All language subtitles for Impossible Engineering s01e04 Ultimate Airport.eng

Today
on "Impossible engineering,"

the Kansai airport,

the most ambitious
land reclamation project

in modern history.

Built in the middle
of Japan's Osaka bay...

...it took revolutionary
engineering...

Some of the best of Japanese
technology was required

to strengthen
that ground below the island.

Otherwise,
it would have just vanished.

...To make
the impossible possible.

Captions by vitac
www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by
Discovery communications

the island nation of Japan

has some of the most densely
populated cities in the world.

Over 127 million people are
competing for precious space.

Geography is that Japan is
a very heavily populated island.

It's double the population
of the u.K.

And although the island
is bigger than the u.K.,

75% of it is mountainous,

and about 50% of it
is at a 45-degree slope,

so you can't live on that.

So everybody's crammed
into the coastal areas

and the big cities.

So when Japan announced
that they would be building

their first 24-hour
international airport,

it was easier said than done.

Their solution...

Create more land
in the middle of Osaka bay.

They had no choice.

If you wanted the airport to be
where people could get to it,

it had to be
within reach of Osaka.

The logical conclusion to that
was to go to the difficult place

of the Osaka bay.

Engineers would attempt to make
the largest man-made island

in the world
for their proposed airport.

There was risk, real risk,

in trying
to build something so big

and on such an ambitious scale.

But building a massive,
man-made island wasn't

the only challenge builders
of the Kansai airport faced.

And earthquakes
are a constant threat.

There were also
unexpected obstacles

hidden beneath Osaka bay.

Perhaps the biggest challenge
of all is the weak ground.

The ground under the sea
at the site that was chosen

was so weak

that divers would sink into it
if they stood on it.

Despite all this, engineers
still decided to move forward

with the most ambitious
land reclamation project

in modern history.

Every project is a challenge,
but there is an edge to it

when you're stepping out
of the known into the unknown.

It took centuries of innovation
to make the bold idea

of raising an island
from the sea a reality.

Creating land in open water
has always been a challenge.

Prehistoric tribes in Scotland
built huts in lochs,

called crannogs,
to house large families.

They worked pretty well
until the stilts rotted away.

In Peru, the uros people
of lake titicaca

built villages on rafts of reeds

to prevent attacks
by their neighbors, the incas,

but their anchoring system
was unreliable.

In the pacific ocean, the rulers
of the ancient saudeleur dynasty

built offshore islands
to rule from,

but they took their secrets
of construction to the grave.

Thankfully, a more reliable
strategy for creating land

was on the horizon.

Today, the Netherlands has some
of the most sophisticated water

drainage systems in the world,

but it wasn't always this way.

Over the centuries,
the Netherlands

has suffered a number
of catastrophic floods.

The country is constantly
fighting to keep the north sea

at bay.

One third of the nation's land
is below sea level,

and 65% of it
is vulnerable to flooding.

By the 17th century,
the growing population

was running out of dry,
usable land to produce food.

The nation had a crisis
on its hands.

Then, in 1609, engineer
jan adriaanszoon leeghwater

came up
with an ingenious solution...

...one that would change

the face of the Netherlands
forever.

Water engineer nanco dolman
has come to beemster polder

to see leeghwater's innovation
firsthand.

The area nanco is visiting
was at one time

a 27-square-mile,
10-foot-deep lake.

In the 17th century, windmills
were used for water drainage,

but they had their limits.

Beemster lake was too deep for
leeghwater's windmill to drain,

so he had to come up
with a different solution.

Leeghwater dug a 24-mile ring
canal around beemster lake.

He used the excavated soil
from the canal

to create a barrier, or dyke.

Then he installed his first
windmill.

It pulled water from the lake

and distributed it into
his recently-dug ring canal.

What leeghwater did next was
a stroke of engineering genius.

He constructed a series
of windmills.

As the water level
in the lake dropped,

another windmill
was constructed 3 feet below it.

The dyke leeghwater constructed
protected his new land

from future flooding.

It took three years

and 42 windmills
to completely drain the lake,

and in 1612,

the first reclaimed piece
of land in the Netherlands

was ready for cultivation.

These areas of land
became known as polders.

Today, 50% of the Netherlands
is made up of reclaimed land

protected by 7,500 miles
of dykes and sea defenses.

