1 00:00:04,799 --> 00:00:08,279 Speaker 1: In the not too distant future, strange craft will zoom 2 00:00:08,320 --> 00:00:15,960 across our skies. These are not UFOs, They're not alien 3 00:00:16,039 --> 00:00:20,559 craft from another planet. These are machines developed and built 4 00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:27,640 by human engineers and designers. Today's science fiction will become 5 00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:53,320 tomorrow's reality. These are the aircraft of the future. What 6 00:00:53,479 --> 00:00:56,640 you are about to see who is a glimpse into 7 00:00:56,679 --> 00:01:01,719 the future of aviation. Winged aircraft as we know them 8 00:01:01,799 --> 00:01:03,399 will soon be a thing of the past. 9 00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:10,480 Speaker 2: Aviation technology today is probably about to undergo some of 10 00:01:10,519 --> 00:01:14,200 the most impressive and revolutionary changes that we've seen since 11 00:01:14,239 --> 00:01:14,959 the Wright Brothers. 12 00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:20,200 Speaker 1: Across the world, designers are racing to create fantastic new 13 00:01:20,239 --> 00:01:24,239 aircraft that can fly humans higher, faster, and further than 14 00:01:24,239 --> 00:01:30,040 ever before, new military designs, airliners that can take us 15 00:01:30,079 --> 00:01:32,879 to the edge of space and around the planet in minutes, 16 00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:39,480 and new propulsion systems that will make the jet engine 17 00:01:39,640 --> 00:01:47,280 obsolete forever. One casualty of this race for the future 18 00:01:47,359 --> 00:01:50,920 sits abandoned on an airfield. This fighter is more advanced 19 00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:55,480 than aircraft and service, but it is already obsolete. It 20 00:01:55,599 --> 00:01:58,760 was the loser in the engineering competition of the century. 21 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:02,719 In nineteen eighty five, the US Air Force demanded a 22 00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:05,640 new fight airplane, one that would incorporate the most up 23 00:02:05,640 --> 00:02:10,919 to date advances in stealth and agility. Two multi billion 24 00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:14,599 dollar designs by rival companies took to the air in 25 00:02:14,680 --> 00:02:19,319 a fight to the dead. One was the YF twenty three. 26 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:24,840 It had diamond shaped wings. The other was the YF 27 00:02:24,879 --> 00:02:30,360 twenty two. The winner would become the backbone of the 28 00:02:30,479 --> 00:02:34,240 US Air Force, the loser a billion dollar pile of scrap. 29 00:02:45,719 --> 00:02:48,000 A fierce fight was about to take place between the 30 00:02:48,039 --> 00:02:54,719 two most advanced fighter aircraft ever built. The test pilots 31 00:02:54,719 --> 00:03:02,719 fought to outperform each other, but after the YF twenty 32 00:03:02,759 --> 00:03:08,360 three's wheels touched the ground, it never flew again. With 33 00:03:08,439 --> 00:03:12,280 its greater performance and agility, the YF twenty two was 34 00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:17,159 chosen to take the US Air Force into the next millennium. 35 00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:20,319 It is a truly remarkable craft. It will be able 36 00:03:20,360 --> 00:03:23,400 to reach speeds and perform maneuvers far beyond the reach 37 00:03:23,439 --> 00:03:26,199 of the present front line fighter, the F fifteen. 38 00:03:27,719 --> 00:03:30,280 Speaker 3: Even though it doesn't look enough radically different from all 39 00:03:30,280 --> 00:03:31,039 other airplanes have. 40 00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:32,919 Speaker 4: Been built, it is very much different. 41 00:03:33,319 --> 00:03:35,360 Speaker 3: The engines, the airframe are all tuned to go fly 42 00:03:35,439 --> 00:03:38,800 around supersonic and the most maneuverable airplane that's ever flown there. 43 00:03:40,879 --> 00:03:43,560 Speaker 1: The key to the YF twenty two's success is in 44 00:03:43,599 --> 00:03:47,840 its advanced composite materials. These absorb radar and give it 45 00:03:47,879 --> 00:03:54,840 the same signature as a small bird. Its tail fins 46 00:03:54,879 --> 00:03:58,360 sweep back behind the engines to shield the jet exhaust 47 00:03:58,360 --> 00:04:05,719 from heat seeking missiles, to preserve its smooth outline. Its 48 00:04:05,719 --> 00:04:17,480 own weapons are hidden inside internal bombays. Even its fuel 49 00:04:17,519 --> 00:04:36,000 tank cat is hidden beneath its shark like skin. Building 50 00:04:36,079 --> 00:04:38,839 and testing any new fighter is a process that would 51 00:04:38,839 --> 00:04:42,560 be impossible without the bravery and dedication of the test pilots. 52 00:04:45,279 --> 00:04:47,480 Speaker 3: This airplane has been a part of my life for 53 00:04:47,519 --> 00:04:51,240 the last ten years, and getting it to this point 54 00:04:51,240 --> 00:04:52,920 and getting it in the air, it actually takes a 55 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:54,800 lot of effort. I'm not sure I got it in 56 00:04:54,959 --> 00:04:55,759 me to do it again. 57 00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:07,079 Speaker 1: The YF twenty two incorporates the latest in thrust vectoring technology. 58 00:05:07,879 --> 00:05:11,360 Jet engines are pushed along by their exhaust gases. If 59 00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:14,560 these are redirected by adjustable nozzles, the tail of the 60 00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:18,399 plane can be pushed around much faster. With thrust vectoring, 61 00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:25,519 a fighter can change direction or quickly the YF twenty 62 00:05:25,519 --> 00:05:32,199 two was expected to dominate the air for twenty years, 63 00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:35,800 but there is a rival on the horizon. It also 64 00:05:36,040 --> 00:05:41,439 uses thrust vectory. This plane may be the ultimate fighter 65 00:05:41,519 --> 00:05:44,639 of all time. It may even be faster than the 66 00:05:44,759 --> 00:05:47,360 y of twenty two and is without any doubt more 67 00:05:47,439 --> 00:05:52,680 maneuverable in close combat. This is the Sukhoi thirty seven. 68 00:05:55,879 --> 00:05:59,079 It looks like any other fighter, but it can perform 69 00:05:59,319 --> 00:06:14,120 impossible maneuvers. Fighter aircraft are traditionally fast but very heavy, 70 00:06:14,759 --> 00:06:23,360 which makes them difficult to turn. The Sukhoi thirty seven 71 00:06:23,439 --> 00:06:28,319 can perform heart stopping maneuvers that defied gravity. For any 72 00:06:28,319 --> 00:06:32,319 other fighter, these maneuvers would be well beyond their flight envelope. 73 00:06:32,879 --> 00:06:44,680 They would stall and crash. Thrust vectory and small canard 74 00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:47,519 wings on the nose allow the pilot to throw the 75 00:06:47,639 --> 00:06:57,920 su thirty seven around the skies like an aerobatic splane. 76 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:14,879 Twenty tons of military methal can reverse direction instantly. This 77 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:23,480 amazing agility would give it a decisive edge in combat. 