Original subtitles

In this episode... The leaping capabilities are just tremendous.

In a way, it feels like I'm stepping into the future.

The world's most advanced fighter aircraft.

Bottom line, it's an engineering marvel.

There's nothing in the world that comes close.

And the pioneering historic innovations.

Wow, how is this airplane flying? Look at that.

This is phenomenal.

Absolutely phenomenal.

That may be impossible.

Possible.

The United States military.

Home to the largest fleet of fighter aircraft on the planet.

They're the essential tool of modern warfare.

Capable of defending airspace over land and at sea, anywhere on the face of the

Earth.

But with the potential for conflict to arise at any moment,

staying one step ahead of an unknown enemy with unknown capabilities presents

enormous challenge.

Naval Air Station Lemoore in California is the master jet base of the Pacific

Fleet.

Commodore Max McCoy is part of the team responsible for ensuring that the U .S.

can maintain dominance of the skies.

Controlling airspace is absolutely critical. It gives us the flexibility

control the contested battle space and gives freedom of navigation to respond

anywhere in the world to an emerging crisis.

But ensuring that war in the air remains a one -sided fight is a relentless

engineering battle where technology can mean the difference between life and

death.

The United States needs to continue to develop new aircraft so that we can

continue to dominate the battle space both on the surface and in the air.

Today, engineers are pushing the boundaries of aviation technology

ever before.

They've created a brand new revolutionary fighter aircraft.

The F -35 Lightning II.

This multi -role fighter is the most technologically advanced aircraft in the

world, capable of handling threats in the air and

on the ground.

It will also be operated by nine partner nation militaries, including the RAF in

the UK, Italian Air Force, and Royal Danish Air Force.

For me, flying the F -35 is amazing.

The aircraft's a combination of maneuverability, speed, altitude,

The aircraft is designed in three variants.

The F -35A for the Air Force, B for the Marines, and C for the Navy.

Each can reach a top speed of 1 ,200 miles per hour.

Over 400 miles per hour faster than the speed of sound.

This immense power is produced by an engine capable of generating more than

,000 pounds of thrust.

Making the F -35 a staggering 10 times more powerful than the first jet

Delivering nearly 22 ,000 pounds of weaponry anywhere on the planet.

The F -35 is the most capable, survivable, lethal, adaptable

and flexible airplane in the world today.

But this ambitious project presents some formidable engineering challenges.

How do you design and build a single aircraft for three distinctly different

branches of the military?

Building an aircraft that not only is a multi -role fighter, but has the

reconnaissance capability, the advanced sensors that the F -35 has, is a

challenge.

How do you make an aircraft traveling at almost 1 ,000 miles per hour disappear?

As a pilot, it's virtually impossible to comprehend the level of detail and

advanced engineering required to make something roughly 50 feet by 40 feet

virtually undetectable or invisible to radar.

and make an airplane weighing more than 20 tons defy the laws of physics.

When we set out with the engineering challenge of being able to take 40 ,000

pounds of airplane and land it vertically, it almost seemed

Building the world's most advanced war machine is a challenge for Santi Bulnes,

Vice President of Engineering for F -35 manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

Every service, whether it's Air Force, Navy, or Marine, really counts on its

aircraft to go do what it needs to do. And it is important. Why? Because it is

the first thing that you go into war with.

But after decades of each service using different aircraft, an ambitious plan is

underway.

There have been several attempts in history to build a one -size -fits -all

fighter for folks, and it's ended up being a little bit disappointing.

Santee and the team of engineers must learn from the mistakes of the past.

The military wanted a new aircraft to be able to do multiple things. It couldn't

just be a one -trick pony.

It needed to be able to fly far to go where it needed to.

It needed to be able to go supersonic to achieve the speeds needed to be an

effective fighter.

It needed to be stealth so that it could penetrate enemy defenses.

To create the perfect plane.

The team must look at how it was done by the pioneers that came before them.

High above the Florida coastline. What a fantastic airplane.

Pilot Rob Collins is putting a game -changing piece of aviation engineering

the test.

