All language subtitles for Impossible Engineering s01e02 Ultimate Warship.eng

Today on
"Impossible engineering"...

The HMS Queen Elizabeth,

an aircraft carrier
of record-breaking proportions.

It took cutting-edge naval
and aerial engineering...

We're actually
going to execute the ship

on rolling vertical landing.

...And bold risk-takers
from the past...

We often talk about
the bravery of the pilots.

But actually, you know,

they must have been
slightly crazy, as well.

I do love this airplane.

...To make
the impossible...

...possible.

Captions by vitac
www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by
Discovery communications

July 2014.

The largest warship
in the history

of the British Royal Navy

is being floated
for the first time.

The Queen Elizabeth aircraft
carrier dwarfs its predecessors.

This $4.9 billion vessel
weighs over 71,000 tons.

For engineer Stuart Justice,
it's the project of a lifetime.

The Queen Elizabeth has a range
of 10,000 nautical miles.

It can carry up to 40 aircraft,

including the groundbreaking
F-35B lightning fighter jet.

Some of the world's
strongest marine gas turbines

propel
this massive floating airport.

They act
as an onboard power station,

generating enough electricity
to power a small city.

The Queen Elizabeth will be
the flagship of britain,

allowing the nation
to undertake major military

or humanitarian missions
anywhere on the planet.

But less than a century ago,

a ship of this size and ability
would be inconceivable.

Once upon a time,
a nation's Navy

was limited to what it could do
on the water --

fighting at sea, firing toward
land from the water,

or delivering an invading force.

It wasn't until
the mid 19th century

that the first attempts
to combine air and sea power

were made.

In 1849, an Austrian ship
tried to drop bombs on venice

using a hot air balloon.

The mission failed
because the wind changed.

It took the development

of a revolutionary new type
of aircraft

before the aircraft carrier
could be realized.

The seaplane was the catalyst

for a naval engineering
revolution.

Oh, that is so cool.

Dr. Rhys Morgan
is getting a taste

of the challenges early
aircraft-carrier pilots faced.

The birth
of the aircraft carrier

depended on
the skill of the pilots

and the creativity
of the engineers.

But what we recognize
as aircraft carriers today

are a long way
from the early ideas.

The first aircraft carriers
were simple transporters.

Planes had to be lowered
onto the water

and launched
from the sea's surface --

very slow and very dangerous.

Those early seaplanes
were very flimsy.

They were made from wood
and fabric.

And the sea conditions made it
terrible for the pilots.

Taking off in rough seas must
have been incredibly difficult.

We often talk about the bravery
of the pilots.

But actually, you know,

they must have been
slightly crazy, as well.

There had to be a better way.

Then in 1912,

British pilot Charles Sampson
attempted the impossible

when he launched a seaplane

directly from the deck
of a moving battleship.

It was leftenant Charles Sampson

who first attempted
to take off from a moving ship.

And, of course, using
the principles of engineering,

using the -- understanding
the principles of flight,

it was actually very beneficial
to have a moving ship,

because the ship
was already creating airflow

over the wings.

And that creates lift.

Lieutenant Sampson used
a specially adapted battleship

with a short, sloping runway
fitted to the foredeck.

And on may 9, 1912,

with the ship
steaming into the wind,

Sampson fired up the engine,

and his flimsy seaplane rolled
down the ramp and then skyward.

These early aircraft carriers

only had about 30 meters
of takeoff deck,

so it was an extraordinary feat

to get the plane off the ship
and into the air.

But the ship Sampson used
had one major disadvantage --

there was nowhere to land.

The planes could take off
quickly,

but they were still slow
and dangerous to recover.

As we come in to land,
it's gonna be incredibly bumpy

but nothing like the kind of
conditions it would have been

for some of those
early seaplane pilots

out in the English channel
and the north sea.

Just a few years
after Sampson's flight,

one man
would come up with a solution

that would change naval aviation
forever.

In 1918,

shipbuilder William beardmore
created the HMS argus.

It was the first ship
to use a single flight deck,

allowing aircraft to take off
and land on the same runway.

The argus was fitted
with a retractable pilothouse

in the middle of the runway

that could be lowered out of
sight during flying operations.

This meant planes could be
deployed and recovered

in record time.

The aircraft carrier
was an effective weapon

for the first time in history.

William beardmore's
continuous flight deck

set the template for all
modern aircraft carriers.