78 00:07:24,639 --> 00:07:28,199 On its first public appearance, its pilot issued an open 79 00:07:28,360 --> 00:07:32,759 challenge to dogfight against all comers. No one took up 80 00:07:32,839 --> 00:07:49,639 the offer. The Suhoy is master of the skies, but 81 00:07:49,759 --> 00:07:53,839 with fighters becoming faster, the pilots are getting left behind 82 00:07:54,879 --> 00:07:57,800 in the search for ever more maneuverable planes. It's the 83 00:07:57,800 --> 00:08:04,759 pilots themselves that are now click To beat the punishing 84 00:08:04,800 --> 00:08:08,519 physical effects of high g maneuvers, the US Air Force 85 00:08:08,639 --> 00:08:12,839 looks for a particular type of pilot. The shorter and 86 00:08:12,920 --> 00:08:15,959 more compact they are, the higher the g's they can take. 87 00:08:16,879 --> 00:08:19,839 They are now conducting tests to see if women are 88 00:08:19,879 --> 00:08:22,639 the perfect shape for the combat pilots of the future. 89 00:08:26,759 --> 00:08:29,800 Major Sharon Heiss is one of the Air Force's female 90 00:08:29,879 --> 00:08:34,159 officers undergoing G force experiments to test this theory. This 91 00:08:34,320 --> 00:08:37,639 centrifuge at right Patterson Air Force Base can accelerate the 92 00:08:37,679 --> 00:08:41,919 pilots from zero to seven g's in four seconds. Sharon, 93 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:43,519 ready to go to baseline. 94 00:08:44,080 --> 00:08:46,080 Speaker 5: We got five and a half g's lood for you 95 00:08:46,120 --> 00:08:46,879 for thirty seconds. 96 00:08:46,919 --> 00:08:58,600 Speaker 1: Okay. Most pilots blackout at five g's as the forces 97 00:08:58,639 --> 00:09:02,240 increase blood rush from the pilot's brain towards her feet. 98 00:09:05,960 --> 00:09:11,080 Using special breathing techniques and inflatable pressure trousers, pilots can 99 00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:14,399 counter this effect and take much higher g's than they 100 00:09:14,440 --> 00:09:19,200 could if they were unaided, often as much as eleven g's. 101 00:09:25,159 --> 00:09:28,519 Speaker 5: It's been rumored that the data says that women actually 102 00:09:28,840 --> 00:09:32,799 do take the G forces better tolerate highg's better than men. 103 00:09:33,320 --> 00:09:36,600 Speaker 1: But it seems there are still physical limits on the 104 00:09:36,639 --> 00:09:39,559 maximum amount of g's that any pilot can take. 105 00:09:41,039 --> 00:09:43,159 Speaker 2: You're not going to fly beyond about ten gs on 106 00:09:43,200 --> 00:09:47,440 a regular basis. Pilots simply they're human beings. They can't 107 00:09:47,480 --> 00:09:50,519 withstand that. What we're doing a great deal of, however, 108 00:09:50,679 --> 00:09:54,679 is integrating pilots in with automatic systems. They will not 109 00:09:54,720 --> 00:09:56,879 be able to exceed the G forces, but they can 110 00:09:56,879 --> 00:10:00,159 perform a lot of functions that are too fast for 111 00:10:00,200 --> 00:10:03,000 pilots to perform by themselves without the help of computers. 112 00:10:03,799 --> 00:10:07,799 Speaker 1: Modern cockpits are crammed with the latest computer systems. Soon, 113 00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:14,480 the pilot won't even need a joystick steerpoint, move steerpoint. 114 00:10:15,039 --> 00:10:17,200 In the near future, they will be able to fly 115 00:10:17,320 --> 00:10:20,399 their plane by simply looking in the direction they want 116 00:10:20,399 --> 00:10:20,679 to go. 117 00:10:21,639 --> 00:10:22,519 Speaker 6: Move steerpoint. 118 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:27,279 Speaker 1: A low power infrared beam shines into the pilot's eye 119 00:10:27,720 --> 00:10:32,480 flight view. By analyzing the reflection, a computer calculates exactly 120 00:10:32,600 --> 00:10:36,279 where the pilot is looking. Link to a control system 121 00:10:36,279 --> 00:10:39,559 that can also understand voice commands. Pilots will soon be 122 00:10:39,600 --> 00:10:52,360 able to talk to their planes. Even more astonishing is 123 00:10:52,399 --> 00:10:58,360 a development that will allow pilots to fly by thought alone. 124 00:11:00,840 --> 00:11:06,440 Electronic sensors mounted in the pilot's headband detect his brain waves. 125 00:11:07,519 --> 00:11:11,840 By concentrating or relaxing, the pilot can manipulate his brain 126 00:11:11,919 --> 00:11:15,360 waves and fly this virtual plane through an obstacle course. 127 00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:21,159 His task is to try to steer this fighter through 128 00:11:21,159 --> 00:11:27,039 the hoops. A black bar allows him to see if 129 00:11:27,039 --> 00:11:35,759 he is thinking left, right, or straight ahead. This simulated 130 00:11:35,799 --> 00:11:40,120 flight has no other input, no joystick, no pedals. With 131 00:11:40,279 --> 00:11:43,519 techniques like this, pilots of the future will be able 132 00:11:43,559 --> 00:11:52,799 to control the most radical aircraft. But the biggest cause 133 00:11:52,799 --> 00:12:04,440 of air crashes remains simple human error, and the only 134 00:12:04,480 --> 00:12:12,679 way to eliminate human error is to fly without pilots. 135 00:12:13,639 --> 00:12:16,759 Right now, unmanned aerial vehicles are one of the biggest 136 00:12:16,759 --> 00:12:22,720 areas of research and development in the industry. This six 137 00:12:22,759 --> 00:12:27,200 foot flying saucer, known as Cipher, is an intelligent surveillance 138 00:12:27,240 --> 00:12:33,080 aircraft developed for the battlefield of the future. Powered by 139 00:12:33,200 --> 00:12:36,960 counter rotating blades, it can hover or fly up to 140 00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:42,559 sixty miles per hour on board cameras transmit live video 141 00:12:42,600 --> 00:12:47,200 pictures back to base. Cipher can identify and track hostile 142 00:12:47,200 --> 00:12:51,200 targets from one hundred tanks to a single foot soldier. 143 00:12:54,960 --> 00:12:58,799 It can take off, spy, and land without any control 144 00:12:58,840 --> 00:13:07,039 from a human pilot. Cipher's most deadly asset is its 145 00:13:07,080 --> 00:13:13,720 ability to float through the urban backfield. It can peak 146 00:13:13,759 --> 00:13:20,159 around corners or spy through windows, searching out snipers or 147 00:13:20,279 --> 00:13:34,879 terrorists with highly tuned sensors. One day, this machine's descendants 148 00:13:35,240 --> 00:13:40,679 may patrol our neighborhoods as robotic policemen. In the future, 149 00:13:41,679 --> 00:13:44,559 these may become the ultimate urban warriors. 150 00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:50,000 Speaker 2: One of the major motivations for using unpiloted surveillance vehicles 151 00:13:50,240 --> 00:13:52,440 is that we don't have to risk a pilot to 152 00:13:52,480 --> 00:13:55,639 get into very high risk situations. We can fly a 153 00:13:56,000 --> 00:14:00,559 fairly small aircraft in take advanced photographs, having them transmitted directly, 154 00:14:00,799 --> 00:14:02,960 without having to risk the fact that a pilot will 155 00:14:02,960 --> 00:14:06,279 get shot down. If we shoot down an unmanned aerial vehicle, 156 00:14:06,720 --> 00:14:08,799 it cost a few hundred thousand or a few million dollars, 157 00:14:08,840 --> 00:14:10,080 but we're not risking a pilot. 