But to build
the largest man-made island

in the world, the designers
of the Kansai airport

are going to need
more than a few windmills.

The best case scenario
is that all would work well

and the island would stand.

And the worst case scenario
was that the whole thing

would vanish into the seabed
and just keep going.

The Kansai international airport

is Japan's
first 24-hour airport.

It's also located
on the largest man-made island

in the world.

In the 17th century,
engineers in the Netherlands

reclaimed farmland by using
windmills to drain flooded land.

But Kansai's builders
couldn't drain Osaka bay,

so, instead, they raised
the earth above the bay.

The soft
clay bottom of Osaka bay

is one of the last places
on earth

you'd want to build an airport.

The clay holds water
like a sponge.

If you place a heavy object
on top,

the clay will compress
as water is forced out,

causing the object to sink.

Some of the best
of Japanese technology

was required to strengthen
that ground below the island.

Otherwise,
it would have just vanished.

Engineers knew
that the island would sink

under the weight
of their proposed airport.

The question was how much?

If they couldn't control
how far the island sank,

the project would fail.

Their solution...
The sand drain.

Sand drains provide water
in the ground

with a shortcut to the surface.

Here's how it works.

First, engineers spread sand
across the soft, clay bottom.

Then, they drive pipes
into the sea floor

and fill them with sand.

They remove the pipes,
leaving sand columns behind.

The idea is that the weight
of the airport and island

will compress the clay.

The sand columns will help
channel excess water up and out

through the sand layer.

The island will still sink,

but it will do so
in a much more controlled way.

Engineers installed one million
sand drains in Osaka bay.

An operation of this scale
had never been attempted before.

The best case scenario
is that all would work well,

and the island would stand.

And the worst case scenario

was that the whole thing
would vanish into the seabed

and just keep going.

But before they
could make the island,

engineers
had to construct a sea wall

to protect it from the pounding
waters of Osaka bay.

To keep the island
from washing away,

engineers
are using a decades old,

but ingenious engineering
solution.

In the 1950s,
engineer Pierre Danel

developed a system that would
become the gold standard

in sea erosion defenses...

The tetrapod.

At Tokyo's waseda university,
engineer John Batchelor

has come to see a demonstration
of how tetrapods work.

Well, there will be waves
at least three meters high

in a big typhoon,
and they pack a lot of punch.

So it's very important

that the edge of the island is
not scoured away by the waves.

This tank can simulate waves
of around 10 feet,

which are a common occurrence
in Osaka bay.

Two students down there are
putting the model together.

They're putting pink pebbles
on one side

to represent boulders,

which would be a very
traditional way of protection.

And on the other side they're
putting tetrapods, like this,

that link together.

It's simulating waves that are
about three meters high,

which is what we'd expect from
a big typhoon in the Osaka bay.

So we can see clearly
from here that,

even just with one wave,

quite a few of the pink boulders
have been washed,

some of them
right over the island,

whereas the tetrapods have
all stood firm.

And that's
because the tetrapods,

even though they were lifted
by the waves,

couldn't be pulled apart
because of their shape.

Tetrapods also dissipate
the force of the waves

because water flows around
rather than against it.

Since the 1950s,
Danel's tetrapods

have been protecting
the world's coastlines.

And at the Kansai airport,
tetrapods

were the perfect solution
for the engineering team.

The airport's seawall
is one of the largest examples

of tetrapod use on the planet.

The Kansai airport in Japan

is a wonder
of the engineering world.

It was constructed
on the largest man-made island

on the planet
in the middle of Osaka bay.

Engineers placed
one million sand drains

in the soft, clay seabed

to help stabilize the ground
and had the daunting task

of constructing
a seven-mile-long seawall.

With a 65-foot-deep,

2 1/2-by-1 1/2-mile lagoon
in Osaka bay,

engineers were now ready
to begin the phenomenal task

of filling it in.

They had to flatten
three mountains

to generate enough fill
for their new island.

Eighty ships

worked for three years ferrying
dirt to the man-made lagoon.

It was enough dirt

to fill 45 football stadiums
to the brim.

Once the island was ready,

engineers turned to the Kansai
airport's terminal building.

The structure had
to have an ultramodern look

but be able to withstand
both hurricane-force winds

and earthquakes.

Architect Renzo Piano
was awarded the job...

...along with his colleague,
noriaki okabe.

