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00:01Around the world, the Race to Win Wars and Explore the Universe
00:05has created some of the most incredible products ever designed,
00:08and we use them every day, unaware of their amazing origins.
00:13On Incredible Inventions
00:15Velcro, would you believe that this vital component of the Space Race
00:20was inspired by nature?
00:24Radar, the war-winning technology still keeping our skies safe.
00:30The Hang Glider
00:32Adrenaline Junkies have NASA to thank for this incredibly agile flyer.
00:36We reveal the amazing history and engineering behind these incredible inventions.
01:00Velcro, it's a common and simple device found in homes and workplaces around the world.
01:05From clothing to cable ties and everything in between,
01:08these sticky fasteners have become part of our daily lives.
01:11But did you know that a man's dog inspired the invention of Velcro,
01:15and that it's used as far away as outer space?
01:19The first and original hook and loop fastener is invented in Switzerland in 1948
01:24by a Swiss electrical engineer.
01:26It all started with a gentleman called George de Mistral.
01:30In the 1940s, he was walking with his dog in the Swiss Alps.
01:35Many times he found these burrs from the burdock plant in the fur of his dog.
01:40But after a while, he started to study it and put it under the microscope.
01:44And he was fascinated and inspired by this piece of nature.
01:48So he invited several scientists and people who knew about manufacturing.
01:54And ten years later, in 1958, he invented the whole thing,
01:59was granted a patent, and the Velcro brand and Velcro company was born.
02:05While the invention is commonly referred to as Velcro,
02:08that's actually the name of the company founded by George de Mistral
02:12to mass-produce the hook and loop fastener.
02:14So, you want to know how Velcro actually works?
02:18How the science works on this is that you have many, many, many hooks on a small area,
02:24and on the reverse side that it's hooking into, lots and lots of fibrous material,
02:28that when you push the two parts together, the hooks basically work their way into the material,
02:34and as they're released, they find a strand onto which they can hook.
02:38Not every hook actually has to hook.
02:41But the multiplication of many, many hooks hooking onto an opposing side
02:46will allow the hook and loop fastener system to work very well
02:49and actually maintain quite a bit of strength.
02:51A common misconception about Velcro is that it's invented by NASA
02:55to be used for the Apollo space missions.
02:58NASA didn't invent the hook and loop fastener system. They used it a lot.
03:02They were the ones that helped bring it to a great popularity in the public image.
03:06It became an easy way of attaching tools to the astronauts
03:10and even of attaching themselves to the spacecraft.
03:13So, for example, they would have it on the bottom of their shoes
03:16so they could stand on the floor of the spacecraft
03:19and even use it to attach themselves into their sleeping compartments.
03:23That popularized image, it started to become widespread use of product.
03:28While Velcro wasn't invented specifically to be used in space,
03:31it's still proven to be an indispensable addition to the complex technology
03:35onboard space shuttles and stations.
03:37Velcro provides a range of solutions to many everyday problems.
03:41Who would have thought that a man walking his dog
03:45could result in such a useful and versatile invention?
03:50Velcro hook and loop fasteners are manufactured worldwide,
03:53including in this facility in Spain.
03:56The production of Velcro begins with the warping machine.
04:00Step one is warping.
04:02Warping consists in converting the individual ends coming from a bobbin
04:06into a bigger spool or reel, which contains as many ends as will be needed
04:11in the following process, which is weaving.
04:13This part of the machine is called the krill.
04:16It is a framework that is fed with spools of yarn.
04:20Around 800 yards of yarn are fed through this to form the length of the tape.
04:25This is the sectional warping machine.
04:27Yarns with a wider gap are fed through here to avoid mixing them together.
04:32After this process, adhesive is applied in the slashing machine.
04:37Here, the beams manufactured in the warping process are bonded together.
04:44To begin this process, the yarns are coated in glue.
04:47They are then separated and passed through an oven, which dries the glue.
04:51Next, the yarn is run through parallel strips of wire called reeks,
04:56which separate and maintain every strand.