158 00:14:13,799 --> 00:14:18,919 Speaker 1: But the perfect unmanned vehicle would be completely undetectable. It 159 00:14:18,960 --> 00:14:22,279 should be quiet without a noisy engine, and it should 160 00:14:22,320 --> 00:14:25,320 be tiny, perhaps small enough to fly through a window 161 00:14:25,519 --> 00:14:29,639 and into a room undetected. To meet this challenge, designers 162 00:14:29,639 --> 00:14:33,080 are experimenting with radical new concepts and models. 163 00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:44,519 Speaker 6: Pre flight check. Rudder control is good, elevator control checks, 164 00:14:44,639 --> 00:14:53,360 trim is good, Throttle check that's fine? Ready for flight? 165 00:14:53,919 --> 00:14:56,840 What's the whim? Speed Stewart, Here we go. 166 00:14:57,480 --> 00:15:02,200 Speaker 1: The aero Vironment company in California builds miniature air vehicles 167 00:15:02,399 --> 00:15:07,360 or MAVs for military and civilian use. Their smallest remote 168 00:15:07,360 --> 00:15:11,759 controlled surveillance vehicle is a flying disc just six inches across. 169 00:15:12,759 --> 00:15:16,000 It's even equipped with its own onboard video camera and transmitter. 170 00:15:16,799 --> 00:15:19,960 It's so small that it is completely invisible on radar. 171 00:15:21,519 --> 00:15:25,120 This MAAV may look like a toy, but it's equipped 172 00:15:25,120 --> 00:15:29,440 with a satellite navigation system. With its battery powered propeller, 173 00:15:29,679 --> 00:15:31,399 it will fly for six miles. 174 00:15:34,240 --> 00:15:36,720 Speaker 6: Some of the components that are quite small on the 175 00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:40,919 test aircraft are the flight computer and receiver, weighs only 176 00:15:41,080 --> 00:15:44,879 one and a half grams altogether. The propulsion motor up 177 00:15:44,879 --> 00:15:49,639 front is approximately five to seven grams. One of the 178 00:15:49,720 --> 00:15:54,360 challenges of making structures this size and just handling them 179 00:15:54,440 --> 00:15:57,679 is they're so small that you can't hold them with 180 00:15:57,720 --> 00:15:59,960 your fingers. You can't see them clearly with the name 181 00:16:00,159 --> 00:16:02,120 it eye, so you do have to work under a microscope, 182 00:16:02,440 --> 00:16:05,360 and you do lose lots of parts when you sneeze 183 00:16:05,720 --> 00:16:08,120 or you just bump the table, and that's just part 184 00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:09,519 of the part of the game. 185 00:16:12,320 --> 00:16:17,799 Speaker 1: The same team is also developing miniature helicopters, but there 186 00:16:17,840 --> 00:16:21,639 is a major problem in building aircraft this small. As 187 00:16:21,679 --> 00:16:26,759 propellers and blades get smaller and smaller, they become aerodynamically inefficient. 188 00:16:29,559 --> 00:16:32,240 Speaker 6: As you get down to these smaller sizes, the air 189 00:16:32,320 --> 00:16:36,279 moleculars seem much larger relative to the wing, and the 190 00:16:36,320 --> 00:16:40,039 flying becomes more like swimming through water as opposed to 191 00:16:40,080 --> 00:16:44,559 flying through air. Because of these difficulties and aerodynamics, we're 192 00:16:44,600 --> 00:16:47,639 looking to nature, because nature has solved all these problems 193 00:16:48,080 --> 00:16:51,399 with birds, dragonflies, and fruit flies. 194 00:16:53,879 --> 00:16:57,799 Speaker 1: Already, flapping wing models have been constructed. They are always 195 00:16:57,879 --> 00:17:01,480 highly inefficient and never generate as much lift as an insect. 196 00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:05,680 Duplicating the performance of insect wings is one of the 197 00:17:05,680 --> 00:17:09,920 holy grails of aviation. Insect wings are the most efficient 198 00:17:10,079 --> 00:17:15,599 lifting devices on the planet until recently. The reason for 199 00:17:15,640 --> 00:17:22,960 this remained a mystery. At Cambridge University in England, doctor 200 00:17:23,039 --> 00:17:26,640 Charles Ellington has solved the puzzle of how insects generate 201 00:17:26,720 --> 00:17:29,920 such incredible lift. It's a quest that has taken him 202 00:17:29,960 --> 00:17:31,599 over twenty five years. 203 00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:34,400 Speaker 7: To build a good mimic of a real insect and 204 00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:37,400 how it moves its wings. We study films and we 205 00:17:37,480 --> 00:17:39,680 came up with this, which of course flaps its wings 206 00:17:39,759 --> 00:17:42,440 up and down the way you would expect it to do. 207 00:17:43,119 --> 00:17:47,200 It also moves its wings perpendicular to that. Many insects 208 00:17:47,240 --> 00:17:49,240 show can of a figure of eight wing motion, and 209 00:17:49,279 --> 00:17:52,319 we can do this with these two movements. Then you 210 00:17:52,359 --> 00:17:54,759 have to control the angle of attack of the wing, 211 00:17:55,440 --> 00:17:58,559 and to do a good job you have to control 212 00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:02,240 it at the base of the wing and at the 213 00:18:02,279 --> 00:18:04,079 tip of the wings, so that you can throw the 214 00:18:04,119 --> 00:18:07,960 wing into this camber profile that you see on the downstroke. 215 00:18:08,119 --> 00:18:11,079 Is the wing moves down, generating lift up like that, 216 00:18:11,880 --> 00:18:13,519 and then of course you have to flip the whole 217 00:18:13,519 --> 00:18:17,240 thing over because on the upstroke what you have is 218 00:18:17,480 --> 00:18:21,799 a reverse camber like that, so the wings moving up 219 00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:25,640 generating lift again supporting its weight. But you have to 220 00:18:25,680 --> 00:18:27,640 be able to change the shape of the wing all 221 00:18:27,640 --> 00:18:29,480 the way from the base to the tip, and from 222 00:18:29,519 --> 00:18:32,119 the front to the bag, at every moment of the 223 00:18:32,119 --> 00:18:33,079 wing beat. 224 00:18:34,839 --> 00:18:38,440 Speaker 1: The technology needed to control and coordinate these four different 225 00:18:38,440 --> 00:18:41,359 types of wing movement is so complex that it has 226 00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:46,920 to be controlled by computer program Because the model needed 227 00:18:46,960 --> 00:18:50,640 to study the movement accurately is so large, the speed 228 00:18:50,680 --> 00:18:53,000 of the wings is slowed down to one beat every 229 00:18:53,039 --> 00:18:56,519 two seconds. On a real insect, it would be twenty 230 00:18:56,559 --> 00:19:02,799 beats per second. This model exactly replicates the way in 231 00:19:02,799 --> 00:19:12,319 which the common hawk moth flaps its wings. But Charles 232 00:19:12,319 --> 00:19:16,000 Ellington's team also discovered an unusual phenomenon. 233 00:19:16,359 --> 00:19:17,599 Speaker 7: All right, let's have some smoke. 234 00:19:21,319 --> 00:19:25,119 Speaker 1: By studying insect wings in smoke, they noticed an unusual 235 00:19:25,240 --> 00:19:29,559 vortex was created by the downstroke. This observation solved the 236 00:19:29,640 --> 00:19:35,279 riddle of how insect wings produce so much lift. The 237 00:19:35,319 --> 00:19:38,039 effect was confirmed by a live moth when it was 238 00:19:38,079 --> 00:19:40,680 suspended in a wind tunnel filled with layers of smoke. 