than the Spitfire.
06:01Is that right?
06:02What do you think gave it the edge over its German equivalents?
06:06Oh, no question about it.
06:08The new concept of construction and the design,
06:12which gave it a performance at certain altitudes,
06:16weights and angles of attack and what have you,
06:19over and above the 109.
06:21The 109 was a good aircraft, but it did have a lot of weaknesses.
06:25Gordon Mitchell remembers the day his father brought him to the Southampton airfield
06:29to see his new fighter plane.
06:32Actually, it looked a bit of a mess.
06:34Really?
06:35Because it had come out of the factory unpainted.
06:37It had bits of yellow, bits of green,
06:40and I thought to myself, it'd look a jolly time better if it had a good coat of paint.
06:44But could you say it was not just any ordinary airplane?
06:46Oh, yes, I think I did.
06:48I asked my father, I remember, something like, are you happy with it?
06:52He didn't say much to start with, and then said, yes, reasonably so.
06:59By the time Britain declared war in 1939,
07:02the RAF had on order more than 2,000 of the new fighters.
07:07Sadly, R.J. Mitchell never knew what an enormous difference his plane was to make.
07:11In June 1937, two years before war was declared,
07:15Mitchell died of cancer, aged just 42.
07:19In the Battle of Britain, the Spitfires and their pilots
07:22brought down 529 German fighter planes and bombers.
07:28It's impossible to measure how far the Spitfire and the pilots that flew her changed history,
07:33but the famous assessment of Churchill is a fittingly grateful and poetic memory.
07:39Never in the field of human conflict was so much, owed by so many,
07:44Never in the field of human conflict was so much, owed by so many, to so few.
07:55The jet age was more or less designed by God to make small boys happy.
07:59It was the Jetsons and Roger Ramjet,
08:01and men in silver suits with shoulder pads climbing into rocket planes.
08:05It was super sexy and exhilarating and futuristic.
08:09Something of a surprise, then, that it all started in...
08:12Coventry.
08:14Strange but true.
08:16It may have ended with Buck Rogers in a Lycra jumpsuit,
08:18but it started with a pipe-smoking bloke in a cardigan living in the Midlands.
08:22His name was Frank Whittle.
08:26As early as 1929, Frank Whittle had dreamt up a way of making propellers more efficient.
08:32The propeller, another British invention, acted like a windmill in reverse,
08:37pushing the plane through the air.
08:41It occurred to Whittle that if you encased the propeller,
08:44you would suck air into the engine itself.
08:46The air would then combust and explode out of the exhaust with enormous force,
08:50pushing the plane through the air at an extraordinary speed.
08:53Frank Whittle had invented the jet engine.
08:57Fighter command now armed with something keener and swifter and more deadly to expose
09:06than anything the last war ever saw.
09:17This beauty is the prototype of the first ever jet plane, the Gloucester Meteor.
09:22The plane I'm going to be flying a little later.
09:24But before that, I'm going to meet one of the world's first jet pilots,
09:27who happens to be Frank Whittle's son.
09:30Ian.
09:31Hi, Roy.
09:32Nice to meet you.
09:33Hello.
09:34And this is a schoolboy dream for me, the Gloucester Meteor.
09:36Yes, indeed.
09:37The jet that flew so fast.
09:38That's right.
09:39The first.
09:40Well, it was, yes, in 1946.
09:431945, they had a Meteor 3, got the world speed record at 606 miles an hour, I think, but I'm not sure.
09:50This one at 616 miles an hour. Not bad.
09:53This actual aircraft.
09:54Yes.
09:55This is the retro holder.
09:56That's right.
09:57Fantastic.
09:58Group captain Donaldson.
09:59Now, you've flown Meteors, haven't you?
10:00Yes, I have.
10:01Tell us what they're like.
10:02Very quiet from the pilot's point of view.
10:04Very noisy for people outside the airplane.
10:06Who cares?
10:07Yeah.
10:08A great feeling of power, though.
10:09A great feeling of thrust.
10:10No, not really, because the airplane, the engines, in those days, the engines wound up quite slowly.
10:16So you didn't get a big punch to, like you did with a piston engine, which was straight off.
10:22That's interesting.
10:23So this thing was relatively slow.
10:24But the faster it got, the better it got, you see, as it got more ram air down the intake of the engine.
10:30Can you remember how the public received the idea of the propeller-less plane?