- The designers of the HMS Queen
- Elizabeth aircraft carrier

may owe a debt
to William beardmore

and the HMS argus,

but they've taken beardmore's
concept to a whole new level.

The Elizabeth is twice as long
and three times wider

than the argus.

The deck's 17,000 square feet
of surface area

is larger
than two football fields.

But the unprecedented size
of the Queen Elizabeth

presented builders
with a unique challenge.

Their solution --

three different companies
would build the Queen Elizabeth

using six shipyards and hundreds
of different suppliers

from across the United Kingdom.

Work begins on the Elizabeth
in 2008,

requiring enormous manpower.

A collaboration of this scale
has never been attempted before.

Each self-contained section
of the ship,

complete with cabins, corridors,
and pipework,

was constructed
in a different location.

Even key mechanical components

are preinstalled in
the self-contained sections,

like this huge diesel generator.

Each section is transported
by barge

to a giant dry dock
in rosyth, Scotland,

where they will be
joined together.

If the self-contained sections
of the ship don't match up,

the project would be
a multimillion-dollar failure.

And in June 2012,
it's the moment of truth.

The Queen Elizabeth's hull
is assembled,

but to propel this mega-ship,

engineers will need to draw
on innovations from the past...

This boat
is absolutely gorgeous.

It's so sleek.

It's like a shark
going through the water.

And you can understand
just looking at it

why they called it
the spitfire of the sea.

...To produce more
impossible engineering.

Wow.

The Queen Elizabeth
class aircraft carrier

is the next generation
of warship

in the British Royal Navy's
illustrious history.

This mega carrier
is over 900 feet long

and three times the size

of britain's previous
aircraft carriers.

But a vessel this size will need
a monster motor to move it.

Engineers had to figure out
a way to generate enough power

to move this mega-ship

at a fast enough speed
for modern warfare.

Less than a century ago,

designing engines
with this much power

would have been
an impossible task.

Early man relied on elbow grease
to push him across the water...

Until he learned how to harness
the power of the wind.

Ooh!

It wasn't until the early 1800s
that engineers discovered

steam could provide
a mechanical solution...

...and another 100 years before
diesel engines ruled the waves.

But in the 1940s, a brand-new
technology was on the horizon.

Engine power was the difference
between life and death

in world war ii.

One boat above all others
embraced this philosophy.

This boat
is absolutely gorgeous.

It's so sleek.

It's like a shark
going through the water.

And you can understand
just looking at it

why they called it
the spitfire of the sea.

Britain's motor gunboats
were on the front lines

of naval combat in world war ii.

This boat, the MGB-81,
was built in 1942

and is the only one
still running today.

It was an incredibly
well-designed boat,

beautifully engineered.

It had these incredible engines.

It had three
v-12 Packard engines.

These each had
a brake horsepower of 1,250 pph.

That's equivalent
to six Formula-1 engines.

And this was in
the second world war.

It's just unbelievable.

It's just starting to take off
now.

Look at it go.

These boats used
incredible amounts of fuel.

They had to carry 10 tons.

And it was high-octane fuel.
It was aviation fuel.

If they got hit,
they would literally explode.

Being a skipper on that boat
was like riding a bomb.

The reason
they needed these huge engines

was because the boat
was made of mahogany.

It must have weighed a ton.

It would be like
your granny's wardrobe.

This boat is idling
at the moment.

We're still trying to keep pace.

Hello, there.

You've got a beautiful ship
here.

They needed
this huge engine capacity

because they needed to
get up to a ship,

drop some depth charges,

and then get the hell out
as fast as they could.

The MGB-81 can go
an astonishing 50 miles an hour,

even while loaded to the brim
with heavy armaments and fuel.

Wow, you can see the bow wave
just crashing over there.

But just
five years later, in 1947,

another motor gunboat
would come onto the scene.

...To the wake
of new progress at sea.

Jets take the water.

Motor gunboat 2009 was equipped

with a cutting-edge
propulsion system --

the gas turbine.

The gas turbine works
through a series of stages.

It first sucks in air
through the fans at the front,

and then a series of compressors
squeeze that air,

increasing the pressure.

And then it mixes the air

with a steady stream
of highly explosive fuel

and then combusts
that fuel-air mixture.

And that explosion
generates very, very hot gases.

And those gases shoot out
the back of the engine,

turning these turbine blades.

And these turbine blades
drive a shaft

connected to the propeller.