239 00:19:41,960 --> 00:19:44,680 Speaker 7: As the wing moves down to cut the very thin, 240 00:19:44,839 --> 00:19:47,920 sharp leading edge of the wing moving through the air, 241 00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:50,200 and just as if you move a spoon through a 242 00:19:50,200 --> 00:19:53,599 cup of coffee, you see the floe swirling off that edge. 243 00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:56,519 It separates and just swirls up like that into a vortex. 244 00:19:57,240 --> 00:19:59,960 And a vortex is like a tornado or a whirlwind, 245 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:03,920 and it's a low pressure region there. Things get sucked 246 00:20:03,920 --> 00:20:07,519 into a tornado. And so sitting here with the vortex 247 00:20:07,559 --> 00:20:11,400 spinning like that, low pressure running all along the wing 248 00:20:11,480 --> 00:20:15,039 right here, and this low pressure sucks the wing up, 249 00:20:15,200 --> 00:20:17,119 and this is what's producing the extra lift on the 250 00:20:17,119 --> 00:20:20,079 wing and getting two three times more lift out of 251 00:20:20,119 --> 00:20:22,240 these wings and out of conventional wings. 252 00:20:24,759 --> 00:20:27,720 Speaker 1: This machine was never designed to fly, but now that 253 00:20:27,759 --> 00:20:31,160 Ellington has unraveled the mystery of insect flight, soon there 254 00:20:31,200 --> 00:20:34,839 will be miniature navs as small as real insects. 255 00:20:36,279 --> 00:20:38,799 Speaker 6: In the near future, three to five years out will 256 00:20:38,839 --> 00:20:43,880 be developing dragonfly size micro vehicles that will be able 257 00:20:43,920 --> 00:20:47,160 to fly down hallways and in windows and in through 258 00:20:47,200 --> 00:20:48,200 air ducts. 259 00:20:50,759 --> 00:20:55,519 Speaker 1: Packed with tiny electronics batteries, transmitters, and with miniature cameras 260 00:20:55,519 --> 00:20:59,240 for eyes. The cyborg dragonfly will be a master of 261 00:20:59,279 --> 00:21:04,680 disguise with huge amounts of lift. It will be highly 262 00:21:04,799 --> 00:21:10,000 energy efficient, invisible to radar, impossible to shoot down. The 263 00:21:10,039 --> 00:21:12,880 only danger it will face will be getting. 264 00:21:12,559 --> 00:21:31,599 Speaker 8: Swatted nine eight, seven, six, five, four, three two one. 265 00:21:30,799 --> 00:21:37,400 Speaker 1: Hoover with no pilot to compromise performance. Even more unusual 266 00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:42,880 craft and propulsion systems have been designed and tested. This 267 00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:46,480 incredible machine was originally designed to shoot down nuclear missiles 268 00:21:46,559 --> 00:21:52,079 and satellites. Yeah just twelve inches long, gyroscopically balanced, and 269 00:21:52,119 --> 00:21:54,759 with thrusters at key points around its body, it is 270 00:21:54,799 --> 00:21:57,079 capable of instant changes of direction. 271 00:21:58,640 --> 00:21:59,519 Speaker 5: Of a pover. 272 00:22:02,960 --> 00:22:04,680 Speaker 9: Cover tracking cover. 273 00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:06,960 Speaker 10: All. 274 00:22:10,759 --> 00:22:23,119 Speaker 1: No airplane could ever catch this machine. In the nineteen sixties, 275 00:22:23,400 --> 00:22:26,000 NASA investigated the idea of whether it was possible to 276 00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:31,240 fly an airplane without wings at all. The lifting bodies 277 00:22:31,440 --> 00:22:34,720 were a series of experimental wingless gliders built during the 278 00:22:34,759 --> 00:22:37,839 development of the Space Shuttle. The cross section of the 279 00:22:37,880 --> 00:22:40,839 aircraft body is the same shape as a wing, producing 280 00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:46,799 all the lift needed to fly. These initial low level 281 00:22:46,839 --> 00:22:50,279 tests proved so successful that NASA then built the M 282 00:22:50,359 --> 00:22:53,480 two lifting body. It was carried to a fifty thousand 283 00:22:53,519 --> 00:22:56,279 feet by a B fifty two bomber and then released. 284 00:23:03,759 --> 00:23:07,000 As with all radical new designs, the tests were very risky. 285 00:23:07,559 --> 00:23:10,599 To generate enough lift, these early lifting bodies needed to 286 00:23:10,599 --> 00:23:17,720 glide incredibly fast. Weighing two tons, the M two sent 287 00:23:17,759 --> 00:23:20,400 its pilot plummeting to the earth at over two hundred 288 00:23:20,440 --> 00:23:27,000 miles per hour. Gliding at this speed in such an 289 00:23:27,079 --> 00:23:30,960 unusual shape, the lifting bodies were extremely difficult to control. 290 00:23:33,720 --> 00:23:36,880 On its fateful sixteenth drop, the M two began to 291 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:46,720 roll wildly just above the runway. The craft was destroyed. 292 00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:49,759 It hit the ground at two hundred miles per hour 293 00:23:50,119 --> 00:23:54,240 and rolled fifteen times. The pilot survived, but the lifting 294 00:23:54,279 --> 00:24:04,599 body program was severely set back. But in a hangar 295 00:24:04,839 --> 00:24:08,400 somewhere in California, the lifting body is ready to make 296 00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:13,680 a comeback. Barnaby Waynefan is a professional designer who worked 297 00:24:13,680 --> 00:24:17,119 on the B two bomber. He's turned his attention to 298 00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:20,880 the home build market and has resurrected the lifting body design. 299 00:24:23,119 --> 00:24:27,200 Even stripped down to maintain its secrecy, the unusual shape 300 00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:28,119 is still visible. 301 00:24:31,240 --> 00:24:33,720 Speaker 11: The difference really between this and a conventional airplane as 302 00:24:33,720 --> 00:24:36,680 we've combined the functions of the wing, the horizontal tail 303 00:24:36,680 --> 00:24:39,319 in the body all in one simple shape. And because 304 00:24:39,359 --> 00:24:41,160 it's a short, kind of thick shape, it's very light. 305 00:24:41,359 --> 00:24:43,400 With the lightweight, I don't need quite as much aerodynamic 306 00:24:43,400 --> 00:24:46,960 efficiency because I'm not carrying as much load, so I'm 307 00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:49,119 not working the air as hard to lift the airplane. 308 00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:53,880 Speaker 1: It looks a bit like a stealth aircraft, but the 309 00:24:53,920 --> 00:24:58,680 civilian facetmobile is designed for simplicity. 310 00:24:58,759 --> 00:25:01,200 Speaker 11: It does have some interesting care teristics, the most important 311 00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:03,759 of which is that it won't stall and it won't spin, 312 00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:06,200 and since stall and spin accidents are still a very 313 00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:10,240 common cause of death actually in general aviation, that to 314 00:25:10,279 --> 00:25:12,559 me was very important because I've eliminated one of the 315 00:25:12,599 --> 00:25:15,680 major ways that private pilots get themselves in trouble. 