All language subtitles for Impossible Engineering s03e10 Worlds Biggest Aircraft.eng

The Airlander 10,
the world's largest aircraft.

Engineers have taken
some of the best elements

from helicopters, aircraft,

and, of course, airships

and wrapped them
together in something

that could be
a complete game-changer.

To take aviation
to new heights...

What we're hoping
to show with this aircraft

is that we can move to a whole
'nother level of performance.

...engineers had to look
to the pioneers of the past...

Whoo-hoo!
This is so cool!

I love it! Wow!

...to make
the impossible possible.

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since the birth of aviation,

aerospace engineers
have been creating aircraft

that have pushed the boundaries

to access as many places
as possible across the planet.

But there are some
locations and operations

that aircraft
have yet to conquer.

One of the things
we really want to be able to do

would be some
fairly niche operations

that no other aircraft
in the world could do...

Things like long-range
disaster relief

or search and rescue.

For test pilot Simon Davies,

accessing the world's
most remote regions

requires aircraft
that can fly for days

and land anywhere.

For those sort of
operations, you want something

that behaves
a bit like a helicopter...

That can land, take off,
offload cargo, or refuel

without any fixed
infrastructure.

You what something
that's like a helicopter,

but that can go further.

Engineering journalist
Justin Cunningham

is at a former military air base
in Bedfordshire, England,

to investigate an altogether
new breed of aircraft.

This is Cardington airfield,
home to a set of aircraft

that we thought
have been all but extinct,

consigned to the history books.

But a group of engineers here
want to change all that

with this...

...the Airlander 10.

This mammoth engineering marvel

is the largest aircraft
in the world.

Its design is
an aeronautical masterpiece.

Airlander 10 is actually
a hybrid aircraft,

which means it combines elements
of being a helicopter...

...a normal aeroplane...

...and also, the obvious one
being an airship.

At a massive
300 feet long and 140 feet wide,

it's the size
of a football field.

Using fixed-wing helicopter
and lighter-than-air technology,

Airlander 10 dwarfs everything
in the skies.

With a 1.3 million-cubic-foot
frameless material hull

and hypersensitive
pressure control,

this hybrid aircraft
can stay airborne,

fully crewed,
for five full days.

Four fixed and rotational
turbo-charged diesel engines

propel and maneuver the craft
in any direction,

and a cargo hold
beneath the hull

has enough capacity
for an 11-ton payload.

And its inflatable skids

allow the vessel to land
anywhere, even water.

It's not like anything
else anybody's done in aerospace

for 50 or 60 years.

Airlander's structure
is completely unique,

and building it posed colossal
engineering challenges,

particularly in inflating
the gigantic hull.

The inflation of the hull
is absolutely critical

to the structural integrity
of the aircraft.

To fly safely,

the gas inside
the Airlander's frameless hull

must not only maintain
the ship's structure

and provide buoyancy,

but it must also
be non-flammable.

But achieving this
would've been impossible

without the chance discovery
of helium.

In 1617,
father Francesco Lana de Terzi

came up with an invention

that rightly served
the title of "airship."

Hee-hee!

But his dream
never became a reality.

Ohh...

In 18th century
France, the Montgolfier brothers

noticed how
their washing bellowed

when it was drying over a fire.

Ooh!

And in 1793, they launched
the first human-made flight

with living passengers...

A sheep called Montauciel...
A duck...

And a rooster.

Cock-a-doodle...

But when they tried it
with humans,

the dangers of a midair bonfire
became apparent.

Zut alors!

That same year, fellow
French brothers the Roberts

launched the first manned
hydrogen-gas filled balloon.

Nah, nah,
nah-nah, nah!

Hydrogen balloons and blimps
became all the rage,

but their flammability meant
they were always vulnerable.

Uh-oh.

Fortunately, a solution
wasn't far away.

Aah!

Mechanical engineer Dan Dickrell
is in Kansas

to find out how the accidental
discovery of helium

on America's great plains
changed airship safety forever.