04:59A sensor can detect any breaks in the yarn and will immediately stop all machinery,
05:04ensuring a high level of quality control and a reliable end product.
05:08The yarns are then each put together to form the final beam,
05:12which is used in the weaving process.
05:15With two beams in each loom, one will form the base of the hook textile,
05:22while another forms the loops.
05:24Different types of yarns are used to produce both the hook tape and the loop tape.
05:30The weaving process consists of two distinct sets of yarns,
05:34one called the warp and the other called the weft.
05:37These are interlaced with each other to form a fabric.
05:40The warp is the set of yarns that are first laid out on the loom.
05:44The weft yarns are then woven under and over the warp.
05:47Once our textile has been woven, it is then moved on to the dyeing stage.
05:51The raw textile material is put into a barrel,
05:54which is then used for the coloring process,
05:56taking around two to three hours to reach completion.
06:00Once finished, the barrel is then placed into a drying machine,
06:05where the freshly colored material is dried out.
06:08This colored material then moves on to the hook cutting machine.
06:12As the name suggests, this creates the hook for the finished Velcro tape.
06:19Once completed, the tape is cut to its final width.
06:23And that's it.
06:24The Velcro hook and loop tape is complete,
06:27ready to provide yards of strong grip for the user.
06:30Now that's an incredible invention.
06:33Up next, we break free from the ground and take off to the skies for a look at radar.
06:42What do air and sea travel, military operations and even weather forecasting all have in common?
06:56They all depend on radar.
06:58The object detection system that uses radio waves to determine the range, angle and velocity of objects.
07:05But what's the catalyst for the invention of radar?
07:09And what role did it play in World War II?
07:14The term radar is first used by the US Navy in 1940 as an acronym for Radio Detection and Ranging.
07:21However, it was nearly 50 years before this, in the late 19th century,
07:26that German physicist Heinrich Hertz discovers that radio waves could be reflected from solid objects.
07:32In 1904, the German inventor Christian Holzmeier is the first to use radio waves to detect the presence of distant metallic objects
07:40when he demonstrates the feasibility of detecting a ship in a very dense fog.
07:44This is the discovery that would lead to radar as we know it today.
07:49With the possibility of war becoming a reality during the 1930s,
07:53several countries began secretly developing and researching radio technology
07:57that allows them to detect objects such as ships and aircraft.
08:01Creating a reliable radio detection system provides them with a great advantage over their enemies.
08:06Very quickly, people saw its huge capability from a military perspective.
08:12Certainly, as the Second World War was looming and people then realized that this was a very good asset to have.
08:19The British side was probably then the most advanced, as evidenced by the Battle of Britain,
08:26but certainly the Germans had a capability where they were developing too.
08:30So it is interesting how something which is technically starts to become feasible,
08:35how people really need to put on the best people, the best technicians and scientists to get one step ahead.
08:42Although the Allies' success during the Battle of Britain is down to a number of factors,
08:47including the highly skilled pilots and tactical superiority,
08:50radar played a huge part in the victory.
08:52What is interesting is that warfare or the threat of a war really acts as a focus
08:58and as a catalyst for change and high-end research and development.
09:03And many of perhaps the best and most notable inventions that we had throughout history
09:09have come through a wartime situation.
09:13As new technologies are developed in order to gain the upper hand in warfare,
09:17counter-technologies are devised.
09:19This is no different for radar, as radar jamming systems are created in order to effectively hide from the opposition.
09:26Since the end of World War II, radar technology continues to be improved,
09:30creating increasingly complex systems in an effort to beat enemy radar jammers.
09:35As commercial flights became more popular in the 1960s, radar proved vital for air traffic control.
09:41With every commercial and military aircraft now having its own code,
09:45this allows air traffic controllers to identify a plane's location,
09:49but also to determine if the approaching aircraft is from a commercial airline,
09:53an allied fighter or even a potential enemy.
09:56Supplementary radars in some ways started off again from a military use, information friend or foe,
10:02or IFF as everyone knows it, which is the coding, which gives each aircraft a radar response,
10:10which you can then identify that particular aircraft.