The MGB 2009

was the first naval vessel
in the world

to use a gas turbine system.

The innovation was big news.

MGB 2009 is
a triple-screw 110-foot craft

featuring a compressor turbine
that enables the engine

to develop and maintain
greater power

than on any other ship
of comparable size afloat.

The gas turbine was once a piece
of impossible engineering

that's now commonplace.

Everything from naval vessels
to cruise ships

rely on them for power.

The gas turbines on the Queen
Elizabeth aircraft carrier

take this world war II-era
technology

to a whole new level.

The installation of the Queen
Elizabeth's turbine system

was a feat of engineering
in itself.

The Queen Elizabeth is powered

by two Rolls-Royce
mt30 gas turbines,

the world's most power-dense
marine turbines.

But unlike their predecessors in
the motor gunboats of the 1940s,

these turbines are not used

to directly turn the
Queen Elizabeth's propellers.

Instead, they act like
a giant turbocharger,

generating huge power boosts

to drive the ship's
electric motors at key moments.

But the Queen Elizabeth's gas
turbines have another vital job.

But a 21st-century
aircraft carrier

is only as good
as its fleet of fighter jets.

I do love this airplane.

So the Queen Elizabeth
is being developed

in tandem with America's latest
and greatest fighter jet

to, again,
make the impossible possible.

The Queen Elizabeth
class aircraft carrier

is the largest warship ever
produced in the United Kingdom.

It's as long as
London's houses of parliament

and as tall as Niagara Falls.

But building a next-generation
aircraft carrier

isn't just about the ship.

The fighter jets that deploy
from it are equally important.

So, the Queen Elizabeth
is being developed in tandem

with the new
U.S. Lockheed-Martin F-35Bs,

the most advanced short-takeoff
and vertical-landing aircraft

in the world.

The F-35B has a top speed
of over 1,200 miles per hour

and is virtually undetectable
by radar.

The joint strike fighters
will take off

using a system unique
to British aircraft carriers.

It's known as the ski jump.

State-of-the-art
aircraft carrier design,

along with
the cutting-edge F-35B,

will make the Queen Elizabeth
unrivaled in its capabilities.

But without the pioneering
designs of the past,

this combination of air and sea
power would be impossible.

After world war ii,

propeller planes were replaced
with faster, more powerful jets.

Runways had to grow much longer
to accommodate heavier aircraft.

But there are limits to how long
a runway on a ship can be.

Airships could be deployed
from a small deck space,

but the slow and unwieldy blimps
aren't useful in modern warfare.

Helicopters, first mass-produced
in the 1940s,

allowed vertical takeoff
and landing,

but there's a limit
to how fast they can travel

before the forces exerted
on the rotors take their toll.

The perfect solution
would be a fighter jet

that could take off and land
like a helicopter.

Some of the first experiments

fell somewhere between
helicopter and plane.

The American-designed
convair pogo

was a propeller-driven plane
designed to take off and land

while balancing on its tail.

Okay, John,
give a little power.

Pick it up a little more,
a little more.

Keep her up.
Keep your nose up.

Bring her down, John.
Attaboy. Okay.

The British
had a very different idea.

While Americans experiment
with aircraft

which take off
standing on their tails,

britain pins their hopes

on an evolution
of the flying bedstead.

The flying bedstead
was the nickname

given to
the thrust measuring rig,

designed by engineer
Dr. Alan Griffith.

It took to the air untethered
for the first time in 1954,

causing a sensation.

These are the first films of
the fabulous flying bedstead.

Whispers of this extraordinary
new flying machine

reached us
about five months ago.

Designed for experiments
in vertical takeoff,

the bedstead has two jet engines
mounted end-to-end.

Their exhausts
shoot the blast downwards

and thus give the machine
its upward thrust.

Alan Griffith's flying bedstead

inspired one of
the most revolutionary aircraft

of all time...

...the Harrier jump jet.

Former U.S. fighter-jet pilot
Art Nalls

has the only
privately-owned Harrier

flying in the world today.

The Harrier was revolutionary

because it was
the first operational airplane

to successfully vector thrust.

That gave it what we call

vertical short takeoff
and landing capability,

or V/SToL.

I do love this airplane.

Art's had a love affair with the
Harrier jump jet for 35 years.

It began the moment he took his
first flight in one as a rookie.

He slammed the power board,
threw me back in the seat.

The acceleration
was unbelievable.

He brought it into the hover,
and after we landed,

i just went,
"this airplane can do anything.