316 00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:21,359 Speaker 1: Often mistaken for a UFO. This aircraft may lead to 317 00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:30,599 a whole new breed of home build aircraft. Designers around 318 00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:34,480 the world are trying to build radical new aircraft. At 319 00:25:34,519 --> 00:25:39,000 this one secret airbase outside Moscow, Russian engineers created what 320 00:25:39,079 --> 00:25:47,200 looked more like a flying saucer than a plane, called Tarielka. 321 00:25:47,359 --> 00:25:49,799 It was conceived during the height of the Cold War. 322 00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:57,880 This early secret footage shows the first scale model tests. 323 00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:03,799 Their methods were low tech, but their results were remarkable. 324 00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:08,559 It looked impossible, but the Tarielka flew. 325 00:26:09,759 --> 00:26:14,400 Speaker 2: Russian designers have a tremendous amount of imagination and great capability. 326 00:26:14,839 --> 00:26:16,960 They have been working under a difficult condition in recent 327 00:26:17,079 --> 00:26:18,920 years because they don't have much money and therefore it's 328 00:26:18,920 --> 00:26:21,559 hard to get things accomplished. But some of the most 329 00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:26,440 advanced aeronautical and space system designs have been done in Russia. 330 00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:31,519 Speaker 1: The initial tests were so successful that construction quickly began 331 00:26:31,599 --> 00:26:35,039 on a full size Tarielka, looking like a craft from 332 00:26:35,079 --> 00:26:38,240 another planet. It could carry up to a dozen passengers 333 00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:43,519 and become the new executive jet of the future. The 334 00:26:43,599 --> 00:26:47,160 engines are housed inside the main body. The small wings 335 00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:50,640 provide no lift at all. They helped stabilize and steer 336 00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:54,759 the machine, but a shortage of money from the Russian 337 00:26:54,759 --> 00:26:58,160 government has already caused work to stop on the Tarielka. 338 00:27:00,759 --> 00:27:04,200 A waterborne version was also tested. It was designed to 339 00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:06,880 travel just above the surface of the water, using a 340 00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:10,599 cushion of air to provide lift for very little thrust. 341 00:27:12,519 --> 00:27:16,359 This is called ground effect, something Russian designers had used 342 00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:29,680 in their most unusual aircraft. This is the Akronoplan. Larger 343 00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:32,759 than a jumbo jet, it holds the world record for 344 00:27:32,839 --> 00:27:37,160 the greatest lift for any aircraft and amazing one thousand tons. 345 00:28:09,599 --> 00:28:13,799 This astonishing machine is powered by eight huge jet engines, 346 00:28:14,519 --> 00:28:17,599 travels at three hundred miles per hour only a few 347 00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:21,960 feet above the Ocean and could carry one thousand Soviet marines. 348 00:28:29,039 --> 00:28:31,599 Since the Cold War, the project has been crippled by 349 00:28:31,599 --> 00:28:47,599 financial problems. Today the original monster sits in dry dock. 350 00:28:52,720 --> 00:28:55,640 A more familiar way to carry hundreds of passengers around 351 00:28:55,640 --> 00:28:59,119 the world is the seven four seven. It has carried 352 00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:01,960 one point six billion people and has traveled more than 353 00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:06,079 twenty billion miles, the equivalent of flying the entire population 354 00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:09,200 of Los Angeles and New York City to the Moon 355 00:29:09,279 --> 00:29:17,680 and back. But with passenger numbers expected to double by 356 00:29:17,680 --> 00:29:21,000 the year twenty ten, new airliners twice the size of 357 00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:23,559 the seven four seven are needed to meet the demand. 358 00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:30,799 A narrow dynamics team from NASA, Boeing, and Stanford University 359 00:29:31,200 --> 00:29:34,839 is developing a new super airliner able to hold one 360 00:29:34,880 --> 00:29:39,720 thousand passengers so that the full scale version can use 361 00:29:39,759 --> 00:29:43,480 the existing airport facilities, Its overall wingspan will have to 362 00:29:43,519 --> 00:29:48,920 be no greater than the seven forty seven to create 363 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:51,960 the extra room and the extra lift needed for nearly 364 00:29:52,039 --> 00:29:55,880 one thousand people and their luggage. This design has abandoned 365 00:29:55,880 --> 00:30:01,480 the traditional shape of fuselage and wing. It has fused 366 00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:04,640 the body and the wing together into a design called 367 00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:08,079 the BWB. The blended wing body. 368 00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:16,720 Speaker 5: The advantages of this configuration over a conventional airplane with 369 00:30:17,119 --> 00:30:22,000 separate fuselage and engines mounted on the wings is both 370 00:30:22,039 --> 00:30:27,000 in terms of its aerodynamic performance its drag, and in 371 00:30:27,079 --> 00:30:31,279 terms of its structural weight, so its lighter and cleaner aerodynamically. 372 00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:34,720 This translates to a predicted fuel savings of as much 373 00:30:34,720 --> 00:30:35,680 as thirty percent. 374 00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:41,839 Speaker 1: The blended wing body is a concept over seventy years old. 375 00:30:42,799 --> 00:30:46,079 Recently it was used in the ultra stealthy B two bomber. 376 00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:52,680 Only the engine exhaust protrude from this futuristic shape. This 377 00:30:52,839 --> 00:30:56,599 concept used to be called the flying wing. The designers 378 00:30:56,640 --> 00:30:59,640 knew that it could carry huge amounts of cargo or bombs, 379 00:31:01,240 --> 00:31:05,000 but flying wings have no tailplane. Versions such as this 380 00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:09,480 YB forty nine were highly unstable and almost impossible to control. 381 00:31:12,079 --> 00:31:15,880 Not until the introduction of computerized technology did the flying 382 00:31:15,920 --> 00:31:22,400 wing become viable again. Many modern radical designs are intrinsically 383 00:31:22,480 --> 00:31:24,240 too unstable to be flown by hand. 384 00:31:27,279 --> 00:31:30,480 Speaker 5: The technology has gotten to the point that we can 385 00:31:30,519 --> 00:31:34,559 now build electronics and flight control systems small enough to 386 00:31:34,599 --> 00:31:38,200 fly inside models of this size. That means that we 387 00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:41,240 don't have to risk a test pilot on a very 388 00:31:41,279 --> 00:31:44,440 new idea. We can, at the very early stages of 389 00:31:44,440 --> 00:31:48,240 a program, build something like this and investigate the most 390 00:31:48,400 --> 00:31:50,440 critical and unknown issues. 