The new island
had limited space.

There was only enough room
to construct one building.

It would need to fit
all the functions

of a modern airport
under a single roof.

So engineers turned
to a trailblazing design

created almost a century
ago for inspiration.

1930s Berlin was a time
of huge change.

Germany had grand ambitions,

and the city
was being overhauled

to create a new,
modern Metropolis.

Architect Ernst Sagebiel

was commissioned
to replace Berlin's old airport

with a new one that would be
seen as the gateway to Europe.

What Ernst designed changed
the way

airports
were constructed forever.

Welcome to Tempelhof airport.

We are in the middle
of Berlin right now.

Tempelhof has been described
by architect Norman foster

as the mother of all airports.

At the time,
this nearly 4,000-foot building

was the longest in the world.

German architect Bernard Kruz

came to study
Tempelhof's historic terminal.

So this is the main departure
lobby, or also arrival hold.

Imagine yourself being
an air passenger at that time.

You're not used to size
that big.

It was meant
to impress all the passengers

that would come, from Europe,
from all over the world.

For our times now,
it's really not that impressive

because we
know huge skyscrapers,

but this building
was finished in '39.

So, at that time,

it was highest marvel
of engineering in the world.

From an engineering point
of view, the whole hall

is very interesting because,

for that time, it was high,
advanced technology.

Sagebiel used a system
of steel-reinforced,

concrete framework.

It had incredible load-bearing
strength

and was covered in marble
to create a vast,

monumental space.

But the Tempelhof airport
wasn't all about looks.

Its layout
was equally innovative.

This building was just looking
way forward into the future.

This was the first airport

that was really designed
like an airport

as we know it now.

All the separation
that we take for granted,

that was first time
done in this airport.

For the first time,

there were different areas
for passenger arrivals

and departures,
along with separate gates

for each flight covered
by a unique, metal canopy.

This is where your plane
would wait for you.

This incredible space is also
an engineering masterpiece.

The canopy runs along the side
of the building for 1,300 feet.

The weight of the canopy

is counterbalanced by a steel
wire hidden within the building.

By using that construction,

they could achieve a very thin
and light structure.

You have a huge-spanning roof

where you can actually enter
with the whole plane.

So, even when it's raining
or snowing or stormy,

you can enter on dry foot.

And additional, your luggage you
don't have to carry yourself.

So the whole situation
was just totally,

completely different from
any other airport at that time.

It's hard to imagine, I'd say.

Sagebiel pushed
engineering to its limits

at the Tempelhof airport.

His design would become
the blueprint

of all modern airports
that followed.

6,000 miles away
at the Kansai airport,

engineers have taken Sagebiel's
design to a whole new level.

When it opened, Kansai airport

was the longest building
in the world,

just like Tempelhof.

Its main atrium is 130 feet tall
and connects

to a uniquely-curved,
wing-shaped departure hall

that's over a mile long.

But the greatest challenge was
to design the massive terminal

building to be able to survive

the worst mother nature
has to offer.

Kansai airport in Osaka bay
is a modern engineering marvel

and Japan's
first 24-hour airport.

When it opened,
its wing-shaped terminal

was the longest building
in the world.

It has 41 gates

and handles millions
of passengers each year.

But Japan is in one

of the most seismically active
regions in the world,

so building an airport here came
with a unique set of challenges.

Engineers had
to design a structure

that could withstand huge,
potentially catastrophic levels

of stress.

Their solution... make sure
every part of the building

can move independently.

But the greatest challenge
of all was protecting

the 43,000-square-foot
glass atrium.

Glass cannot dissipate energy.

It's too brittle.

So a rubber gasket
was placed around each pane.

The gaskets
absorb seismic energy

and allow each pane
to move individually.

5,000 glass panels
make up the atrium wall.

Over a period of three years,

a team of 10,000 designers,
engineers, and workers

from across the globe

worked together
to construct the terminal.

And not long after completion,

the building
would face its first test.

In January 1995, Kobe earthquake
struck the Osaka bay region,

killing more than 6,500 people

and damaging over 150,000
buildings.

But Kansai airport stood strong.

Not a single pane
of glass was broken.

Since then, Kansai international
has serviced

2 1/2 million flights carrying
over 300 million passengers.

But a century earlier,
a 24-hour stream of incoming

and outgoing flights
would have been just a dream.

