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Ooh!

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Ha-ha!

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Ooh!

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Ha-ha-ha-ha!

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Mmm-mmm...

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ALARM CLOCK RINGS

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Ah...ah...!

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Ooh!

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Ooh-ooh-ooh!

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Hello, viewers, and welcome
to my World Of Invention,

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the show that puts
the merriment in experiment

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and gives science a good kick
up the astrophysics.

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Ho-ho, had you there!

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Thanks, lad.

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Me biggest fan!

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Today, we'll be proving

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that when it comes to inventing,
the sky's the limit.

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Yes, today's show is all about
flight.

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We'll be shooting off

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into the wild blue yonder
with a jet pack on our back.

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It's just truly amazing -
there's nothing like it.

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Taking a look at what the
well-dressed astronaut will be
wearing

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when they visit Mars.

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While my science correspondent,

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Mr Jem, meets a man
who can turn simple spinning...

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It looks fantastic.
There's so much more energy.

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..into lifting power
with some amazing machines.

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But let's get things off to a flying
start with a visit to the home

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of the home-made rocket.

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You're cleared for liftoff, Ashley!

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Thank you, Wallace! Here we go...

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Now, when it comes to space rockets,
you think of Houston, Texas,

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or the Kennedy Space Center
in Florida....

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not Manchester, in England.

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But this is mission control

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for toothpaste-technician-turned-
rocket scientist Steve Bennett.

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I got into rockets when I was quite
young. I was about five or six

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when the first men were walking
on the Moon,

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and that really inspired me -

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I wanted to do that when I grew up,
you know, I wanted to go into space.

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Everything on Earth has been sort of
discovered, so I wanted to go
off-planet.

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To become a professional astronaut
is very difficult, so I thought I'd
build a rocket and do it myself.

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Of course! Much easier(!)

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But first, young Steve had to learn
rule one of rocket science -

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don't set fire to your mum's
laundry.

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By 1994, things started to take
off...

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Hmm. But Steve didn't give up.

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And by 1997, he thought he was ready
to show the world
how far he'd come -

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with a rocket that had the potential
to reach 20,000 feet.

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If this is a success today,
all we have to do is scale it up,

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put a bit more propellant in there,
a bit more fuel, and we could
actually get a satellite into orbit.

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MAN: There she goes!

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Well, you can see,
obviously not a success -

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ploughed into a hillside
in front of us...

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obviously a major catastrophe,

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and Steve Bennett, very much
back to the drawing board...

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Unfortunately for Steve,
the sky was not yet the limit,

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and back to the drawing board
he went.

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When we get knock-backs, when
something doesn't happen,

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when a rocket crashes or whatever,
well, I'm even more determined

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to rebuild that rocket and go again
to prove that was right first time
around.

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Steve got a real boost when,
with financial backing,
he was able to open

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a research and development facility
to make bigger and better rockets.

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But big rockets mean big fuel bills,

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so Steve makes
his own solid rocket fuel...

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from old car tyres.

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It really isn't rocket science -
it's not that difficult.

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So all you budding rocket builders,
pens at the ready.

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To turn rubber tyres into rocket
fuel,

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mix chopped-up tyres
in some pure liquid rubber.

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Add an initiator to help it to set,
then mix thoroughly in a paint
mixer...

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before placing
in a dry oven on a low heat.

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Simple, really.

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The solid rubber fuel,
when mixed with pure oxygen,

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produces easily enough thrust
to send a rocket into space.

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It was a recipe for success,
and in 2001, Steve's rocket soared

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into the record books, with NOVA 1,

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the largest rocket
to ever lift off from the UK.

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It was an astounding
and well-deserved triumph.

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NOVA 1, carrying an unmanned capsule
high into the atmosphere,

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was brought safely back to Earth
by parachute.

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And one day, Steve hopes
that he'll be inside that capsule.

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And now his skill, determination
and hard work have led to this -

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the 27 metre-long Starchaser 5.

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In four years' time,

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Steve plans to be strapped inside,
waiting for blastoff.