The problem with early airships

is they were filled
with hydrogen.

Here, I have some hydrogen.

What I'm going to do
is introduce this hydrogen gas

into a solution of soapy water.

As the gas comes out,
it creates bubbles.

These bubbles will be
filled with hydrogen.

Now if I free these bubbles
from its container,

we see... ah... they float away,

which is great for airships.

But there's one
significant problem... fire.

This time, we're going
to introduce a source of flame.

And let's watch what happens.

Here we go.

Whew! all right.

Hydrogen is very flammable.

However, in 1903,
the tiny town of Dexter, Kansas,

unintentionally stumbled
upon a solution.

The 19th century had
seen an economic boom

in the mining of flammable gas

for lighting,
heating, and cooking.

And speculative drilling
had hit a source of a new gas

that spewed out millions
of cubic feet

of the stuff each day.

The town thought it had
a potential fortune on hand.

The people of Dexter,

they were planning to celebrate
the discovery

with an elaborate
"lighting of the well" ceremony.

The thought was a pillar
of flame would rise up

and light the sky
for miles around.

But when the time came
to ignite the well...

The gas just wouldn't burn.

Samples of this
mysterious non-flammable gas

came to chemistry professors
Hamilton P. Cady

and David Mcfarland.

At the university of Kansas,

they made
an astonishing discovery.

They concluded that the mystery
gas was about 2% helium,

a substance
which had been thought

to only exist on the sun.

Not only that, in fact,
further research concluded

that helium here on earth
underneath the great plains

existed in almost
unlimited quantities.

And during world war I, when the U.S.
government

replaced the highly-flammable
hydrogen for its airships

with a non-flammable gas,

helium finally took off,
and for good reason.

As the people of Dexter found
so many years ago,

helium... It just won't burn.

Both buoyant and non-flammable,

the military declared helium
a critical war material,

and this made safe
airship travel possible.

Today, the helium that lies
under my feet here

in the great plains
is used in everything,

from nuclear reactors
to laser beams.

If not for that chance discovery
in a tiny Kansas town

so long ago,
the world that we know today

might be a very different place.

Airlander's engineers have used

a staggering 1.34 million cubic
feet of this breakthrough gas...

...helium,

to inflate the world's
biggest aircraft.

Despite being filled
with helium,

its net weight is around a ton,

something like the size
of a small car.

And the reason
they have done that

is they get this maneuverability
and stability

that you just wouldn't
get otherwise.

And it also means they only need
to provide about a ton of thrust

to get this thing airborne.

The helium maintains
the aircraft's shape

and creates buoyancy,

and drawing on
fixed-wing aircraft designs,

the Airlander's
unique elliptical hull

acts as an air foil,

which creates 40%
of Airlander's lift.

We're demonstrating that,

by using lighter-than-air
technology,

mixing it with
other technologies,

we can move to a whole
'nother level of efficiency.

This aircraft is going
to show capabilities

that no other aircraft have got.

Airlander 10
is pushing the boundaries

of aeronautical technology,

but for this aircraft to join
the greats of aviation history,

its engineers had to face
many more challenges...

Just look at this place.

This is somewhere
where history truly was made.

This is hangar "Y."

...to produce more
impossible engineering.

The hybrid airship Airlander 10
is the world's largest aircraft.

Built for endurance,
this 300-foot-long megaship

is taking the aviation world
by storm.

As a test pilot, being
involved in the first flight

of a completely
new class of aircraft

was a career high for me.

Really couldn't be better.

There's something
quite magical about it.

It's a very exciting experience
just to be around it.

Designed to operate
in environments

other aircraft can't,

Airlander 10 can cruise
at nearly 100 miles per hour,

stay airborne with a full crew
for five days

and without crew
for up to three weeks.

What engineers have done here...

They've taken
some of the best elements

from helicopters, aircraft,

and, of course, airships,

and wrapped them together
in something

that potentially could be
a complete game changer

for the industry.