10:34Yes.
10:35It became public in January 1944, and we were suddenly invaded by the press and reporters and things like that.
10:42I was only a little boy, and so I'd show them my railway train, or whatever it was.
10:48So there was a lot of publicity, which came as a terrific surprise,
10:51because up to that point it had been strictly hush-hush, as we used to say.
10:55Mother wasn't supposed to know about it, although I think she did.
10:59And I, as a little boy, didn't realize.
11:02I just knew my dad was very busy with something or other to do with engines.
11:06That's all, really.
11:07Was your father surprised at the publicity?
11:09Oh, yes, he was.
11:10Yes, he was.
11:11He hated it.
11:12Yes, it was horrible for him.
11:14Why don't we go and have a look at the engine?
11:16You can explain it to me, because I've never understood how a jet engine works.
11:19I don't believe you. I bet you do.
11:21Correct me if I'm wrong.
11:22Air is sucked in, it's compressed, it's blown out with fuel which is ignited and...
11:27Well, yes, the ignition happens a bit before that, but yes, you've got it right.
11:32The air is compressed into the combustion chambers there,
11:35and of course it expands enormously with the heat, hence your jet propulsion.
11:41I confess that I am a complete, 100% fully paid-up boy,
11:47and the idea of jets makes me wobble at the knees with excitement.
11:51And today I'm going to fly in Whittle's jet plane, the first in the world, the Gloster Meteor.
11:57For insurance purposes, I'm having to go up with someone who actually knows how to fly,
12:02daredevil test pilot Mad Dan Griffiths.
12:05Goodbye. I mean, au revoir.
12:07Au revoir.
12:12Sitting here, looking at all this metal, it looks like a proper grown-up aeroplane.
12:17A proper war machine, doesn't it?
12:18Yeah, a war machine, that's right.
12:24Oh, I love it when girls talk like that.
12:31It is so different, isn't it, from being in a big jet airliner,
12:34which would probably be going much faster at take-off, wouldn't it?
12:36Here we go.
12:53So, any time you want to wave, Rory, you can do that.
12:55I just waved, and I felt such a prat doing that, you know.
12:58It's just, but I'm, you know, I just couldn't resist it.
13:01Well, you've got to, really.
13:02We've got better planes than you.
13:06The funny thing about the earliest jets is that they don't shoot off like a bat out of hell.
13:10They start slow and get faster and faster and faster.
13:15I'm not complaining about this, Dan, but everything feels comfortable.
13:18That's the speed. We're not going at a frightening speed.
13:21No.
13:23Looking back, I wish I hadn't said that.
13:32Hee hee hee hee!
13:35Yes, I've got to make those noises, because that's the only way I can cope with it.
13:38Quite right.
13:43Oi!
13:44That took me a bit by surprise, Dan.
13:46That's deliberate.
13:48You were saying how gentle and relaxed it was.
13:50Yeah, I know, but, you know.
13:51I just want you to sort of see all that you've done.
13:53I wasn't actually complaining about that.
13:55Now reversing.
13:56OK.
13:57When you say reversing, of course, you don't really mean reversing here.
14:03Yeah.
14:04Reverse in that direction.
14:06How's the air?
14:08When you're in a jet, you expect there'll be some fancy equipment to tell you where you are.
14:12But in the Meteor, the pilot has to steer with his knees while he wrestles with an out-of-date AA map.
14:18After passing over Newport Pagnell for the fifth time, Dan asks a cab driver and we finally make it back to base.
14:26Frank Whittle built his jet for the RAF, but it changed all our lives.
14:30Thanks to what economists like to call the post-war boom.
14:42The Consumer Society, much sniffed at these days, brought the benefits of new technology to ordinary people for the first time.
14:50It also broadened our horizons.
14:52Never mind the annual jaunt to Whitley Bay, which never looked like that, by the way.
14:57How about going abroad?
14:59Before the war, flying had been strictly for the super-rich.
15:03But one glamorous, sexy, wonderful plane changed all that.
15:07The world's first passenger jetliner.
15:15The Comet rocketed Britain to rows 1 to 8 of the International Jet Set.
15:19It was the first passenger-carrying jet aircraft.
15:22The first to fly the Atlantic.
15:24The first to fly at high altitude way above the clouds.
15:27And the first to exceed 500 miles an hour.
15:30The Comet was simply the most glamorous plane ever built.