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MAN: Three, two, one...

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ASHLEY: He's even made a computer
simulation of his future trip into
space.

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We're looking at about 6Gs
of acceleration. That's enough force

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to push several buses up there,
so, all in all, it'd be very
dramatic,

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but that's for just about 70
seconds. Then the engines cut off.

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It will reach an altitude of about
100 kilometres or about 62 miles up.

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From that altitude, you'll get
to see the curvature of the Earth,

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the blackness of space,
and you'll feel weightless.

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People aboard the capsule truly will
become astronauts for a few minutes.

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The childhood rocket maker
has, against the odds,

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become an internationally respected
rocket scientist.

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Ever since I was a kid, I had
this dream about building a rocket
that could carry me into space.

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Well, I'm making it happen, I'm
living the dream. Now, there's a lot
of people said it couldn't be done.

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But we're just a few years away from
opening the space frontier for
everyone. It's going to happen.

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I'm going to get there.

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He's certainly come along way from
setting fire to his mum's laundry.

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Ha-ha-ha! A chap can get
so attached to his rocket.

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That's why I keep mine
spaceship-shape and Bristol fashion.
Hmm.

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But what good is a fabulous
spaceship

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without a rather fetching spacesuit
to go with it?

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WALLACE HUMS

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Our next inventor, Wallace,

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is Dava Newman, a professor
of aeronautics and astronautics

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in the United States of America.

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She's created the Bio-Suit,

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a slimline new design that might make

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the big bulky suits the boys took
to the Moon a thing of the past.

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The Apollo suit was fantastic
for its time -

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it kept the astronauts alive
on the Moon -

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but they had limited mobility, that
bunny hop, Apollo bunny hop...

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real limited mobility in the suit.

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And 40 years on,
spacesuits have hardly changed.

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They still weigh 80 kilos

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and are stuffed full
of pressurised gas,

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so that even
in the weightlessness of space,

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they're really hard
to move around in.

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Professor Newman's suit is more
than just one giant leap
in space fashion -

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it could open the way
for a new era of space exploration.

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The Bio-Suit is an alternative
spacesuit design concept.

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I can move my arms, scratch my back.
I can really bend down.
I can be on my knees.

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I could even run like an Olympic
athlete, so I really have
full freedom of mobility.

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But how can such a lightweight outfit
possibly keep an astronaut alive

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in the hostile environment of space?

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There's only two ways to keep an
astronaut alive - one is to put him
in a balloon, gas-pressurised suit -

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the other one is to shrink-wrap
him.

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I'm going to put the pressure
directly on my skin,

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so this suit is pressurising me -
it's a second skin.

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Dava's suit creates
this tight-fitting second skin

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with an in-built pattern of wires
that squeezes the suit to the body

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so tightly that it'll keep astronauts
under an Earth-like pressure.

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So the real genius of this design
is that it doesn't restrict
movement,

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as the wires map the way
the astronaut's body
naturally moves and stretches.

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And this amazingly flexible
pressure suit will be just the thing

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for exploring
where we want to go next...

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Planet Mars.

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By the mid 2030s, I believe
we can send humans to orbit Mars
and return them safely to Earth.

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It'll be a two-year round trip
to Mars, and when we're there,

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we're going to want to do more
than just hop around planting flags.

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Just look at the landscape
we'll be exploring...

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the huge Olympus Mons, three times
taller than Mount Everest,

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and the vast Valles Marineris -

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in places, four times deeper
than the Grand Canyon.

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And with gravity on Mars
twice as strong as the moon,

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you can see why those
old spacesuits just won't cut it.

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The Bio-Suit
is to enable exploration,

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so that you can do what you do best,
and that's explore

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and search for evidence of life,
if we go to the surface of Mars.

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Dava's design is a real
breakthrough.

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The skintight pressure system
will make future exploration

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of alien planets much easier,
but, surprisingly,

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the slim-fit spacesuit
is not a new idea.