This resilient craft
can take off

in 40-mile-an-hour winds,

but as it rises
to altitudes over four miles,

its non-rigid hull must adjust

to potentially catastrophic
shifts in air pressure.

Really critically,
as we climb and descend,

the external pressure
changes, as well,

and we have to maintain the hull

at a constant
differential pressure

between the gas inside
the hull and the environment,

or else the envelope
could expand and rip,

or the envelope could collapse.

So, how do you control
the hull pressure

of the world's biggest
inflatable flying machine?

Engineers turned to something
called a ballonet.

And with this device,
the audacious French engineers

Arthur Krebs and Charles Renard

set out to create the first
fully-controllable airship

in the 1870s.

And physicist Andrew Steele
is just outside Paris, France,

to reveal the airship's
high-flying origins.

And here it is.
This is hangar "Y."

Just look at this place.

It might look
pretty run-down now,

but this is somewhere
where history truly was made.

Behind these huge wooden doors
lies the home

of Krebs and Renard's
pioneering airship,

la France.

Wow.

La France was 160 feet long

and was set up with the latest
in aeronautical technology,

including the as of then
untested ballonet.

So, imagine that
this is our airship.

We've got an external bag,
and inside,

this blue balloon
represents a ballonet.

Now, at the moment, there's
no gas inside this airship

and that means, obviously,
that it's heavier than air,

and so... oop... it just sinks.

So if you want
to make this thing take off,

what you've got to do is fill it
with some lighter-than-air gas.

Now, I've got a tank
of helium just here.

There we go.

Now this thing is
just starting to be buoyant,

and so the pilot has just enough
of that buoyancy to take off.

When la France gained altitude,

the external air
pressure decreased,

but that meant
the gas inside would expand

and potentially burst the hull.

That's where
this balloon comes in.

We can stick some air into here.

Having a ballonet
filled with normal air

within the outer bag means that,
as the gas expands...

Whoa. there we go.

...air can be released
from the ballonet.

Just let some of the air
out of this internal balloon.

The shrinking ballonet

gives the gas in the outer bag
more space.

There we go.

The expandable
ballonet allows the pressure

between outside and inside
to be regulated.

In 1884, the experimental
ballonet system

allowed la France to exit
hangar "Y" and fly over Paris

for what is now considered

the first fully-controlled
free flight.

Krebs and Renard's
record-breaking airship

was floating in these very skies
almost 150 years ago.

It was their taking
this simple innovation

and putting it
into engineering practice

that revolutionized
lighter-than-air travel forever.

Airlander 10's
engineers have taken

Krebs and Renard's ballonet
system and super-sized it.

To give you some idea
of the scale of them,

they start in line with the seam
that you can see

just running
up and down the hull,

and the forward ballonets

go all the way back
to the forward propulsor.

And typically, on the ground,

they're 2/3
of the height of the aircraft,

so they're absolutely cavernous.

Concealed
within hull compartments,

Airlander has four giant
airfield ballonets.

As it takes off,
a sophisticated venting system

forces air out of them.

This process allows the helium
inside the hull to expand,

maintaining a constant
air pressure

between the inside
and the outside of the ship.

We have a fixed amount
of helium.

As we climb and descend,

that helium expands
and contracts,

and we account for
that expansion and contraction

by the large air ballonets.

Incredibly,
this happens automatically.

We're underneath
the forward-right ballonet,

and this is valve associated
with that ballonet.

So, as we climb,
these valves will open

under spring pressure
and let some of the air out

to maintain the hull
at constant pressure.

If I pull on the valve,

you can hear
some of the air rushing out.

And the valves pop closed again.

And when the Airlander descends,
the ballonets increase in size

as the helium gas compresses.

Over here, one of
the key devices is a fan

which we use to pump air

into the ballonets
as the aircraft descends.

So, you just hear in the
background the fan running now.

It's pumping quite
a high volume of air

into the ballonets just
to top off pressure.

By bringing ballonet technology
into the 21st century,

Airlander 10 can stay airborne
for an unprecedented five days

with a crew and potentially
up to three weeks unmanned.