10:13That's used in the military to identify literally a friend or a foe,
10:17but also in the commercial environment to understand exactly which big commercial airline is which one.
10:24And so the aircraft controllers can actually control the right aircraft.
10:29Today, the use of radar extends much further than the location and identification of aircraft.
10:35It can even be used to predict the weather, providing accurate real-time information on incoming weather systems,
10:41such as when they will arrive and how long they will last.
10:44I mean, one thing about radar is the way it's evolved over the years,
10:48certainly since the Second World War, into multiple different uses.
10:51I mean, at sea, every ship has several radars for collision avoidance, for navigation.
10:57Ports have them for sort of port control.
11:00The police, of course, use the radar speed guns,
11:03which I'm sure many people have come into contact with at various times.
11:06But also the weather radars and usage is quite fantastic today.
11:11I mean, everyone watches the weather forecasts, certainly the BBC News and the weather forecasts use live radar information
11:18to show the tracking of various weather conditions and formations across the country.
11:24So there are multiple uses of radar which have come out from that invention in the late 30s.
11:32From its early development to the accelerated research as a result of World War II,
11:37radar has become a vital part of today's world.
11:40Truly, an incredible invention.
11:43Coming up, the mystery of the stealth fighter's ability to confound radar is revealed.
12:02The US Air Force's stealth fighter owes its success to avoiding detection to its bizarre shape,
12:08minimizing its radar signature by scattering the radio waves that try and detect it in flight.
12:14In this experiment, our tester is going to show you why the plane's angular sides work so well.
12:20What you will need?
12:22A dark surface to conduct the experiment on,
12:25a pair of scissors, a light meter, a flashlight, a paper plate,
12:30some white card for the shapes, and duct tape.
12:33To begin, turn the paper plate over and cut a hole into its edge big enough for the flashlight to slide into.
12:40Then, cut a flap in the center of the plate for the light meter to stand.
12:45We now need to mark out our experiment area.
12:49Take a strip of duct tape to create a line on our dark surface where we will be testing our shapes.
12:55Next, take another piece of tape and mark where our flashlight will sit.
12:59This is to ensure that every test will be conducted under the same conditions.
13:06Take a piece of card and bend it in half to create a flat surface.
13:11This will be our control shape.
13:13Then, create a curve and a triangular shape out of the card that is the same size as the flat shape.
13:19Switch on the light.
13:21The flashlight will provide light, which will mimic radar's radio waves, and will hit the card and then bounce back to the light meter, giving a strength reading.
13:30The higher the light meter reading, the greater the amount of reflected light, which means a lower radar stealth rating.
13:36To create a suitably dark, controlled environment, place a box over the first flat sample and measure the results, looking for a result of 53 lux, or luminance, as our benchmark.
13:50Placing the curve shape in the same position, we get a light reading of 37 lux.
13:55The curve is deflecting more light away from the sensor than a flat surface.
13:59So the curve is definitely stealthier.
14:02But what about the sharp angles of the triangular shape?
14:0524 lux.
14:06Less than half the reading of a flat surface.
14:09And even better than a curve.
14:11So with a flashlight and some household items, we have proven why the stealth fighter is such a funny shape.
14:17Its edges scatter the incoming radio waves more efficiently than other shapes.
14:21Meaning it fools the radar into thinking it is a much smaller object than it really is.
14:30Soaring gracefully through our skies, hang gliding is a popular sport for those wishing to fly.
14:36But did you know NASA played an important role in the development of this exciting aeronautical sport?
14:43The hang glider we are familiar with today may have first taken to the skies in the 1960s.
14:48But its origins go back a great deal further.
14:51The story of hang gliders goes right back to the 1890s when a pioneer called Otto Lilienthal,
14:57even before the Wright brothers, was experimenting with unpowered flight.
15:02His gliders were in fact hang gliders.
15:05It's just that unlike the hang gliders of today, he was suspended by his shoulders,
15:11so he could only move his lower body.