15:33And today, I'm meeting one of the men who flew her.
15:36Captain Bryn Waite.
15:38Captain Bryn Waite.
15:41I recognise you.
15:42I'd like to introduce you to a Dana Comet 4B.
15:45She's my girlfriend.
15:46You've actually met before, haven't you?
15:47We have, yeah.
15:48I nearly married her 27 years ago.
15:5027 years ago, since you saw this plane?
15:52Absolutely.
15:53So I came up here to have another look at her and just to say I still love her.
15:57Can I just confess, or own up to the fact,
16:00the Dana Comet was the first plane I ever flew on.
16:03Is that right?
16:04Yeah.
16:05To Madrid, on a school trip.
16:06And very educational, it was, too, but we won't go into that.
16:09Gatwick, Madrid.
16:10When I flew it, I was very excited to be flying on a jet, my very first.
16:13And it is an incredible feeling, that feeling when you get,
16:16when the aircraft accelerates as it takes off,
16:18and you feel the seat pushing against your back.
16:20It's incredible.
16:21But what was it like as a pilot of it?
16:23Well, this machine is basically overpowered.
16:25It's overpowered for its use,
16:27and it can go far faster and higher than we used it in service.
16:30Was there a feeling in the general public
16:32that this was a fantastic plane to be on when it first came out?
16:35The Comet One, when it came out, it was the equivalent of the Space Shuttle.
16:38It was new, high-tech stuff.
16:40They were doing things nobody had ever done before,
16:42flying a pressurised cabin up 40,000 feet.
16:47When you get on a jet, you flew above all the weather, basically.
16:50Yeah.
16:51And it became very smooth.
16:54To make a passenger jet commercially viable, it had to be big.
16:58But big planes need big engines,
17:00and the new jet engines used to drink fuel like George Best.
17:04A passenger plane also had to fly smoothly.
17:07Fortunately, the new jet engines could fly in much lower temperatures,
17:11and therefore could be used at much higher altitudes,
17:13leaving the bumpy, bad weather far below.
17:16The trouble is, when you fly high,
17:18you have to pressurise the cabin to stop the plane imploding.
17:21These problems taxed the Hertfordshire-based engineering team to the limits.
17:25One of the engineers was Mike Ramsden.
17:28The great challenge, really, was not only doubling the speed
17:32with all the aerodynamic developments that that required,
17:38but doubling the height.
17:40Right.
17:41We had to design an aeroplane to fly at 500 miles an hour at 40,000 feet.
17:49And the engineering challenge was absolutely enormous.
17:54You'll be interested to know the engineers hit upon a great way to lose weight.
17:58They built the fuselage of the Comet in thin-gauge aluminium,
18:02and instead of rivets, the metal sheets were bonded together with glue.
18:06To minimise drag, they designed the most graceful thing imaginable.
18:10The sleek Comet revolutionised how we think planes should look,
18:14and of course was famous for the wonderful way
18:16its engines were embedded elegantly in the wings.
18:19Then they worked out how to pressurise the cabin,
18:22and as a neat finishing touch,
18:24instead of traditional ocean liner-style portholes,
18:27they fitted large square windows to improve the view.
18:38The first Comet was built in 1949,
18:41and three years later made its first commercial flight from London to Johannesburg.
18:47The Comet, the world's first passenger jet plane, was a sensation.
18:51Within months, de Havilland received orders for another 50 planes.
18:54Within a year, 30,000 people had travelled on a Comet.
18:59A new, glamorous, wonderful era had begun.
19:02The Comet had made the world a smaller, more exciting place.
19:07But then disaster.
19:09In October 1952, a Comet crashed on take-off in Rome.
19:13Over the next two years, five more Comets crashed.
19:17In 1954, the plane was grounded.
19:21Intensive testing began and the fault was found.
19:24In order to make the big square windows more secure,
19:27they had been riveted as well as glued.
19:29Ironically, it was this extra safety measure which had caused the problem.
19:34The pressurised cabin put huge stress on the windows,
19:37but the rivet holes had weakened the metal around the frame.
19:40Innovation always has and always will entail risk.
19:43The engineers who designed the Comet
19:45were working on the frontiers of aeronautical understanding,
19:48and they paid the price.
19:50And that's the famous window.
19:53This is where the fatigue cracks started.
19:56This is where the fatigue cracks began.
19:58So how does that happen then?