But to land in some of the most
inhospitable locations

on the planet, its
designers had to turn

to yet another iconic
innovation from the past...

Whoo-hoo!
This is such a privilege

to be flying
in this absolutely iconic,

brilliant machine.

...to create even more
impossible engineering.

The Airlander 10.
As the world's largest aircraft,

the hybrid airship is no longer
a thing of the past.

By adding some different
technologies together,

we can move
to a whole 'nother level

of performance for aviation.

One of Airlander's key tasks
is to carry out operations

in the most isolated
locations on the planet.

Capable of delivering
vital supplies,

11 tons of cargo can be stored

in the 150-foot payload area,

fixed just beneath the hull.

But actually landing this cargo
in difficult environments

is another matter,
creating a huge challenge

for test pilot Simon Davies.

For long-range logistics

or operating out of remote,
unprepared areas,

the ability
to land in confined areas

would be a huge advantage
to this aircraft.

You really would want
a vertical-landing capability.

So how do you hover
a 300-foot-long aircraft

and land it
with pinpoint precision?

This would have been impossible

without a great innovation
of the past...

The tail rotor.

Even mother nature
finds hovering difficult.

Only a handful of creatures
can do it,

and only one...
The hummingbird...

Can fly backwards.

Pbht!

Throughout history,
humanity has attempted

to imitate
this very useful skill,

with varying degrees of success.

Bravo!

But from Da Vinci's flying screw

to the jet packs of the '60s...

That's left me shaken.

...none have taken off

like one of the 20th century's
greatest inventions...

The helicopter.

Whoo-hoo! this is so cool!
I love it!

Wow!

This is such a privilege
to be flying

in this absolutely iconic,
brilliant machine.

Dr. Rhys Morgan is soaring
high above the countryside

in an American helicopter

that revolutionized
the aviation world in 1945...

The bell 47.

This particular model
of the bell 47

is actually 47 years old,

but it doesn't really
differ that much

from the original model

that was designed back in 1945.

This helicopter marked
a milestone in popular aviation,

but it owes a great deal
to a pioneering engineer

who, just a few years earlier,

made a game-changing
design breakthrough.

Born in the Ukraine,
American engineer Igor Sikorsky

has been experimenting with the
tail rotor concept since 1909.

It was a complex,
ongoing aerodynamic challenge

that continued to foil
both him and his peers.

Helicopters fly
by having blades that rotate

at really fast speeds
around a single axis,

and that creates lift.

But early helicopters suffered
from really bad stability

and control issues,
and that's because,

as the blades are rotating
at such high speeds,

they're generating
huge amounts of torque,

or turning force.

So as the blades spin one way,

the fuselage wants to spin
the opposite direction,

and that makes it
really uncomfortable

and very, very difficult
to control.

Engineers experimented with
different rotor configurations

with mixed success.

But Sikorsky took
the best rotor systems out there

and combined them

to make the world's
first truly viable helicopter.

What Sikorsky did
was have a single main rotor

with a tail boom supporting
a smaller anti-torque rotor,

which counteracted
the fuselage's natural tendency

to rotate
in the other direction.

As the main rotor spins
in one direction,

the smaller tail rotor spins
in the opposite direction,

producing a counteracting force
to stabilize the fuselage.

It really transformed
these flying machines.

This combination
of rotor technologies,

demonstrated
in Sikorsky's vs-300a,

created a blueprint

for all further
rotary-wing craft to come.

And Sikorsky's breakthrough
tail rotor

allowed the revolutionary
bell 47 from bell helicopter

to become the first certified

by civil aviation authorities.

They've been used
in all sorts of ways,

from crop spraying
to delivering mail.

Thanks to its ability to land on
a sixpence and hover into areas

that just were not
previously possible,

the bell 47 transformed

how people thought
about air travel.

And its full-bubble
cockpit design

would define
the shape of helicopters

for years to come.

But incorporating the
helicopter's rotary technology

into an airship
the size of a football field

is no easy feat.