391 00:31:52,680 --> 00:31:56,920 Speaker 1: Onboard. Computer control systems are pre programmed before each test flight. 392 00:31:58,519 --> 00:32:02,519 With fifteen flaps and ailerons, the blended wing body needs 393 00:32:02,559 --> 00:32:06,119 more than double the number of control surfaces, far more 394 00:32:06,160 --> 00:32:11,359 than a human pilot could handle alone. The pilot steers 395 00:32:11,400 --> 00:32:15,240 as normal, and the computer then coordinates the numerous control 396 00:32:15,279 --> 00:32:29,839 surfaces with its seventeen foot wingspan. The blended wing body 397 00:32:29,960 --> 00:32:34,680 model might look like the ultimate and toy aircraft, yet 398 00:32:34,680 --> 00:32:37,559 this design could be the shape of the airliner of 399 00:32:37,599 --> 00:32:57,960 the future. For the design team, their first takeoff was 400 00:32:57,960 --> 00:33:02,160 a nerve racking moment. The success of the whole project 401 00:33:02,279 --> 00:33:14,720 rested on the first test flight. If the model crashed, 402 00:33:15,319 --> 00:33:18,640 five years of work and four million dollars would be 403 00:33:18,680 --> 00:33:33,960 wiped out in an instant. But the first blended wing 404 00:33:34,039 --> 00:33:38,000 body model flight was a complete success. In fact, it 405 00:33:38,119 --> 00:33:41,720 was so successful that it demonstrated that this radical shape 406 00:33:41,839 --> 00:33:48,640 could outperform conventional designs by a huge margin. Creating a 407 00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:53,559 successful new aircraft that first breaks and then reinvents the 408 00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:56,960 rules is what every aircraft designer lives for. 409 00:33:58,119 --> 00:34:01,400 Speaker 5: We like building things that are different, not changing things 410 00:34:01,480 --> 00:34:04,759 a little bit and seeing what happens, but rather thinking 411 00:34:05,119 --> 00:34:08,159 about what we'd really like to have happen, and starting 412 00:34:08,199 --> 00:34:09,320 with a clean sheet of paper. 413 00:34:11,320 --> 00:34:15,679 Speaker 1: The greatest challenge of all is speed. Large airliners like 414 00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:19,440 the blended wing body will remain subsonic. Concord is the 415 00:34:19,480 --> 00:34:25,880 only existing supersonic passenger plane. Designing an aircraft like this 416 00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:33,960 presents an entirely different set of problems. In a classic 417 00:34:34,079 --> 00:34:38,639 Cold War sting operation, faulty plans of Concord were leaked 418 00:34:38,679 --> 00:34:42,360 to Soviet spies. Their answer to Concord that tupled off 419 00:34:42,400 --> 00:34:45,880 one four to four was a flawed design. It crashed 420 00:34:45,880 --> 00:34:47,920 in front of the world's press at the Paris Air 421 00:34:47,960 --> 00:35:01,039 Show in nineteen seventy three. Concord Or is the fastest 422 00:35:01,119 --> 00:35:06,800 passenger jet flying. It cruises at twice the speed of 423 00:35:06,920 --> 00:35:13,519 sound New York to London in just three hours, but 424 00:35:13,559 --> 00:35:16,280 there are only fourteen of them in service. They only 425 00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:19,599 carry one hundred passengers, and they are very expensive to 426 00:35:19,679 --> 00:35:27,480 fuel and service. Concord is over twenty years old. In 427 00:35:27,519 --> 00:35:30,639 that time, no one has taken on the phenomenal task 428 00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:39,400 of designing a replacement. Until now, NASA has recently started 429 00:35:39,440 --> 00:35:46,039 work on a new supersonic airliner known as the HSCT, 430 00:35:46,519 --> 00:35:49,760 short for High Speed Civilian Transport. It is twice as 431 00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:53,079 large as the Concorde and can carry three times the passengers. 432 00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:59,320 Speaker 9: In order for an airplane to fly at over two 433 00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:01,840 times the speed of sound, there really has to be 434 00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:04,440 shaped kind of like a rifle bullet, long and slender. 435 00:36:05,239 --> 00:36:07,400 The nose has to be pointed, the tail has to 436 00:36:07,480 --> 00:36:10,480 be pointed to allow the air to come back smoothly 437 00:36:10,559 --> 00:36:14,320 together after the airplane parts it in supersonic flight. That's 438 00:36:14,360 --> 00:36:16,960 not a very structurally efficient shape. 439 00:36:17,639 --> 00:36:20,360 Speaker 1: One of the difficulties with Concord is that the long 440 00:36:20,440 --> 00:36:23,920 pointed nose severely limits the pilot's vision on takeoff and landing. 441 00:36:25,199 --> 00:36:28,920 Speaker 9: The Concord has a nose that actually droops down so 442 00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:32,239 that the pilot can see the runway. All the mechanical 443 00:36:32,760 --> 00:36:36,159 widgetary required to drop that nose probably weighs five or 444 00:36:36,159 --> 00:36:39,440 ten thousand pounds. If we, on the other hand, can 445 00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:43,800 develop an airliner which doesn't require the nose to drop down, 446 00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:46,559 then we can save five to ten thousand pounds and 447 00:36:46,639 --> 00:36:52,400 make the airplane much more economically viable. The challenge in 448 00:36:53,039 --> 00:36:57,000 having a fixed nose type of aircraft. Is that you know, 449 00:36:58,360 --> 00:37:00,440 we're asking the pilot to fly an air plane with 450 00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:05,280 no windows to see out front, just windows on the side. 451 00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:10,440 Speaker 1: In the HSCT, pilots will have to land the airliner 452 00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:15,599 without ever seeing the runway. No other aircraft has ever 453 00:37:15,639 --> 00:37:18,920 attempted this. Three hundred lives will hang in the balance. 454 00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:23,079 The pilots will have to rely on a failsafe system 455 00:37:23,119 --> 00:37:25,960 of video, radar and infrared cameras. 456 00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:31,519 Speaker 9: If you lose power, what happens to that display? 457 00:37:32,079 --> 00:37:33,440 Speaker 1: What are your backup systems? 458 00:37:33,639 --> 00:37:37,360 Speaker 9: How is the pilot going to respond in a failure 459 00:37:37,400 --> 00:37:38,199 mode situation? 460 00:37:40,199 --> 00:37:44,760 Speaker 1: To test the feasibility of windowless cockpits, an unusual experiment 461 00:37:44,920 --> 00:37:48,199 was carried out in especially modified Boeing seven three seven. 