Civil aviation began
after the first world war.

Passenger planes
were converted bombers

flown by ex-military pilots.

Scientist Andrew Steele
is getting a taste

of the early years
when there were fewer rules

and only the brave
took to the air.

That's it.
All the way up.

- Oh!
- All the way up.

All the way over.

Whoa, I'm going to cry.

Woo-hoo!

Before air traffic controllers,

flying was largely unregulated.

Pilots had to rely solely

on what they could see
to avoid midair collisions.

Pilots relied
on the most basic of navigation.

After world war I, landing
strips used by fighter planes

were converted to airports.

And by the early 1920s,

croydon airport near London
was the busiest in the world.

The skies quickly grew chaotic.

It was clear that an air
traffic solution was needed.

Croydon airport's chief
radio operator, Jimmy Jeffs,

took advantage
of the plane's ability

to transmit a simple signal
to invent a system that we now

recognize as the world's
first air traffic control.

The system they came up
with was called triangulation,

and it works like this.

Imagine there's a plane
over there,

and I want to know exactly
where it is.

Now, I can get that plane

to start broadcasting
a radio signal.

I can then look around
and find out the direction

in which that signal
is strongest,

and then I know that the plane
is somewhere along that line.

In order to locate exactly
where it is, though,

I'm going to need
to go upstairs.

The radio operators track the
planes' signals from a tower.

The tower gave them a bird's-eye
view of the airfield.

So this is where the radio
operator would have sat,

wearing some headphones
like this,

and he'd have listened out
for the bearing the plane

was coming in on,
the strongest direction

of that radio signal.

So if you listen carefully...
There we go.

I think the bearing
is about 185 degrees.

So it's time to move
over to the triangulation chart.

We're here in the croydon,

and the bearing
that I got was 185 degrees.

And now we know the plane
is somewhere along that line,

but we don't know where.

The great innovation
from here in croydon

was to realize that we could ask
another radio receiving station

that also
had a directional aerial,

so we might try this one
in lympne.

And these guys reported
a bearing of 254 degrees.

So let me just... there we go.

Line that up.

Now using these two bearings,
you can see where they cross.

X marks the spot.
That's where the plane is.

And if we want
to be doubly sure,

we could ask
a third radio receiving station.

So these guys up here in pulham,

they report a bearing
of 206 degrees.

So that third bearing from
pulham confirms what we thought.

The plane is definitely
over Brighton.

So we can move over to
the plotting chart, grab a pen,

and... here we go...
Position that incoming aircraft.

And now not only do we know
where that aircraft is,

but we've got the positions
of all the other aircraft, too

so we can make sure they're not
going to crash into each other.

Thanks
to Jimmy Jeffs' innovation,

pilots now knew where they were
and could find destinations,

making scheduled flights
a reality.

In 1922, Jeffs was issued

with air traffic control license
number one,

making him the world's
first air traffic controller.

Air traffic controllers
at the Kansai airport

rely on the same
basic principles

Jimmy Jeffs
used to keep track of planes,

but their system displays
aircraft identification numbers

and keeps track
of speed and altitude.

The plane's signals

are now detected
by a network of satellites

called
a global positioning system.

This technology allows planes
to take off

and land every four minutes,
24 hours a day.

But to keep the Kansai airport
up and running,

its engineering team
had to tackle a problem

that they were not prepared for.

The Kansai airport
in Osaka bay, Japan,

is a wonder
of the engineering world.

Its mile-long terminal was built

on the world's largest
man-made island

and has been specially designed
to withstand earthquakes

and typhoons.

But over time, a problem
began to emerge

that the team
was not prepared for.

Engineers predicted that
the weight of the Kansai airport

would sink the island 20 feet,

but after just three years
it had already sunk over 26 feet

and was still sinking.

Parts of the island were
settling at different rates,

putting uneven stress
on the terminal structure.

If too much strain was placed
on one section of the building,

it could collapse.

To counteract this,

engineers would need to turn
to a groundbreaking innovation

from the past for the solution.

Humans have always strived
to build bigger,

but to lift huge amounts
of weight,

muscle power is not enough.

The ancient greeks
built the first crane

using a simple pulley,

lots of power generated
by just a few men,

but it was hard to control.

Leonardo Da Vinci
invented the screw Jack.