20:00We're talking about what stresses is it subjected to?
20:03Well, if you can imagine, the pressure inside here
20:07had to be three times greater
20:10than the conventional pressure in propeller airliners.
20:14I mean, the load on that area there would be about a tonne.
20:18The riveting was too close to the edge.
20:23That was not a good idea.
20:26de Havilland released the findings to the rest of the aviation industry
20:30to make sure no-one else would make the same mistake.
20:33Then they built a new Comet.
20:39A stronger fuselage, four powerful new Rolls-Royce engines
20:42and good old reliable oval windows.
20:45The new Comet 4 was launched in 1958
20:48to the acclaim of aviation engineers,
20:50and that year became the first commercial passenger jet
20:53to fly the Atlantic.
20:55But it was too late.
20:57One airline kept faith with the Comet, Dan Air.
21:00But thanks to them, a generation of travellers, including me,
21:03were introduced to the wonder of jet travel.
21:11I am now entering the world of Top Gun,
21:14a world of crazy young daredevil fighter pilots
21:17called things like Maverick and Ice Cool.
21:20Except this is RAF Wittering,
21:22so the pilots are rather more sensible
21:24and called things like Peter and Giles.
21:27But the planes, which are British, are the best of the best.
21:32Some think they're better than the best of the best.
21:36The Harrier has everything a good jet fighter needs.
21:39Speed, agility, firepower.
21:48But the Harrier gives you something else besides.
21:51When you're flying a thing,
21:53if you get a bit bored with whizzing around at high speed,
21:56you can just stop in midair and have a rest.
21:59Put the kettle on, read the paper and wait for the next dogfight.
22:02It's an amazing sight.
22:04A fighter jet built for speed,
22:06just hanging there magically in midair,
22:08looking like it ran out of petrol just before landing.
22:12But apart from giving Maverick a well-earned 40 winks,
22:15why did they build the Harrier Junk Jet?
22:19During the Second World War, military strategists learned
22:22that large airfields with long runways
22:24were very vulnerable to conventional attack.
22:26What they needed was an aircraft
22:28that could take off and land in confined spaces.
22:31This aircraft was their solution.
22:35Time to meet Mad Dog Maverick himself,
22:37or Christopher Roy Rogers, as he prefers to be known.
22:41It's an incredible plane. Chris, what's it like to fly?
22:44It's a very dynamic aircraft to fly.
22:46It's a big, heavy aeroplane.
22:48The one you're looking at at the moment is the two-seater.
22:51I suppose in comparison to the Hawk, it's equally agile,
22:54but the big difference is the utilisation of the nozzles
22:57to slow the aircraft down and fly like a helicopter.
23:00You mentioned helicopter.
23:02Do you have to know how to fly a helicopter to fly one of these things?
23:05It helps. Indeed, when the chaps leave Valley,
23:07the Hawk train, of course, to come here,
23:09we send them to Shawbury to learn from the specialists
23:12how to hover, operate at slow speed
23:14and which way to move the stick and throttle
23:16to cope with the helicopter environment.
23:26The Harrier can take off and land vertically.
23:29It can hover and manoeuvre in mid-air.
23:31Or if it's being pursued in a dogfight,
23:33it can make a very sudden stop mid-flight,
23:35forcing its pursuer to fly straight past and into its line of fire.
23:39Behind the Harrier is some truly brilliant engineering.
23:44So how does it work?
23:47Now, everyone knows what's unique about this aircraft.
23:49It can take off vertically or has short take-off and landing.
23:52How does that work mechanically?
23:54In simple layman's terms, if you look into the...
23:56That's all in it, yes, simple layman's terms.
23:58If you look into the intake, which this is the intake,
24:01the air is channelled through to the engine, one engine, which...
24:05That surprised me.
24:07I assumed there were two engines, one either side, and we're seeing...
24:11One enormous engine that generates 20,000 pounds of thrust plus.
24:15So if we were standing on the other side of the intake,
24:17we'd see the other half of that.
24:19Essentially, and if you put your hand through there,
24:21you can wave at the other side.
24:23So you're looking at the first stage of the low-pressure compressor,
24:27and then as we walk down...
24:29Air is sucked in, as in a jet engine.
24:31It's then squashed through varying stages as more and more blades,
24:35tighter, tighter, squeezed, and then ignited,
24:39and then high-pressure fuel is injected and burnt at extreme temperatures
24:44and blasted out the nozzles.