462 00:37:52,039 --> 00:37:55,960 Installed in the hold was a blind windowless cockpit directly 463 00:37:55,960 --> 00:38:00,320 connected to the aircraft's controls. Infrared cameras showed the pilots 464 00:38:00,400 --> 00:38:09,679 where the runway was. The test pilots attempt to land 465 00:38:09,719 --> 00:38:13,320 the fifty one ton aircraft without ever seeing. 466 00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:14,920 Speaker 4: The runway collapse are sad. 467 00:38:26,440 --> 00:38:32,199 Speaker 1: Chargel play? Amazingly, the tests proved that the advanced cameras 468 00:38:32,199 --> 00:38:43,000 and sensors could provide even better images than the human eye. 469 00:38:48,119 --> 00:38:52,280 After proving the viability of windowless landings, NASA test pilots 470 00:38:52,360 --> 00:38:56,280 were then able to fly the HSCT years before one 471 00:38:56,320 --> 00:39:01,679 could be built. They programmed the flight characteristics of the 472 00:39:01,840 --> 00:39:05,519 HSCT into the simulator, the biggest in the world, the 473 00:39:05,599 --> 00:39:09,480 seventy million dollar Vertical Motion Simulator at NASA. 474 00:39:09,199 --> 00:39:17,199 Speaker 11: Langley Ready Motion, Ready Motion wordy okay. 475 00:39:18,239 --> 00:39:21,079 Speaker 1: Over one hundred and twenty feet high, the Vertical Motion 476 00:39:21,199 --> 00:39:25,199 Simulator can precisely simulate the movement of any aircraft from 477 00:39:25,239 --> 00:39:32,199 a fighter to a supersonic airliner. This is the biggest 478 00:39:32,400 --> 00:39:36,199 theme park ride in the world. It is so loud 479 00:39:36,239 --> 00:39:38,679 it sound was used as the roar of t Rex 480 00:39:38,719 --> 00:39:43,760 in the film Jurassic Park. For a pilot, it is 481 00:39:43,800 --> 00:39:47,800 an invaluable source of information on how new aircraft will handle. 482 00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:52,440 Projects like this are funded by NASA because they depend 483 00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:55,840 on so much basic research. To go beyond this stage 484 00:39:55,840 --> 00:39:59,360 of development, the HSCT will need private investors if it 485 00:39:59,400 --> 00:40:02,639 is to turn into reality. Some estimate that over two 486 00:40:02,760 --> 00:40:05,280 hundred of these super fast airliners would be needed to 487 00:40:05,320 --> 00:40:11,400 satisfy the world's airlines. The HSCT might one day be 488 00:40:11,480 --> 00:40:14,599 a common sight in our skies, but even this plane 489 00:40:14,639 --> 00:40:16,679 will have limitations on its speed. 490 00:40:18,440 --> 00:40:23,880 Speaker 2: Commercial supersonic aircraft all used relatively conventional turbine powered jet engines, 491 00:40:23,960 --> 00:40:26,480 that is, their turbine based engines, as we call them. 492 00:40:26,920 --> 00:40:29,320 If we want to fly much faster than say, mock 493 00:40:29,360 --> 00:40:30,920 three or three and a half, we're going to have 494 00:40:30,960 --> 00:40:32,599 to go to different kinds of jet engines. 495 00:40:34,159 --> 00:40:37,199 Speaker 1: The jet engine was first invented by England Sir Frank 496 00:40:37,239 --> 00:40:42,159 Whittle in the nineteen forties. Every jet engine flying today 497 00:40:42,239 --> 00:40:51,920 still uses the same principle. Even the biggest and most 498 00:40:51,960 --> 00:40:55,199 advanced jet engine in the world, the Rolls Royce Trent 499 00:40:55,280 --> 00:40:59,039 eight hundred, is little different. It can generate one hundred 500 00:40:59,119 --> 00:41:02,639 four thousand pounds of thrust and hurl the largest airliners 501 00:41:02,679 --> 00:41:06,800 through the skies. It is so robust it can even 502 00:41:06,840 --> 00:41:09,519 cope with thirty thousand gallons of water an hour in 503 00:41:09,599 --> 00:41:13,840 mid flight without faltering. But even this ultimate jet engine 504 00:41:14,159 --> 00:41:18,400 needs air to burn its fuel. It has an altitude limit. 505 00:41:25,840 --> 00:41:29,280 The X fifteen is the fastest aircraft ever to fly. 506 00:41:30,320 --> 00:41:34,079 In nineteen sixty seven, it flew at mach six point seven, 507 00:41:34,760 --> 00:41:38,400 an incredible four thousand, six hundred ninety miles per hour, 508 00:41:38,800 --> 00:41:42,159 and reached an altitude of over sixty miles, the very 509 00:41:42,320 --> 00:41:46,719 edge of space. If an airliner could fly this high, 510 00:41:46,960 --> 00:41:50,079 it would experience virtually zero drag and be able to 511 00:41:50,119 --> 00:41:53,519 fly from Los Angeles to Sydney in less than an hour. 512 00:41:58,880 --> 00:42:02,519 But its jet engines cannot operate this high as there 513 00:42:02,559 --> 00:42:06,480 is no oxygen to feed them. The X fifteen was 514 00:42:06,519 --> 00:42:09,719 propelled by a rocket engine, it didn't need oxygen to 515 00:42:09,760 --> 00:42:14,199 burn its fuel. Even the Space Shuttle needs to carry 516 00:42:14,239 --> 00:42:16,679 more than its own body weight and fuel to reach 517 00:42:16,719 --> 00:42:24,480 the edge of the atmosphere three to one and live on. 518 00:42:30,599 --> 00:42:34,079 The Shuttle orbiter weighs a mere seventy seven tons, but 519 00:42:34,159 --> 00:42:37,119 it has to carry one seven hundred and eighty five 520 00:42:37,239 --> 00:42:42,480 tons of fuel to lift off. If we want to 521 00:42:42,480 --> 00:42:45,000 build airliners that can travel as fast as the X 522 00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:47,719 fifteen or the Shuttle, we will have to develop a 523 00:42:47,719 --> 00:42:52,199 completely new type of aircraft, one that flies in and 524 00:42:52,360 --> 00:42:57,719 out of space. This new design will take off like 525 00:42:57,760 --> 00:43:01,320 a plane, but fly like a space ship. An exciting 526 00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:04,679 new aircraft only possible because of a new type of propulsion. 527 00:43:05,960 --> 00:43:09,880 Speaker 4: It's a new concept in propulsion systems, and therefore it's 528 00:43:09,920 --> 00:43:12,519 really a concept in propulsion systems that can enable new 529 00:43:12,559 --> 00:43:17,599 classes of vehicles completely unlike vehicles that we see today. 530 00:43:20,559 --> 00:43:22,719 Speaker 1: Right now, Tom Harsher and the rest of the NASA 531 00:43:22,760 --> 00:43:26,440 Boeing team are developing an air breathing rocket engine prototype 532 00:43:26,480 --> 00:43:30,119 called hyper X. It will be so powerful that it 533 00:43:30,159 --> 00:43:35,199 will shatter all previous speed and altitude limits. Just twelve 534 00:43:35,239 --> 00:43:38,920 feet long, the unpiloted prototype will be carried to one 535 00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:42,440 hundred thousand feet by a Pegasus booster rocket used for 536 00:43:42,519 --> 00:43:51,239 launching satellites. It will be released and its experimental engines ignited. 537 00:43:54,119 --> 00:43:57,400 Hyper X will use its unusual curve shape to scoop 538 00:43:57,480 --> 00:44:00,639 oxygen from the thin air and rammitted high pressure into 539 00:44:00,639 --> 00:44:05,719 its combustion chamber. Mixed with explosive hydrogen. It will propel 540 00:44:05,760 --> 00:44:08,960 the craft forward at an unbelievable two miles per second. 541 00:44:09,719 --> 00:44:12,199 The test will last only seven seconds. 542 00:44:13,960 --> 00:44:16,920 Speaker 4: The kind of range for the vehicle design that Hyperrex 543 00:44:16,960 --> 00:44:22,920 represents scaled up to a reasonable sized vehicle is ten 544 00:44:22,960 --> 00:44:26,639 thousand miles with a two hour endurance. You're looking at 545 00:44:26,639 --> 00:44:29,079 a fourteen thousand mile flight, which is about halfway around 546 00:44:29,119 --> 00:44:32,719 the world. 