I can't help myself.

We're going to do that again.

Look at that thing go around.

Wow!

Back in 1937, the U .S.

Army Air Corps sent out a request for a new type of multi -role fighter.

This new aircraft would need to be capable of taking off from a short

climbing to 20 ,000 feet in six minutes, and having a top speed of 360 miles per

hour. This was a rather radical request at the time, and the engineers would

really have to think outside of the box to develop a new design and engineering

solution that never before was possible.

Engineer Clarence Kelly Johnson and his team at the Lockheed Martin Corporation

started development on a top -secret prototype, a project that would

revolutionize the multi -role fighter aircraft.

This is the Lockheed P -38 Lightning.

One of the most unique fighter planes of World War II, and I personally think

the most beautiful.

There's no fighter plane that has such a look. The twin booms, this gondola in

the center.

It is absolutely stunning.

Considered the first true modern multi -role fighter aircraft, the P -38 was

capable of attacking targets in the air and on the ground.

as well as carrying out vital photographic reconnaissance missions.

Back in the 1930s, we have to remember, aircraft at that time were mostly open

cockpit biplanes.

To be the interceptor that the Army Air Corps wanted was a tall challenge.

To solve the speed challenge laid out by the Air Corps, engineers devised a

simple solution.

Kelly Johnson came up with a very unique way of solving this issue.

They made it twin -engine, not a single -engine fighter.

With no single engine capable of producing enough power to get the P -38

miles per hour, he added a second, doubling the amount of thrust.

The engines in the P -38 were an Allison 1710. They're a V -12 liquid -cooled

engine. In the L model, this aircraft here, they produce 1 ,600 horsepower

These two engines, combined with the aircraft's smooth, aluminum, flush

design, pushed the P -38 to speeds nearly 100 miles per hour faster than

fighters of the day and way over the Army Air Corps' requirements.

Making an engine that could fly high enough where it could be a successful

interceptor at altitude, that was an amazing accomplishment back at that

But to be a success, the P -38 also had to meet the Air Corps' other

requirement. To demonstrate this capability, Rob is once again taking to

skies.

The Air Corps needed their new fighter to be capable of getting airborne using

just over 2 ,000 feet of runway.

So is the P -38 up to the challenge?

There's 45 inches. You can hear the turbos start to wheel.

The turbos are really pronounced in this airplane.

There's about 1 ,000 feet, and we're off the ground.

Wow, how is this airplane flying?

Look at that.

2 ,000, 3 ,000 -foot -a -meter -quad.

With a maximum climb rate of over 3 ,300 feet per minute, the Army Air Corps'

final requirement had successfully been met.

The P -38 was one of the most successful aircraft of the Second World War,

achieving engineering feats beyond the reach of what was considered possible at

the time.

It's an incredible aircraft to fly. It's so maneuverable, fast, and responsive.

And it really leads to foundations for modern fighter planes today.

Today, engineers are taking the lessons learned by their predecessors on the P

-38 and inserting them into the DNA of the world's most cutting -edge weapon of

war.

This aircraft is about as advanced as it gets in terms of technology.

The United States military has a new way of defending its airspace.

Built to travel at 1 .6 times the speed of sound.

Capable of withstanding nine times the force of gravity.

And it can strike anywhere on the planet.

This is the F -35C Lightning II. It's the U .S.

Navy and U .S.

Marine Corps' carrier -capable version of a joint strike fire designed to

from and recover to Ford and Nimitz -class aircraft carriers.

Commander Mark Cochran is part of a small group of pilots trusted to fly the

Navy's brand -new, over - $100 million weapon.

The F -35 Lightning II.

It takes its name from the P -38 Lightning, made by Lockheed Martin

during World War II.

Both aircraft were cutting -edge for the day, both aircraft were multi -role,

and both aircraft are going to be used across all theaters of conflict.

But despite their similarities, the F -35 is capable of things engineers in

1930s could have only dreamed of.

All right, so from front to back, some sensors that you'll find on the F -35

some mission systems.

At the front, you're going to have an active electronically scanned array

They can locate targets just by their physical presence.