To do this, the engineers
had to take this technology

another step further...
We'll be able to do things

that simply no other aircraft
in the world can do.

...to make
the impossible possible.

The Airlander 10.
As the world's largest aircraft,

its mission is to perform
rescue operations

in the world's most remote
and inaccessible locations.

To get there, Airlander's team
has drawn on the rotor system

of the helicopter
and furthered it

to fly an aircraft
the size of a football field.

To lift off,
test pilot Simon Davies

employs two rotating engines

for what's known
as vector thrust.

If I select the vector
to 20 degrees up,

and then outside, you can see
the whole docked propeller

and engine assembly
now pointing 20 degrees up.

But to produce
near-vertical movement,

Airlander's engines
are equipped to do more.

So, we're at the forward-right
engine's propulsor number four.

To be more responsive,

to also achieve
a greater downward thrust,

we can use the vanes
behind the propeller

to further deflect the airflow

and change the thrust
on the engine.

When these engines
finally rotate 180 degrees,

they will allow Airlander

to take off and land
practically anywhere.

We'll be able to move
the vectors fully up

to provide pure lift
and zero thrust,

and then we'll be able to
fly effectively as a helicopter

and land in confined spaces.

The vision to evolve helicopter
technology sets Airlander apart

from the rest of the world's
flying machines.

So, if we can make the aircraft

behave a bit more
like a helicopter,

we'll be able to land
in confined spaces

or hover over a point
to deliver underslung loads.

We'd give
the most possible flexibility

to operators
of the Airlander aircraft.

So, using thrust vectoring,
we'll be able to do things

that simply no other aircraft
in the world can do.

Airlander's
helicopter-like capabilities

will allow it to navigate
and land in hostile territory

with extreme
environmental conditions.

But this also poses
a significant challenge,

because the hull
isn't made of metal.

Engineers here at
Cardington, they needed to find

a material
that was up to the job.

It obviously needs
to be super lightweight,

but this is a vehicle
that needs to go anywhere,

so that material needs
to be super durable.

So how do you ensure

this inflatable airship's
fabric hull

will withstand the rigors
of extreme air travel?

Achieving this would've
been impossible

without the inspired
discovery of Kevlar.

Go, go, go, go!

This is such
a gorgeous, little car.

Physicist Suzie Sheehy

is revealing how Kevlar came to be...
Whoo! yeah!

...during the swinging '60s.

Saving weight in a vehicle
can make a huge difference

in terms of performance
and efficiency,

and in the mid-1960s,
around the time...

Aah! this gorgeous car
was winning races,

scientists in the U.S.A.

Came up with a way
of doing just that.

Whoo-hoo-hoo!

With experts predicting
an impending oil crisis,

researchers started to focus
on trying to reduce the weight

and therefore increase
the efficiency of the cars.

And one area they started
to focus on was the steel bands

inside the tires
that give them their strength.

In 1965, research
scientist Stephanie Kwolek

was working on
finding a new type

of ultra-strong
synthetic material.

After spinning one of her
test solutions into a fiber,

she discovered
that the ultra-strong thread

was practically
impossible to destroy.

This new wonder-material
was called Kevlar,

and it's revolutionized
our world.

To see just how strong
Kevlar really is,

Suzie is going to push
this revolutionary material

to its breaking point.

This is Kevlar,

and the reason this material
is so incredibly strong

is because of both
its chemical structure

and the way it's manufactured.

So, Kevlar starts out

as kind of a long,
thin chain of molecules.

These molecules extend and form
straight parallel chains.

Because of this configuration,
the strands form hydrogen bonds,

which act like glue.

To put this to the test,
a strand of Kevlar

is compared
to a strand of steel.

Though the same size, the steel
is 10 times the weight.

This tensile testing machine
can pull the samples apart

with a maximum force
of 5 1/2 tons.

All right, so, I've got my steel
all set up and ready to go,

and I've got
a high-speed camera watching it

so we can see exactly
what happens when it breaks.