547 00:44:37,239 --> 00:44:41,519 Speaker 1: White Sands Missile Base, New Mexico. Here, tests are taking 548 00:44:41,519 --> 00:44:44,760 place on what might be the single biggest revolution in 549 00:44:44,840 --> 00:44:51,400 propulsion ever. Visionary designer Professor Lake Mirabeau is developing a 550 00:44:51,440 --> 00:44:55,280 saucer shaped aircraft that flies on a beam of laser light. 551 00:45:02,960 --> 00:45:05,679 A full sized vehicle of this design might one day 552 00:45:05,760 --> 00:45:09,880 carry people around the world or into space. Its power 553 00:45:09,920 --> 00:45:12,440 supply and engine remain on the ground. 554 00:45:13,840 --> 00:45:18,199 Speaker 12: Lightcraft is a completely new flight transportation concept. You have 555 00:45:18,239 --> 00:45:22,360 to imagine highways of light that vehicles would ride upon. 556 00:45:26,480 --> 00:45:30,920 You don't need turbines, compressors, combustors. You don't need that 557 00:45:31,079 --> 00:45:34,880 technology on these vehicles. The work is done for you 558 00:45:34,920 --> 00:45:35,440 by the light. 559 00:45:36,840 --> 00:45:40,039 Speaker 1: This light is a remnant of Cold War weapons technology. 560 00:45:40,880 --> 00:45:43,400 Housed in this building is the control center of a 561 00:45:43,440 --> 00:45:47,000 powerful laser gun that shoots the small craft into the sky. 562 00:45:47,960 --> 00:45:53,679 Speaker 12: Okay copy the plivot's laser is go for a graphite 563 00:45:53,719 --> 00:45:54,920 run stand by. 564 00:45:57,280 --> 00:46:00,480 Speaker 1: Before each flight, the laser is tested for intent on 565 00:46:00,519 --> 00:46:01,480 a solid block of. 566 00:46:01,440 --> 00:46:05,840 Speaker 6: Graphite four three two one. 567 00:46:06,400 --> 00:46:16,159 Speaker 1: Firing this highly polished cone focuses the laser beam, vaporizing 568 00:46:16,239 --> 00:46:19,440 the air around it. This is then mounted beneath a 569 00:46:19,519 --> 00:46:23,360 nose cone. The craft is simple. It has no moving parts, 570 00:46:23,719 --> 00:46:29,719 no engine. Focusing the laser beam at the bottom of 571 00:46:29,719 --> 00:46:33,000 the craft creates a series of explosions that pushed the 572 00:46:33,039 --> 00:46:37,239 craft skyward. But when Professor Marabeau first proposed this amazing 573 00:46:37,280 --> 00:46:39,880 new concept, no one believed it was possible. 574 00:46:41,599 --> 00:46:46,760 Speaker 12: There really wasn't anybody in the academic institution that I 575 00:46:46,840 --> 00:46:49,440 was going to that was only to sponsor this kind 576 00:46:49,480 --> 00:46:54,320 of research, So I really I had to get into 577 00:46:54,360 --> 00:46:57,840 this from the back door by actually participating in the 578 00:46:57,880 --> 00:46:59,480 star Wars business. 579 00:47:02,480 --> 00:47:06,880 Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety seven, NASA financed the idea. Early tests 580 00:47:06,920 --> 00:47:09,800 were held indoors, but after just a few months it 581 00:47:09,920 --> 00:47:12,440 was flying higher than the roof of the lab and 582 00:47:12,519 --> 00:47:23,400 had to be moved outdoors. Horizontal wire tests were used 583 00:47:23,440 --> 00:47:26,400 to see how far the laser could propel it. Then 584 00:47:26,480 --> 00:47:30,199 it was time for the laser light craft's first free flight. 585 00:47:35,400 --> 00:47:38,400 Professor Mirabeau makes its spin at up to six thousand 586 00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:41,880 revolutions per minute with compressed air to keep the lightweight 587 00:47:41,960 --> 00:47:47,199 model balanced during its flight. At this speed, like a 588 00:47:47,199 --> 00:47:50,159 spinning top, it stays perfectly centered in the beam until 589 00:47:50,199 --> 00:47:52,400 it runs out of power and falls back to Earth. 590 00:47:53,760 --> 00:47:56,480 The Laser light Craft is now flying higher and further 591 00:47:56,559 --> 00:48:03,880 each day ten seconds. The plid's laser's. 592 00:48:03,639 --> 00:48:16,400 Speaker 10: Arminge five four three two one. 593 00:48:17,679 --> 00:48:20,840 Speaker 1: As the model lifts off the square shaped laser beam 594 00:48:20,920 --> 00:48:32,840 is focused to maintain its power and effectiveness, but the 595 00:48:32,920 --> 00:48:36,199 ten thousand watt laser beam could destroy the laser craft 596 00:48:36,280 --> 00:48:36,920 if it fails. 597 00:48:38,159 --> 00:48:40,960 Speaker 12: The next step is that we have to build one 598 00:48:41,039 --> 00:48:45,079 hundred kilowatt laser and with that laser we'll be able 599 00:48:45,119 --> 00:48:47,440 to fly vertically to the edge of space, say thirty 600 00:48:47,480 --> 00:48:48,599 kilometers straight up. 601 00:48:53,480 --> 00:48:57,119 Speaker 1: Professor Mirrabau is already conducting indoor tests on this much 602 00:48:57,280 --> 00:49:01,400 larger design. In a few years, this laser craft could 603 00:49:01,440 --> 00:49:06,280 deliver a small satellite into orbit, and in fifty years time, 604 00:49:06,519 --> 00:49:09,880 the laser light craft's descendants might even be as common 605 00:49:09,920 --> 00:49:10,960 as the family car. 606 00:49:12,920 --> 00:49:16,400 Speaker 12: You'll walk out your door, touch your magnetic levitation belt, 607 00:49:16,440 --> 00:49:19,280 and float up to the vehicle. It'll fly around, pick 608 00:49:19,320 --> 00:49:21,760 up a couple of your friends, motor over to a 609 00:49:21,840 --> 00:49:25,719 microwave laser boost station. In ten seconds, you're out the 610 00:49:25,719 --> 00:49:28,599 top of the atmosphere, leaving it escape velocity for the moon. 611 00:49:29,320 --> 00:49:31,960 At nighttime, all you'll see there is this extremely bright 612 00:49:32,079 --> 00:49:35,880 flash of light leaving the planet, and people say, well, 613 00:49:35,920 --> 00:49:36,880 there goes Frank. 614 00:49:40,440 --> 00:49:44,360 Speaker 1: In the future, the only limit will be the designer's imagination. 615 00:49:46,280 --> 00:49:49,480 Speaker 4: I think history shows that there has never been limits 616 00:49:49,559 --> 00:49:53,320 that lasts very long right now. There are even some 617 00:49:53,400 --> 00:49:55,400 people that say that the speed of light is not 618 00:49:55,440 --> 00:49:59,039 a limit, which we believe it is today, it probably isn't. 619 00:50:09,760 --> 00:50:13,920 Speaker 1: The technologies that will make these amazing vehicles possible are 620 00:50:13,960 --> 00:50:15,000 already available. 621 00:50:17,360 --> 00:50:19,760 Speaker 2: We've really begun just to scratch the surface of what 622 00:50:19,800 --> 00:50:22,840 we really can do in aviation, and I see many 623 00:50:22,880 --> 00:50:25,840 many changes coming about during the next few years based 624 00:50:25,920 --> 00:50:28,119 on technology that we already understand. 625 00:50:33,440 --> 00:50:38,440 Speaker 1: All around the world, new developments are taking place in propulsion, avionics, 626 00:50:38,599 --> 00:50:46,880 and aerodynamics, developments that will take us far beyond the 627 00:50:46,960 --> 00:50:58,400 limits of conventional aircraft. Developments that will make the simple 628 00:50:58,519 --> 00:51:03,199 winged aircraft a thing of the past and change the 629 00:51:03,280 --> 00:51:05,239 way we fly forever.