24:54The thing that makes the whole aircraft unique
24:56is the fact that these nozzles move.
24:58So with the nozzles pointing back, it's just like a normal jet engine.
25:01You know when you go on holiday, you can see the whole engine?
25:03Yeah.
25:04It's just level, isn't it, pointing backwards?
25:06I'm going to take all the thrust from here and move these nozzles.
25:09And what I'll do, I'll just gently move them now.
25:15Now you can see that they all move together.
25:17Yeah.
25:18So as we move these nozzles, it's called vectoring the thrust, OK?
25:22Because effectively, we're just applying a different vector.
25:24Vectoring the thrust, make a note of that.
25:30Add a few more nozzles in the wingtips and the nose
25:32to make sure the thing balances,
25:34and that's how a Harrier hovers in the air.
25:36But it's one thing getting it to hover.
25:38It's another thing steering it while it's there.
25:41Roy, rather meanly, said I couldn't have a go myself.
25:44But luckily, the charming series engineer Claire
25:47has discovered a way to demonstrate the principles of steering a hanging Harrier
25:51using the biggest hairdryer in the world.
25:54MUSIC
26:02I mean, that's it. That is just like a jet aircraft, isn't it?
26:05Just up and down, really steady.
26:07He must be really burning fuel up there.
26:09It looks quite intense.
26:13LAUGHTER
26:16He's just showing off there.
26:18Like Pinocchio, there are strings attached.
26:21This chap's having a blast on top of a column of air in a vertical wind tunnel.
26:25This is trickier than it looks, as I'm about to discover.
26:28But you can see how with the slightest wiggle of a hand or leg
26:31he's able to change direction.
26:33MUSIC
26:49You're going to be a human jump jet.
26:51Am I? Excellent. Do I get to jump?
26:53I'm hoping you're going to get to take off,
26:56being pushed up from underneath,
26:58and then I want to see you zooming around the place.
27:02Changing the directions of your nozzles
27:04to change the directions of flight, just like a jump jet.
27:07You've got to do a parachute and fall position, haven't you?
27:10That's the position. Is that right? Yeah.
27:12OK, I'm ready. Off you go.
27:17I'm not with him.
27:23I love the clown suit.
27:25But this is a serious demonstration, Maureen,
27:28of how a jump jet works, OK?
27:30So I want to see a perfect lift-off,
27:32and then I want to see you zooming around inside.
27:35Zooming around? Zooming around, yeah.
27:37Using your deflectors. Using your nozzles.
27:39Using your nozzles, yeah. OK. Go on, get in there.
27:41I can't think of anyone who can't move their arms.
27:44MUSIC
28:00I don't think Rory's built for fighting.
28:16He's increasing his surface area. He's pushing up.
28:19Hovering beautifully.
28:24In two minutes, he's really getting the hang of it.
28:28Rory McGrath, the human jump jet.
28:36Yeah.
28:38Oh! Is that good?
28:40A lot of work on your arms, yeah.
28:42Oh, Jesus. Do you feel that you became the human jump jet?
28:45Sorry? Did you feel that you became the human jump jet?
28:48Sorry? Oh, yeah, sorry.
28:51That's better. What were you saying?
28:53Do you feel that you were the living spirit of the jump jet?
28:56Pardon?
28:58No, it is very, very difficult,
29:00and you do realise that the slightest movement does do a lot.
29:03The slightest thing, when someone says,
29:05do that, Rory, do that, it's...
29:07I think you're doing really well. And you can't breathe.
29:10You have air rushing up your nose, it's very, very unpleasant.
29:13I felt my brain was coming out of my ears.
29:15The jump jet uses a phenomenal amount of fuel.
29:19Did you feel that you've burnt off some calories in the air?
29:22Yes, I wish I'd had more for breakfast.
29:25And I will go for that piss now.
29:30The principles of how a Harrier works may seem simple enough,
29:33but, as always with engineering, the devil is in the detail.
29:37It took the designer Sir Sidney Cam and a team of engineers
29:40led by Sir Stanley Hooker 13 years to work it out.
29:45This was the first attempt, built in 1953,
29:48nicknamed the Flying Bedstead.
29:51Two Rolls-Royce jet engines in a metal frame
29:54with the exhaust pointing downwards.
29:56But the thing only stayed up for ten minutes at a time
29:59and was almost impossible to steer.