After that, you're going to have the electro -optical targeting system. It's

going to allow us to target aircraft and ground targets via their IR signature.

Above that, you'll have the distributed aperture system, or DAS, which its

primary function is missile warning, so to see missiles launched by another

aircraft. However, it also provides the pilot the ability to see in the dark.

Moving after, we're going to have the largest wing of the F -35 family, and

that's designed for increased maneuverability.

It increases our range.

It's arguably the world's most cutting -edge weapon of war. But just like its

predecessor, the F -35 still requires a human at the controls.

Sitting on the flight line or on the flight second in an F -35, waiting to

off is one of anxious excitement.

Once airborne, Mark will be at the controls of a supercomputer capable of

completing more than 400 billion operations a second, all while traveling

speeds up to 1 ,200 miles per hour.

The F -35's massive single

engine puts out over 40 ,000 pounds of thrust.

making it the most powerful fighter jet engine on the planet.

Airborne visibility is excellent, maneuverability is excellent, payload,

altitude, airspeed are all better than our legacy fighters that we fly in the

Navy.

The F -35 is the smartest and most deadly aircraft in production.

Construction of the world's most advanced fighter jet begins at the F -35

factory in Texas.

The task of turning raw materials into a fully -fledged war machine is the

responsibility of senior fellow Don Kennard.

There's about 7 .5 million square feet total here in Fort Worth for building

airplanes, flood storage.

Over a mile long and covering an area the size of over 130 football fields,

F -35 factory is one of the most advanced in the world.

Well, first of all, we get lots of parts. So for the wings and forward

fuselages, we get composite parts, metal parts, tubes and wires from all of our

suppliers.

Each station on the factory floor carries out a specific role.

At one end of the mile, the forward fuselage, nose and cockpit section is

assembled.

At the other, the wing sections are formed and mounted together.

At final assembly, the control surfaces are added, and the F -35 gets its Pratt

& Whitney engine before leaving the factory for final checks and flight

This aircraft is about as advanced as it gets in terms of technology.

But making an aircraft this advanced requires more than just a well -oiled

production line.

So in the old days, we used to take the drawings, and a mechanic would put out

the drawing. These are 20, 30 -page drawings, and he would start writing

every fastener with a marker what fastener went in what hole, and then

that panel on the airplane, and then they'd have to put it up, and then he'd

follow that to put them in.

Today, through the use of optical projection, Don and his team are

revolutionizing aircraft manufacturing.

What we're doing is I'm lighting up the fasteners on this big cover on the

airplane. So, for example, here, I'm saying I want to put this particular

fastener in these particular holes.

Get a lot better quality, you know, making sure the right fastener goes in

right hole.

Thanks to systems like this, after more than 18 months of work, a completed F

-35 rolls off the line, ready for deployment.

What comes in is a bunch of parts, pieces, and components from all over the

world. What leaves here is a completed F -35.

But now, engineers face one of the toughest challenges in the history of

aviation.

The F -35 is a 40 ,000 -pound class aircraft, so when you have to hover and

a 40 ,000 -pound airplane, it is quite a challenge.

As they attempt to defy the laws of physics.

In Fort Worth, Texas, a revolution in aviation engineering is occurring.

Engineers are building the most technologically advanced fighter jet on

planet, the F -35 Lightning II, made from over a

quarter of a million individual parts.

It takes over 18 months to turn the raw components into a state -of -the -art

fighting machine.

But before the F -35B variant can get in the air, engineers face another

challenge.

The Marines wanted an aircraft that would land on their smaller carriers,

large as what the Navy has. So those carriers require an aircraft that will

vertically as the Harriers do today.

First entering service with the Marine Corps almost half a century ago, the

Harrier has been the aircraft of choice thanks to its almost unique ability, the

vertical landing.

So the Marines wanted this plane to have maximum flexibility for them to be able

to fight their wars.

But hovering an airplane that's over twice the weight of the Harrier

every rule of aeronautical engineering.