15:14Whereas a modern hang glider pilot can move more of his body and has better control.
15:20Unfortunately, the fact that his gliders weren't as well controlled as today's
15:24meant that Lilienthal himself was killed in a glider accident.
15:28Following the Wright brothers success in developing powered flight in 1903,
15:33the aeroplane becomes the dominant shape in our skies.
15:36Despite this, hang gliding enthusiasts still experiment with foot-launched flyers.
15:41And it is the Regalos, a husband and wife team, who designed a new wing in the late 1940s
15:46that leads to the hang gliding shape we recognize today.
15:51They started investigating whether a triangular-based wing with two cones
15:56effectively slit in half and put side by side could be a much better wing
16:00because it has an aerodynamic shape, it has the ability to capture air a bit like a parachute,
16:05and also is flexible.
16:08The fabric in between can fluctuate with the wind and air so that you can actually work with it
16:14and it will be like a parachute but a gliding parachute.
16:18After developing this idea into a toy kite, NASA notices their design
16:23and plans to use this as a recovery system for their Gemini space capsules.
16:28The problems that beset it were that you needed a 50-foot or minimum Regalo wing
16:34and it wasn't actually that easy for astronauts to steer.
16:39They did work out that it could be deployed at supersonic speeds
16:42and it could last quite a lot, have to be quite strong,
16:45but it still was a bit unstable.
16:48And so it could never be fully deployed for space work.
16:53Though unsuccessful, NASA proves that Regalo's wing could fly.
16:57From the 1960s onwards, designers across the globe perfect the para-wing
17:02into the hang glider that we recognize today.
17:06So, how are hang gliders made? We find out after the break.
17:10Founded in 1973 in Orange County, California,
17:24Wills Wing have manufactured and sold over 25,000 hang gliders to professional flying enthusiasts all around the world.
17:31First, blueprints for the latest glider are drawn up on computer,
17:35which is connected to a computer-driven XY cutting machine.
17:39This marks out the designs and cuts the panels of UV-resistant Mylar fabric needed to form the sail.
17:46Before stitching, multiple layers of the sail are cut, gathered together,
17:51and laid out on a table to be pinned or taped together so they can be sewn.
17:56At the sewing station, tip-mounted webbing is applied to the sail, anchoring it to the airframe of the glider.
18:09Once the sail is complete, it is taken back to the layout table for the addition of yet more panels.
18:14This process is repeated three more times.
18:17The company makes all their own components with a vertical machining center,
18:22which grinds solid blocks of aluminum, constructing fabricated brackets and parts of the airframe.
18:32The carbon fiber rods for the hang glider are put through a special tube drilling machine,
18:37which drills holes through the tubes at a precise location and angle.
18:42This facilitates the mass manufacture of specific parts for the main airframe.
18:51Once all the components, sails, and airframe rods have been prepared,
18:54it's time for the final assembly.
18:57The airframe has to be assembled and connected to all the support cables,
19:00running both inside and outside the rods of the frame.
19:05The cables are then carefully attached and fastened into place, making sure the tension is correct.
19:12Then, before the sails can go on, the serial numbers and guideline stickers are attached.
19:21Next, it's time to insert the airframe into the sails.
19:24The two outer rods will each go into a wing sail, while the center rod will act like a spine.
19:34The support cables, handlebars, and the body harness will then attach to this main frame,
19:39with the handlebars raised to make sure the cables are not tangled.
19:43After a center support rod is inserted and connected to the frame, it is now time to open up the sail.
19:49The hang glider is almost ready, with just the carbon sail stabilizer rods to be inserted and attached.
20:07Once the final checks on the cables, stability of each sail, and height checks are completed,
20:11the hang glider is finally ready to be taken out for its test flight,
20:15before being packed and sent to roam the skies with its new owner.
20:19The hang glider, truly, an incredible invention.
20:23So there you have it, a glance through the hidden history and super science of some amazing products that you use every day.
20:32Velcro, Radar, and the hang glider.
20:36They may seem common and ordinary, however, these products help change the world, one invention at a time.
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