When do i start?"

The Harrier's capabilities

come from its radical design.

The aircraft
has one central jet engine

with large intakes
on either side of the cockpit.

Its amazing maneuverability

is thanks to four adjustable
nozzles along its fuselage.

These can point thrust
in any direction,

allowing the aircraft to hover
and even fly backwards.

The Harrier jump jet's
gravity-defying capabilities

allowed aircraft carriers to be
designed much more efficiently.

Harriers operating
from smaller aircraft carriers

are actually force multipliers.

A Harrier could operate from
the forward half of the ship,

and helicopters could operate
from the stern of the ship,

essentially as if it were
two separate runways.

As revolutionary as the Harrier
jump jet was in the 1960s,

the F-35Bs
on the Queen Elizabeth

will take aircraft-carrier
firepower to a whole new level.

To create the perfect
operating conditions

for the F-35Bs
on the Queen Elizabeth,

engineers are using some
equally futuristic technology.

Pilots and engineers
are running test flights

in a highly-advanced
simulator system

so they can perfect the aircraft
and ship design

while they're both
still under construction.

The Queen Elizabeth --
it's a marvel of engineering,

and it's a magnificent
aircraft carrier.

But without the aircraft,
it's pretty much nothing.

It has to interact
with the aircraft seamlessly,

and so through this simulator,

we're able to allow the aircraft
to take off, land, maneuver,

approach in all sea states,
all conditions,

and check that the systems
all work and interact correctly.

Actually, there's a very
comprehensive representation

of operating from the ship.

It's not only
the aircraft cockpit,

but it's also the control tower
on the ship, as well.

This
multimillion-dollar simulator

allows pilots and engineers
to minimize the hazards involved

with running an airport at sea.

It's possibly
the only landing point

you can execute a safe landing
on for hundreds of miles.

And although it's very big,
it's not that big.

It's maybe a tenth the size
of a conventional runway

for a military fast jet base.

And although
it's a marvel of engineering,

it's only one small point,
and it can be difficult to find.

Flying methods have been
developed for the F-35Bs

that will be unique
to the Queen Elizabeth.

The bread-and-butter landing
will be the vertical landing,

and that will be familiar
to Harrier pilots and all,

but the difference between
the Harrier and the f-35 is,

for us in the U.K.,
we're actually going to execute

the ship-borne
rolling vertical landing,

which is a landing with a
certain degree of forward speed,

which allows us to carry
more fuel and more stores

back to the ship.

The lift generated by the wings,

combined with the lift generated

by the downward-thrusting
engines

allow for
a slower approach speed.

This means the F-35Bs can land
on a very short runway.

As i touch down,
apply the brakes,

and then come to a stop.

The Queen Elizabeth

and its cutting-edge fleet
of fighter jets

will be an unstoppable force
at sea.

But in modern warfare,
every second counts.

It's very, very important
to be able to transition

from having the aircraft here
stored in the hangar deck

up to the flight deck,

to a large number of aircraft
in the sky very, very quickly.

In 2014, a new aircraft carrier
came on the scene

in the United Kingdom,

dwarfing every ship the
British Royal Navy has owned --

the HMS Queen Elizabeth.

Over 900 feet long
and weighing over 70,000 tons,

it's a wonder
of the engineering world.

The Queen Elizabeth
is the largest,

most technologically advanced
warship

ever produced
in the United Kingdom.

For engineer Stuart Justice,
it's the project of a lifetime.

Below the carrier's
expansive flight deck,

the scale of the construction
is immense.

At 500 feet long
by 100 feet wide,

the Queen Elizabeth's hangar
is spacious enough

to hold two battleships inside.

But it's also perfectly
proportioned for its real job --

stowing the carrier's fleet

of F-35B fighter jets
and helicopters.

But storing the aircraft
is only half the challenge.

In modern warfare, aircraft
need to be able to travel

to and from the flight deck
with ease.

Engineers look to innovations
from the past for the solution.

The British may have created
the first aircraft carriers,

but it took an American design

to turn them into the kings
of the high seas.

The Essex class
of aircraft carriers,

like the U.S.S. Intrepid,

have been described as
the most significant warships

in American naval history.

They were an innovation
driven by the second world war.

The key thing to keep in mind
is Europe's already at war.

France surrenders to Hitler.

We're still at peace,
but the United States becomes very worried,

so we embark on building
the largest naval force

the world has ever seen.