The F -35 is about a 40 ,000 -pound aircraft, and getting that much weight

hover, and to hover in a stable fashion, is an engineering challenge.

To pull it off, the team will have to travel back in time.

At a secret location in the USA, test pilot Andy Edgell is uncovering a

unique aircraft that transformed aviation engineering on Earth and in

Very excited.

This is one -of -a -kind aircraft.

This is the Bell X -14.

This is the only one in the world. This is the only X -14 that was ever built.

What a fantastic machine.

The X -14's mission was to see whether it was possible for a jet airplane to

take off and land vertically.

The big challenge is here you've got a 4 ,000 -pound aircraft on Earth.

Gravity takes effect.

Try to pull it down to the ground.

If you want to just take the aircraft off vertically, all of the thrusts that

you need to...

needs to go straight up, and it needs to be bigger than the weight of the

aircraft.

Designed by engineers at the Bell Aircraft Corporation in New York, the X

prototype was constructed mainly from existing parts in just three months.

All right, let's pull this out and have a good look at her.

In order to understand the engineering behind this one -of -a -kind airplane,

Andy has to move it out of the hangar for the first time in decades.

Pretty phenomenal moment to pull this one out.

These two engines, they're tucked neatly into the fuselage.

They're not out on one wingtip and the other wingtip. And the reason for that

you want everything all nice and close and in line with the center of the

aircraft. Because eventually what we're going to try and do is balance this

aircraft on a column of air.

Each engine produces over 3 ,000 pounds of thrust.

Enough power for a conventional takeoff. However, the key to vertical lift and

landing isn't producing thrust.

It's directing it precisely.

This is where the magic happens.

This is the crown jewels of the X -14.

The air that comes out of the engine, that exhaust, gets pushed out in a...

direction that is decided by the pilot.

So the pilot can choose which way he rotates these nozzles and directs these

vanes. And in doing that, what he's essentially deciding is where to propel

air out of the back of the engine.

If he positions the nozzles to go straight down, the aircraft will go up.

And there, when it's coming straight down, the aircraft is just balancing on

column of air.

What we see here is the first ever thrust vectoring aircraft.

The team at Bell had solved one of the greatest challenges in aviation

engineering.

But this was only half the battle.

Now they would have to engineer a control system that would allow pilots

off the unthinkable.

In the late 1950s, engineers at the Bell Aircraft Corporation tested their

prototype for the first -ever thrust vectoring aircraft.

The X -14 successfully completed a vertical takeoff.

Next, they had to pull off the landing.

Now, in conventional flight, when you're going forward through the air and the

air is blowing over the wing, we control it by moving these surfaces. I call it

the ailerons.

The pilot wants to move the left, he moves the stick to the left, the left

aileron goes up, the right aileron goes down, and that means more lift is

produced on the right wing than the left, and the aircraft rolls left. Very

simple. So the situation we're looking at right now is exactly the same as the

situation when the X -14 is sat in the hover.

The pilot can move the stick all he likes, and the ailerons will move all

like. but the aircraft's not rolling.

The system works by taking excess air from the engines and directing it to

nozzles located on the wingtips and rear fuselage.

As the pilot moves the stick, the nozzles either open or close, releasing

-pressure blasts of air, directing the aircraft in roll, pitch, or yaw.

So when I move the stick to the left, the duct closes.

There's no jet of air that comes out. There's a big puff of air that comes out

on the other side, and the aircraft rolls.

The X -14 rewrote the aeronautical engineering rulebook, becoming the first

American jet aircraft to achieve the vertical takeoff, transition to

conventional flight, and vertical landing.

Now this is incredibly exciting for me.

I can officially say...

that I have sat in an X -plane.

I can immediately identify that here is the nudging of the nozzles, and it even

says horis for horizontal and vert for vertical.

So if I were to pull back on this switch here, it's going to rotate my nozzles

down and sit me nice and stable on top of that column of air.

After proving the concept of vertical takeoff and landing was possible, in

the X -14 was transferred to NASA, where it helped train Apollo astronauts to

overcome the biggest engineering challenge in history, landing on the

And the fact that Neil Armstrong was batting this seat flying this aircraft.