30:01And, tragically, on its second outing,
30:03the Bedstead crashed, killing the test pilot.
30:07A breakthrough came with the development of the Pegasus engine,
30:10a jet engine with four swivelling nozzles
30:13that could direct thrust from the engine exhaust.
30:15The engineers at Hawker Sidney decided to build an aircraft around this engine
30:19and came up with the P.1127.
30:27Test flights with the P.1127 began in 1960.
30:31Vertical take-off was fine,
30:33but, like the Bedstead, it was almost impossible to control.
30:36So they tethered the hovering plane to the ground.
30:39By a painful process of experiment and disappointment,
30:42they finally cracked it.
30:45By 1966, the first Harrier jump jet,
30:48the sexiest jet fighter ever built,
30:50was in the air.
30:52Even though I've learned how to vector my thrust in Claire's hairdryer,
30:56Roy Rogers rather meanly says I still can't have a go in his jump jet.
30:59But he says the RAF's wraparound full-screen Harrier simulator
31:03reproduces the thing very accurately
31:05and is not quite as life-threatening.
31:07Okay, if you ask him to release you...
31:10Please release me.
31:11Let me go.
31:13I'll put my 50p in.
31:15Wow.
31:17Okay, just get a feel for the stick.
31:19So move it gently right.
31:21You can see Siobhan's right.
31:22Gently left.
31:23You can see Siobhan's left.
31:25And you can see the little budgie moves with you.
31:28Now, if you pull hard back on the stick...
31:30Oh, more pull.
31:32There you go.
31:33And what we'll do is just go full power.
31:37Look out to the side.
31:39So far, so good.
31:41I'm flying in a straight line.
31:43But will I be able to slow down and hover?
31:46All you can do now is roll, hard left.
31:53There you go.
31:55So that's it.
31:56Now, if you want to go down, you push forward.
32:00Just straight forward.
32:04Whoa!
32:07Easy left.
32:09Other left.
32:11Pull hard.
32:12Pull really hard.
32:15Whoops.
32:17Did I crash yet?
32:19My landing was rather too vertical.
32:21Before his first crash.
32:24I blame the nozzles.
32:25I still can't believe they won't let me have a go on the real thing.
32:31The Harrier is an incredible example of British engineering at its best.
32:34And it still feels so modern and exciting.
32:37It's strange to think that the jump jet first became operational 40 years ago.
32:42At the same time as the Harrier was in development,
32:44another set of British engineers was working on another revolutionary aeroplane design.
32:53There are many examples of British engineering which combine technical genius with superb design.
32:58But it's hard to think of anything that more successfully brings together brains and beauty
33:02than the world's first supersonic passenger plane.
33:08Concorde was the first and only passenger plane to date to fly faster than the speed of sound.
33:16She flies! Concorde flies at last!
33:38A staggeringly brilliant bit of engineering.
33:40A breathtakingly beautiful object.
33:43Concorde was a supersonic superstar.
33:53Amazing.
33:56It's a bit like meeting a celebrity, you know.
33:58You meet them for the first time in real life.
34:00You've only seen them on television before and then there they are.
34:02Much smaller in real life.
34:04It really is quite small.
34:06It's stunning.
34:07A stunning shape.
34:08Lovely neat curves, but tiny.
34:11A bit like Kylie Minogue.
34:13Today, sadly, it's a tourist attraction.
34:16And I'm off to meet my tour guide.
34:22This is the last Concorde ever to fly commercially.
34:25She now rests peacefully at the place she was born, Airbus in Filton.
34:30But she's not forgotten.
34:32Every year, thousands of devoted fans who fell under her spell come to visit her.
34:37It's the closest most of us ever get to supersonic flight these days,
34:40and Andy Treweak is the man in charge.
34:43Why do people love it so much?
34:45I think it appeals to both sides of the brain.
34:48That's amazing. I wasn't expecting that.
34:51That's great. Go on.
34:52I mean, you've only got to look at her.
34:53All the critics of Concorde, when they first saw the aircraft, were instantly silenced.
34:57Yeah.
34:58Because she looks right, she is right.
35:00What's special about it from an engineering point of view?
35:02I mean, it looks beautiful, but I mean, what are the gadgets?
35:04Where do you start?
35:05I mean, crikey, Concorde, everybody says it's another aeroplane,
35:08but Concorde was the fly-by-wire aeroplane before the phrase fly-by-wire was even thought of.