It could lift weight from below,

transferring
rotary motion to linear,

but this still relied
on human strength.

Finally in the 19th century,
a mechanic in New York

named Richard Dudgeon
came up with an idea.

He boosted human power
with hydraulic power.

His new jack compressed oil
from a narrow cylinder

into a wider one.

The pressure
in the second cylinder

was equal to the first,
multiplied by its size,

therefore lifting more weight.

Engineers at the Kansai airport

are using Dudgeon's innovation
in a remarkable way...

...a system that thousands
of daily airport passengers

are completely unaware of.

In the basement
of the terminal building,

900 fully automated
hydraulic jacks have been

installed to counteract
any uneven settlement.

Sensors in a control room detect
when one part of the building

is out of kilter with the rest.

Each Jack is capable
of lifting 300 tons

and can be activated
individually.

Steel wedges are used to support
the building at its new height.

Without this incredible
engineering solution,

the Kansai airport's terminal
building would collapse.

The Kansai airport resides
on the largest man-made island

in the world.

Its mile-long terminal building
is a design masterpiece.

But one system,

the stacking of the arrival
floor directly above departures,

is key
to the building's success.

Servicing hundreds of flights
and up to 50,000 passengers

with thousands of items
of luggage each day

had the potential
to be a logistical nightmare.

The challenge of moving bags
between floors,

through security, and delivering
them to the right place

on time in a building

nearly a mile long
posed quite a conundrum.

Their solution
owes an enormous debt

to the innovators
of the industrial revolution.

The industrial revolution
was a pivotal moment in history.

It marked the transition
from man power to machine power.

The steam engine
provided power to machines,

but the key to driving
the industrial revolution

forward was the conveyor belt.

The basic principle
behind a conveyor belt

is actually very simple.

All you need is a series
of rollers,

and then stretch a belt
around those rollers.

By turning the roller,
the material then moves.

For example,
if I place an object on this end

of the conveyor belt
and then provide power

to the drive pulley,
using a rotational power,

like out of a steam engine,
for example,

to move the object linearly
along the belt.

Conveyors
were traditionally flat,

made of wooden rollers
and belts of cloth.

But in 1891, American
industrialist Thomas Robbins

redesigned the conveyor belt

and, as a result, supercharged
the industrial revolution.

Firstly, you took
the flimsy material of the belt

and coated it in rubber,

which made the belt
itself a lot tougher.

And secondly, you developed
this three-point roller system

which curves the belt
into a u shape,

which stops the rocks
from falling off.

Robbins' conveyors could carry
hard, heavy substances.

They transformed
the coal mining industry,

which was fueling industrial
manufacturing around the world.

His conveyors would eventually
be adapted for use

across several industries.

Today, manufacturers
use a variety

of fully-automated conveyor
assembly lines

with innovative features
of their own.

One of the key differences
between these modern conveyor

belts and the more simple,
original versions

is that these can go
around corners.

And the way that works
is that rather than being a belt

of material, they're actually
made up of a series

of interlinked bits of metal

which allows it to articulate
in different directions.

Thanks to Thomas Robbins,

conveyor belt systems are now
part of our everyday life,

from manufacturing to mining
and even restaurants.

At the Kansai airport, designers

have made several cutting edge
modifications

to their luggage
conveyor belt system.

The challenge at Kansai
was to get baggage

from international check-in
on the top floor of the terminal

to the aircraft 46 feet below.

The result

was the tallest spiral baggage
conveyor system in the world.

It's over 2,000 feet long

and transports over 10,000 items
of luggage each day.

Each bag is barcoded.

Special sensors track
its progress along the conveyor.

When it reaches the correct
floor, a 3D tilt tray

is activated, releasing the bag.

This system ensures
that the 3 1/2 million items

that use this conveyor each year
reach their correct destination.

It took 20 years

to raise an island
from the depths of Osaka bay

and create a 24-hour,
international airport

capable of withstanding
earthquakes and typhoons.

By drawing on the innovations
of the past,

adapting, improving
them and making

groundbreaking innovations
of their own, the engineers,

designers, and workers
on the Kansai airport

overcame extraordinary obstacles

and succeeded in making the
impossible... Possible.

Kansai airport island

was the biggest man-made island
in the world.

Everybody, every engineer

and every people
involved in this project

believes that we've achieved
the impossible.

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