This is a once -in -a -lifetime opportunity that I just never thought

would get.

For its time, the X14 was groundbreaking.

There was nothing like it in the world.

Everything after it evolved from this.

They proved the concept in the X14.

They made it better in the Harrier.

then proved it further in the F -35, but it all started here in the X -14.

For the F -35B, engineers have taken the raw elements of the X -14 and improved

them for modern warfare.

At the F -35 factory in Texas, Chief Test Pilot Alan Norman is getting hands

with this upgraded thrust vectoring system.

One of the easiest things about the airplane is,

honestly, one of the hardest things about other airplanes, which is to get

airplane in the configuration to hover and the ability of this airplane to

hover. For the pilot...

All it is for us is a few button switches.

The centerpiece of the F -35B's thrust vectoring capability is its Rolls -Royce

lift fan.

As the pilot engages hover mode, it reveals itself and begins rotating,

29 ,000 horsepower.

Connected to the main engine via a drive shaft, it produces a downward -flowing

column of air at the front of the plane.

At the rear, the exhaust nozzle twists.

aiming its thrust toward the ground.

For directional control, bypass thrust from the main engine is directed to

outlets located under the wings, allowing the F -35B to gently touch

But vertically landing an aircraft that weighs almost 20 tons on a carrier in

the middle of the ocean is a challenge.

Well, we have a ship out in front of us. We're in the transition to a hover

mode. The engine's twisted around.

The lift fan is engaged.

And then we're coming abeam the ship at sea.

We'll pull next to it and then try to land aboard it.

So we'll come down in altitude.

And you can see off to my right is the ship.

And now that I've picked out where I'd like to come down,

And come right down on the deck.

Piece of cake.

The F -35B's lift fan system is genuinely unique in the world of

My first impressions when I saw the very first F -35 were, what is going on?

To see 20 tons floating in the air, rock solid, not moving.

I thought it was fantastic.

This technology will ensure the F -35B rules the skies for decades to come.

But before it can get off the ground, engineers must overcome another complex

obstacle. To take an airplane that's basically 50 feet long and 35 feet wide.

and then make it nearly impossible for a radar system to see is a huge

challenge.

The F -35 Lightning II.

Capable of soaring over 50 ,000 feet above the Earth's surface.

It can operate in desert heat or freezing cold.

And land vertically with near pinpoint accuracy.

But for the F -35 to become the military's aerial weapon of choice.

Engineers must overcome a problem that's plagued previous generations of fighter

aircraft. This is the F -18 Super Hornet.

I've flown both E and F Super Hornet for about 10 years and about 2 ,000 flight

hours across three combat deployments.

In service since the mid -90s, the Super Hornet is now lacking an important

feature essential to modern warfare.

Even though they're advanced, they still have a problem where they are visible

to radar and they can't penetrate integrated air defense systems as far or

effectively as a newer, more modern aircraft.

As anti -air defenses have developed and improved, this visibility to radar can

mean the difference between life and death.

If I were mounting a radar console looking for an F -18 Super Hornet

other support, it'd be easy to pick it up.

But could the solution to making an airplane invisible to radar already

At the National Museum of the United States Air Force, retired pilot Mace

Carpenter is uncovering the engineering secrets behind one of the most

classified aircraft ever built.

Wow.

This is incredible.

I never thought I'd be an F -117 again.

Conceived in the midst of the Cold War, the F -117 was designed to slip

undetected into enemy territory.

Radar has been a nemesis of strike aircraft since World War II.

The bulk of enemy air defense systems use radar for acquisition and for target

tracking. guiding their missiles into the aircraft.

So the goal was to reduce the enemy's ability to be able to see the aircraft

until it was too late.

At the top -secret Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in California, engineer Ben Rich

and his team started plans for the world's first stealth strike aircraft.

The problem they faced was finding a way to overcome decades of radar research

and development.

This is kind of a rudimentary demonstration on how radar might work.

The flashlight will be my radar transmitter and the mirror

is a conventional aircraft.