35:12The first aircraft to have a digital computer system as part of the engine intakes,
35:16which was years ahead of the time.
35:19Key to Concorde's success was a new kind of jet engine, the Rolls-Royce Olympus 593.
35:25These jets were very powerful,
35:27the equivalent, I'm told, of 6,000 family cars all going together.
35:32But they also had a newly invented secret weapon called reheat.
35:36When a Concorde pilot really wants to kick ass,
35:39he presses a button and fuel is thrown straight into the engine's hot exhaust gas,
35:43giving the plane a sudden violent boost, an additional 25% thrust,
35:48pushing it through the sound barrier to a staggering 1,350 miles an hour.
35:54Now, I was never lucky enough to fly on Concorde,
35:56and I've no idea what it's like to fly supersonically,
35:58but in here with me is a guy who piloted Concorde for ten years,
36:01Christopher Orlebar.
36:04Now, Christopher, I've never been in a cockpit of an aeroplane before,
36:07and this is just... it's just frightening.
36:09Oh, we don't need all these instruments.
36:11They're just there to preserve the mystique.
36:13Oh, good, Sarah. That's very good news indeed.
36:16But there are some things I recognize.
36:17There's the joystick for turning it round and things like that.
36:21These are throttles, yeah?
36:23Throttles, indeed.
36:25And here are the reheat switches.
36:27Concorde is unique in having reheated assistance for take-off
36:31and for the acceleration through the speed of sound.
36:34And so when we're ready to go, we've pre-selected the reheat,
36:39and it's a question of saying, three, two, one, now,
36:43starting the stopwatch at the same time, full thrust, and away you go.
36:49Wow. Thank God we've got the handbrake on.
36:52Another amazing thing about Concorde
36:54is that the famous delta wings double as petrol tanks,
36:57and by shifting the distribution of the fuel inside the wings,
37:00the pilot can rebalance the plane.
37:03The fuel on Concorde is used to balance the trim of the aircraft.
37:07As the aircraft flies so fast, the centre of gravity of the aircraft
37:10shifts towards the back as the aircraft gets lighter.
37:12So they can move the fuel around.
37:14So they move the fuel inside to balance the centre of gravity.
37:16And again, don't forget, Concorde flies at some 1,350 miles an hour.
37:21So at that speed, although the air temperature at 60,000 feet
37:25is about minus 75 degrees, this aircraft cooks.
37:29So the tip of the nose is about 120 degrees.
37:32The skin all along the edge of this wing is between 85 and 90 degrees.
37:37So they use the fuel again to cool the skin of the aeroplane.
37:40That's amazing. As a heat sink.
37:42You don't think of fuel as cooling, do you?
37:44No, and the last thing they did was throw it in the engine
37:46and set a light to it.
37:48Supersonic speed created other problems.
37:51The engines had trouble compressing air
37:53which was coming in faster than 500 miles an hour.
37:57But Concorde had to fly faster than this.
38:00The engineers at Filton had to come up with a way
38:02of slowing down the air intake in less than a third of a second.
38:06Where we see this danger do not use,
38:08these are a set of ramps inside the intake
38:11which effectively cause shockwaves within the air.
38:14By lowering the ramps, it would cause a shockwave
38:17to slow the air speed down and also, of course, heat the air up.
38:21Because the design of the engine liked hot air,
38:24the design of the intake alone
38:26was causing a great deal of increase in power
38:29and certainly an increase in the efficiency of the engine.
38:34Purely just the intake itself.
38:36Clever idea.
38:38As with all grand endeavours,
38:40there's usually someone around who'll have a moan.
38:43Concorde was delivered six years late and 25% over budget.
38:47But who cares?
38:48It was a silly deadline and an unrealistic budget.
38:51In engineering terms, Concorde was a step into the unknown.
38:55Problems came from nowhere and solutions didn't come easily.
38:58But the engineers who built Concorde,
39:00like those who built the Harrier and the Comet,
39:02like Sir Frank Whittle and R.J. Mitchell,
39:04quietly, patiently got on with it.
39:08Concorde is a beautiful memorial
39:10to the unassuming, pipe-smoking, cardigan-wearing problem solvers
39:13who are the real heroes of British engineering.
39:16It's just a damn shame she's been grounded.
39:21So have we said goodbye to supersonic passenger travel?