So, all ready to go.

So, it's stretching apart.

You can see it
straightening the wire out.

Ooh! okay.

There, it's gone.

The graph reveals the steel
broke under 110 pounds of force.

Let's try the Kevlar.

So, it looks quite different
from the steel.

Just kind of looks
like a taut ribbon.

Ooh!

Oh.

And as it fails,
it sort of pops out,

so it fails
in a really different way

to the stainless steel,

and you can see
all these broken fibers here

now have no strength whatsoever.

The graph shows the Kevlar
broke under 440 pounds of force.

Thanks to the pioneering work
of Stephanie Kwolek,

Kevlar can now be manufactured
with such toughness

that it now has
eight to nine times

the strength of steel
of comparative weight,

and its applications
are almost endless.

To build the world's
largest aircraft,

engineers have woven
the latest kind of Kevlar

into a 75,000-square-foot hull

using three layers
of high-tech material.

What they decided on
was not one material but three,

and I've got a sample here.

On the outside,
that's made of tedlar,

and that's extremely
weather-resistant.

It's going to allow it
to land on any surface,

as well as protecting it
from weathering and U.V. rays.

In the middle
is a layer of Mylar,

which contains the helium atoms.

And on the inside,
50 years after its discovery,

lies kevlar's latest spin-off.

Vectran... super strong,
derived from Kevlar,

and that gives this
structural rigidity.

And you can actually see the
individual weaved fabric there,

just to add
that directional strength

that they need
for this elliptical structure.

Pound for pound, this
extraordinary synthetic material

is 10 times stronger
than aluminum.

It's a really critical component

that makes
this airship a success.

Airlander's innovations

are making long endurance flight
a real possibility,

but to make it a reality,
its designers had to draw

on more breakthrough technology
from the past...

Oh, there we go.
That's amazing! Wow.

You can really see the laser
just bouncing around.

...to produce more
impossible engineering.

In 2016, engineers
in Bedfordshire, England,

launched an extraordinary
addition to the skies.

The hybrid airship Airlander 10

is the largest aircraft
in the world.

It's designed to fly
up to five days continuously

with a full crew

and potentially three weeks
in unmanned mode.

The drive for greater and
greater efficiency in aerospace,

we can move to whole
'nother level of efficiency,

and that's primarily
what we're trying to do here.

As engineers prepare
for the next flight,

pilot Simon Davies has the job

of maneuvering
this colossal craft.

As a pilot,
it's absolutely vital

that you have complete trust
in your flight controls,

and they're going to give you
the same repeatable results

every single time.

But connecting the joystick
to the steerable propulsors

260 feet away
at Airlander's rear

is an engineering challenge.

So, we need reliable signaling,

and we need to save weight
wherever possible.

Every gram that you can save
really counts.

Traditional electrical
signaling cable is too heavy

and prone to interference,

so how do you provide
a failsafe signal

between the flight controls
and the steerable propulsors?

This would've been impossible
without a genius innovation

of the past... Fiber optics.

Porthcurno in Cornwall, England,

is a picturesque
seaside location.

But physicist Andrew Steele
isn't here for the view.

He's unearthing an historic
innovation that once linked

this tiny beach cove
to every corner of the globe.

By 1920, this beautiful,
little beach

was the single most connected
place in the world.

It was the hub
of the closest thing

the Victorians had
to the Internet.

At the height
of the British empire,

global telecommunications
were taking off,

and in 1870,

the first of Porthcurno's
many copper telegraph cables

was laid in a system
eventually stretching underwater

for over 5,000 miles.

The remnants
of this ambitious system

are still visible here today.

Lengths of cable like this
would've connected Cornwall

to the rest of the world,

and it's no exaggeration to say
that these kick-started

a communications revolution.

At the center of this revolution
was Porthcurno's tiny cable hut.

In its heyday,
this is where all of the cables

from around the world
would terminate.

Each one of these was connected
to thousands of miles

of continuous cable
running under the ocean.