If I shine my light directly on the conventional aircraft, the light...

back to me as a very bright beam, a very bright return.

Now, if this beam that was returning to me was radar, I would be able to pick up

the aircraft from a very long distance.

This is what's happening with most aircraft in the world.

They're easily tracked by radar, but when you're a strike aircraft trying to

penetrate defended airspace, it's bad.

So instead of the smooth aerodynamic lines found on other aircraft, engineers

started testing a faceted, angular -shaped airframe.

Now I have a different mirror, and again, the light is the radar.

The mirror represents the F -117.

When I shine a light on this mirror, the vast majority of the light is reflected

away and not back at me.

And this is how the F -117 works.

The radar is largely reflected away.

By reflecting radar energy away from the aircraft, engineers were able to

drastically shrink radar signature.

But the F -117 would require further engineering to become a ghost of the

The most important feature of the F -117 that makes it stealthy is the shape, 85

% of the stealth.

The other 15 % is accomplished by putting radar -absorbing material, or

onto it.

The exact makeup of this radar -absorbent material is still top secret,

believed to be made from thin sheets of a composite material.

coated in iron ferrite paint that contains microscopic spheres.

When hit by radar energy, these spheres vibrate, turning the energy to heat,

which is absorbed by the plane, further reducing the reflection.

Hopefully we were a ghost and not seen.

If we were seen, we weren't seen for any more than we had to be, or not enough

time for the people on the ground to react.

The introduction of stealth technology changed the way war is waged from the

air. When the F -117 was designed in the mid -70s, it was at the pinnacle

of aviation design.

There was nothing that could touch it for decades.

Now, engineers working on the F -35 have taken ideas behind the F -117 and

enhanced them for modern warfare.

With the help of the world's most advanced modern supercomputer.

In the 1970s, with the introduction of stealth technology, the F -117 ushered

a new era that would enable the United States to dominate warfare for decades

come. Now, engineers are taking it one step further.

Where the F -117 was an early introduction of stealth technology, rare

material,

the F -35 is the third step or the third generation of evolution.

Modern supercomputers have allowed engineers to calculate radar returns

curved surfaces, something not possible in the 1970s, giving the F -35

a vast aerodynamic advantage over its predecessor.

But despite this gigantic leap in technology, one

thing remains the same.

The low -observable technology that's resident of the F -35, It's highly

classified. You have to have a validated need to know and be part of the program

in order to access it.

What can be revealed is that just like the F -117, the shaping of the F -35

provides most of its stealth capability.

If you look at the aircraft top down, you'd see that the front edge, the

edge of the wing is going to match the front edge of the horizontal tail, which

is the act control surface.

Known as planform alignment, this improved stealth design orients key

surfaces at the same angle.

As a result, radar energy is scattered away from the receiver in a precise

direction rather than diffusing it where it could still potentially be detected.

Loser technology isn't something that has an on -off switch. It's something

has to be built into an aircraft from the ground up.

The combination of all this engineering makes the F -35 a ghost of the sky.

What it provides to you is it gives you more space to operate in. So because I

don't have to worry about it threatening me as far away, that's why space in

which I can move in and operate on my own terms.

For the team behind this incredible airplane, the sense of achievement is

F -35 is the most incredible aircraft ever constructed.

You look at how well it flies, when you look at how well it does its mission,

this aircraft's going to be enduring for this country and its partners for

decades, and I'm very proud of that.

By looking to great pioneers of the past for inspiration, adapting

their ideas,

refining their designs,

and overcoming monumental challenges.

Every time I fly one of these airplanes here at the factory, I'm so proud.

I see them flying in the air at a base, and I feel like a proud papa when I look

up in the sky and see my kids up there flying.

It's tremendous.

Engineers have built an age -defining airplane and succeeded in making the

impossible.

I was a child of the Apollo era.

You know, I stayed up late one night to watch them land on the moon. I was taken

by that, and probably that influenced my whole life, just being able to see

something like that.

You knew it was a miracle that we were there, a technological miracle, and the

-35 is that kind of program.

Repair and Synchronization by Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0