When the U.S.
was thrust into war

by the Japanese-led attacks
on Pearl Harbor,

having a top-of-the-line fleet
of aircraft carriers

became of utmost importance.

As we get to the period
past Pearl Harbor,

a carrier goes from
the up-and-coming new vessel out there

to being the dominant vessel
at sea.

So, as we build
less battleships,

we start building more carriers,

and this is our ultimate
carrier design of the period.

The designers
of the Essex class carriers

took early U.S. carrier designs

and supersized them.

The U.S.S. Intrepid
is 60 feet longer

and more than 1/3 heavier
than its predecessors.

The key difference
with the Essex class,

in terms of the flight deck,
is that it's larger.

When we look at
the earlier carriers

the United States had built,
for the most part,

they had slightly smaller
dimensions,

reflecting the fact that when
they're designed in the '30s,

we're talking about
lighter aircraft.

In some cases, still biplanes.

So you need larger space
for these aircraft to launch.

You want to launch more aircraft
on a major strike.

With larger, heavier aircraft,

designers of the Essex class
aircraft carrier

faced a similar challenge

that engineers of the
Queen Elizabeth face today --

how to get planes to and from
the flight deck quickly.

A big innovation
that allows for that

is one of the elevators
being moved off to the side,

sticking off
from the flight deck.

This is going to take less space
away for the elevators.

The elevator
on the side of the deck

allowed planes to be transported
from the hangars below

and onto the flight deck

without interfering
with flying operations.

These ships
were so well-engineered

they became
history's most prolific

aircraft-carrier design.

Ultimately,
they complete 26 of them,

17 during the second world war.

Intrepid is the third
of the Essex class.

Despite coming under heavy
enemy attack during the war,

not a single Essex class carrier
was sunk.

Engineers had made
the impossible possible.

The engineers
of the Queen Elizabeth

have taken the United States
Essex class carriers'

revolutionary
deck-edge elevator design

and supersized it.

But building an elevator
with this much lifting power

would be impossible
without the work

of one of history's
great engineering innovators.

Born in 1810,

William George Armstrong
began life as a lawyer

but switched careers
to become an engineer.

He invented a simple concept

that changed the world
of engineering forever --

the hydraulic accumulator.

Armstrong discovered that

by placing a weighted piston
on top of a cylinder of water,

he could store hydraulic energy.

Whenever power was required,

it could be instantly released
in a highly controlled way.

His design would be used

on one of history's
most iconic landmarks --

London's tower bridge.

Stored hydraulic energy
allowed tall ships to pass

along the river thames.

Engineers
of the Queen Elizabeth

have exploited
Armstrong's genius

to lift heavy aircraft
at high speeds.

Their elevator system
can raise aircraft

from the hangar
to the flight deck

in around a minute.

This incredible design
would be impossible

without Armstrong's principle
of the hydraulic accumulator.

William George Armstrong
and his hydraulic accumulator

may have influenced
the Queen Elizabeth,

but today's engineers
are leaving their mark, too.

Historically, aircraft carriers

have had
very similar profiles --

a large flight deck

and a single tall superstructure
known as the island.

But instead of having
a single island,

the Queen Elizabeth
will have two,

each with
its own specific function.

The fore island
will be the nerve center

of the ship's operations.

And the aft island
will handle the aircraft.

The two massive superstructures
were built off-site,

then floated to a dock
in rosyth, Scotland,

for installation.

March 2013.

The fore island,
all 655 tons of it,

is craned into position.

For the first time,

the Elizabeth's
huge floating hull

looks like an aircraft carrier.

Three months later,
the aft island shows up,

producing an aircraft carrier

with a profile unlike any other
in history.

It's been over a century
since the first step was taken

toward what would become
the modern aircraft carrier.

By drawing on innovations
from the past,

adapting, improving, and making
groundbreaking innovations

of their own,

the engineers, designers,

and every one
of the 10,000 workers involved

in the construction

of the Queen Elizabeth class
aircraft carrier

have succeeded
in making the impossible...

Possible.

Speaking personally,
being able to work on a program

such as this
makes you feel very proud.

When her majesty the queen named
the ship HMS Queen Elizabeth

on the 4th of July,

literally, the hairs on the back
of your neck were standing up.

It was
an incredibly proud moment

for everybody who's worked on it
and the nation as a whole

to see that we as a country
have built this ship.

May god bless her
and all who sail in her.

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