But soon, there was
a need to handle higher volumes

of more complex information,

and the copper-wired electrical
network became overwhelmed.

In the 1960s,
three American scientists...

Donald Keck, Robert Maurer,
and Peter Shultz...

Were looking for an alternative.

They wanted to harness
the speed of light

to send signals
via glass fibers.

So, imagine we want
to send a light signal...

That's this laser pen here...

From this bucket down
to that bucket on the floor.

If we shine the laser
through here,

you can see a dot comes out
on the wall over there,

and that is because light
travels in straight lines.

And this is basically
the problem

that Keck, Maurer,
and Shultz were facing.

Light doesn't want to go
around corners,

and in their glass fibers,

whenever the curvature was
too tight, light was escaping.

To overcome
this tremendous problem,

these scientists had to make
the impossible possible...

You can actually see a
green glow down in that bucket.

We've successfully
sent our message.

...and this
communications breakthrough

has also gone on to change
the future of aviation.

The Airlander 10 is the largest
aircraft on the planet,

but connecting the joystick
to the steerable propulsors

reliably and with
lightweight cables,

draws on a great innovation

of the past... fiber optics.

Keck, Maurer, and Shultz
discovered that coating

the internal surface
of the glass fibers

with a specific compound
of chemicals

created something called
total internal reflection.

You can see this flow
of transparent liquid

is a bit like a glass fiber
going around a corner.

So, now if we shine our laser
through again,

and there... oh, there we go.
That's amazing!

Wow.

You can actually see a green
glow down in that bucket.

We've successfully
sent our message.

Wow. it's amazing.

You can really see the laser
just bouncing around,

and this is just like how it
would pass down a glass fiber.

And it's this technique
called total internal reflection

that Keck, Maurer,
and Shultz used

to reliably transmit
signals of light

down fibers made of glass.

Called fiber optics,
this radical technology

had a 1,000 times
greater capacity than copper

and could send information
100 times further.

Today, the picture-perfect
Porthcurno continues

its unlikely role
as a gateway to the world,

with modern fiber optics
coming ashore

from beneath the oceans.

More than 50 years
after its creation,

fiber optics are governing
the controls

of the Airlander 10 airship

with a state-of-the-art flight
system known as fly-by-light.

So, when I move
the stick, the signaling is,

to all intents and purposes,
instantaneous.

There's a box that digitizes
the signal

and measures
the deflection of the stick,

and that signal
is then sent around

six completely
independent paths,

so if we have a break in a wire,

we can carry on operating
the aircraft safely.

Connecting
the central flight deck

to every corner
of Airlander's gigantic hull

requires over four miles

of surface-mounted fiber optics.

This is the gland that contains
the fiber optic cables.

It's not buried behind panels.

It's outside. It's accessible.

It's lightweight.
It's robust to the elements.

And it just gives us confidence

that our systems
all operate reliably

and repeatably every time.

As the signals fly
along these fiber optics,

upon reaching the actuators
and control surfaces,

they're converted into power,

driving the control mechanisms
in an instant.

The scale of the aircraft,

the complexity of the flight
control systems...

The fiber optic cables
give us reliability

and robustness in operation.

It's a great solution
for this aircraft.

Launched in 2016,
Airlander 10 signals

the rebirth
of an aeronautical era

that many thought was long gone.

This really is the Genesis
of a new generation of airships.

And this unique hybrid aircraft

will open up the skies.

The process of developing
our knowledge and understanding

of the aircraft
and improving capability

all the time is really exciting.

Inspired by
the innovators of the past...

Whoo-hoo!
This is so cool!

I love it!

...adapting their ideas,
and making discoveries

of their own,
Airlander's engineers

and pilots are making their Mark
on aviation history.

There's immense pride over
the technical achievements

and the things we've learned

and the game-changing capability
that we're bringing.

They're succeeding
in making the impossible...

Possible.

You come and show people around,
and they say to you,

"do you know what? You've got
the most amazing job."

So, for me, working here

and leading this program
is the most amazing thing,

a real privilege.