How to Build

tv show

poster for How to Build

6 total episodes

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2 seasons

First Aired June 27, 2010

Overview

Britain's iconic and 'secretive' engineering companies reveal how they build the world's most amazing machines. The first part of the series "How to build a nuclear submarine" a documentary following the construction of the Astute nuclear submarine. The second part of the series "How to build a jumbo jet engine", the story of the thousands of people who design, build and test engines at Rolls-Royce’s manufacturing plants in Derby and across the UK, making Rolls-Royce a central part of life for the people of places like Derby. The third and final part of the series "How to build Britain's secret engineers" when the documentary team follows workers at a leading British company on a global journey, as they reveal a handful of their secretive projects including getting Chinook helicopters ready for front line service.

tv poster

A Super Jumbo Wing

Season 2 - Episode 1 - 1h 0m

Air Date

November 13, 2011

Overview

Britain is one of the world leaders in aerospace manufacturing and there's one part of a plane the UK is reputed to make better than anyone else - the wings. It's often said that no matter what else is done and what innovations are introduced, the wing defines the aircraft. The A380 wing is the largest ever produced for a civil airliner, at 17.7 metres from front to back and 36.3 metres from fuselage to wingtip. The maximum length of metal in a single wing is 46 metres and the result is an aircraft with a tip-to-tip wingspan of 79.8 metres, making the A380 the world's biggest passenger aircraft. The film follows some of the people who work at the two main Airbus factories in the UK. In Filton, near Bristol (which has manufactured aircraft for almost 100 years, including Concorde) we meet engineers and designers at the company's cutting-edge research and development facility, and in Broughton, in North Wales, one of Europe's biggest factories, we meet the people who actually build the massive wing.