39:24I'd like to hope we haven't.
39:26It's the first time we've ever gone backwards as a species.
39:28I can't think of any other occasion where man has not moved forward.
39:33But now we've gone back to 1968 in flying terms.
39:37Andy's right. With the end of Concorde, we've taken a step back.
39:40But I hope not for long.
39:42The engineers who built Concorde showed how to do it.
39:45The hard work's been done.
39:47Perhaps in 20 years I'll finally get my supersonic trip with Joan Collins.
39:51And I'm confident she'll look just as good as ever.
39:54Well, I still think Concorde is a stunning machine,
39:57a beautiful piece of engineering and design.
40:00Sadly, if you want to fly supersonically nowadays,
40:03you have to be in the RAF and under 24.
40:07Damn, just missed it.
40:12Our aeronautical boffins have picked five planes
40:15which are arguably the cream of British aviation engineering.
40:18But which is the cream of the cream?
40:21The Spitfire, the incredibly agile fighter plane that stuck it to the Bosch?
40:27Sir Frank Whittle's Gloster Meteor, which launched the Jet A?
40:32Or the Comet, the first-ever passenger jet plane?
40:35Then there's the Harrier Jump Jet,
40:37the most versatile boys' own jet fighter in the world.
40:42Or perhaps Concorde, the supersonic superstar,
40:45arguably the most elegant plane ever built.
40:48But how can you compare a Spitfire to a Harrier or a Comet to Concorde?
40:53Which best epitomises Britain's aero design and engineering skills?
41:00War is very good for engineering, isn't it?
41:02It is.
41:03It inspires people to create new things and push boundaries.
41:06And the Second World War saw the Spitfire technology leap on.
41:10What a great plane.
41:11I mean, it was lovely seeing the Spitfire because it looks like a Spitfire.
41:15The sound and the shape.
41:16I know it sounds fanciful, but when you see it, you think,
41:18oh, that's a Spitfire, unmistakable.
41:20When girls are younger, they go and go...
41:23Oh, yeah, well, perhaps it was just me pretending to be a Spitfire pilot.
41:27But I mean, they're incredible machines, simple and well-engineered.
41:31Unmistakable.
41:32Like Concorde.
41:33Concorde, what a nose.
41:34Not A Concorde, not B Concorde, but Concorde.
41:39You just know what it is.
41:40Lovely plane, that.
41:41Beautiful.
41:42Incredibly noisy, but...
41:44Only twice, isn't it?
41:45It's only twice noisy per journey, I think.
41:49The Gloucester Meteor, which I actually went up in,
41:51that was a great privilege.
41:52Did you enjoy that?
41:53It was a bit hairy, I have to say.
41:56The Comet, which is actually well-spoken of by anyone involved in aeronautics,
42:01but of course had a tragic history.
42:03Yeah, but it's a...
42:04Beautiful plane.
42:05Beautiful plane.
42:06What about the Hawker Harrier?
42:07I think that's got to be my favourite because it's such a British thing.
42:11What we need is an aircraft that can take off in a very short runway.
42:14Rory, I will never forget the sight of you as a human jump jet in that wind tunnel.
42:18Oh, yeah, with my face wobbling.
42:21But what about the guys who were the test pilots?
42:23They're getting this machine for the first time, an untested, untried machine.
42:26Incredible confidence in your team.
42:28Flying it vertically, flying it at the speed of sound, flying it upside down.
42:31So you'll never mind about them. What about the stewardesses?
42:33I know, drinks everywhere. Coffee everywhere.
42:36Could you do it?
42:38I'm going to have to say goodbye then.
42:39OK.
42:40Bye.
42:41Goodbye.
42:53Goodbye.
42:54Goodbye.
42:55Goodbye.
42:56Goodbye.
42:57Goodbye.
42:58Goodbye.
42:59Goodbye.
43:00Goodbye.
43:01Goodbye.
43:02Goodbye.
43:03Goodbye.
43:04Goodbye.
43:05Goodbye.
43:06Goodbye.
43:07Goodbye.
43:08Goodbye.
43:09Goodbye.
43:10Goodbye.
43:11Goodbye.
43:12Goodbye.
43:13Goodbye.
43:14Goodbye.
43:15Goodbye.
43:16Goodbye.
43:17Goodbye.
43:18Goodbye.
43:19Goodbye.
43:20Goodbye.