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Look at this, Gromit!
It's one of the first tight-fitting
spacesuits,

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which the Russians used for the dogs
they sent to space in 1959.

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The dogs were strapped up tight

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to keep their bodies intact
before they were blasted off
into space.

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We've come a long way
in 40 years of spacesuit design.

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We still have challenges
to overcome,

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But we don't have to send dogs
into space any more.

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Did you see that, Gromit?

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They were plucky little pooches,
those space dogs.

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The sad thing is,
most of them never made it back.

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But on a lighter note,
Mr Jem is going to show us

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another way of getting airborne that
never got off the drawing board.

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WALLACE SNIFFS

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'Ey-up, lad,
have you burnt the teacakes?

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What do the following have
in common?

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David Beckham...

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a ship with no sails...

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a very weird airship...

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and a new type of generator?

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The answer is they all rely on
something called the Magnus effect,

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and I've come to California
to meet a man

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who thinks it might just
change the world.

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'Fred Ferguson has been filling
the Californian skies

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00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:09,800
'with some very odd spinning shapes
for the last 30 years.'

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00:12:09,800 --> 00:12:11,480
OK, let's start going!

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'He now thinks one of his designs
can tap into a limitless supply

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'of high-altitude wind energy,

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'by exploiting a natural phenomenon
called the Magnus effect.'

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To see the effect in action...

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get a little motor,
you stuff a plastic lemon on it

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and stick it to the front of a car.

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Now, if I were to
spin that lemon up...

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like that,
it starts dragging air round with it.

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If I were to blow
at the side of that lemon,

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the air at the front
gets whipped out the way,

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00:12:45,520 --> 00:12:49,320
the air at the back gets stacked up
with the air dragged by the lemon,

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00:12:49,320 --> 00:12:51,280
and the vehicle should go that way...

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00:12:55,680 --> 00:12:57,840
Magnus effect car.

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00:12:57,840 --> 00:13:01,280
'Still confused?
You can see how the Magnus effect

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00:13:01,280 --> 00:13:04,960
'makes something go in not quite
the direction you'd expect

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00:13:04,960 --> 00:13:08,120
'when you watch one of
David Beckham's free kicks.

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00:13:08,120 --> 00:13:10,680
'Hmm...not one of your best, David.

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00:13:10,680 --> 00:13:14,560
'But watch this
and you might do better next time.'

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00:13:14,560 --> 00:13:18,080
A spinning ball drags
some air around with it.

202
00:13:18,080 --> 00:13:20,720
Where this air meets the air
it's flying through,

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00:13:20,720 --> 00:13:24,000
you sort of get an air pile-up
on one side of the ball.

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00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:28,320
This increases the air pressure
on that side,
giving the ball a push.

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00:13:28,320 --> 00:13:31,640
That's the Magnus effect.
And it's this effect

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00:13:31,640 --> 00:13:36,080
that's intrigued many inventors,
such as Anton Flettner in the 1920s.

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00:13:36,080 --> 00:13:39,440
He designed a sailing ship -
without sails!

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00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:43,080
It used an engine
to turn giant spinning cylinders.

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00:13:43,080 --> 00:13:46,520
He hoped that, just like with
my lemon, the spin of the cylinders

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00:13:46,520 --> 00:13:50,040
would, in a sideways wind,
push the ship forward...

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00:13:50,040 --> 00:13:53,400
And it worked. The only problem was
the ship would have gone

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00:13:53,400 --> 00:13:57,840
a whole load faster
if they'd use the engine
to turn a propeller instead.

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00:13:57,840 --> 00:14:01,640
So that's...
Drawing board 1 - Inventors 0.

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00:14:01,640 --> 00:14:05,600
'But Fred Ferguson wants
to improve on that score.

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00:14:05,600 --> 00:14:07,640
'He's a Magnus effect fanatic.

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00:14:07,640 --> 00:14:11,280
'We met up for a spot of kite-flying
in the Californian hills.'

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00:14:11,280 --> 00:14:14,400
Oh-h-h-h! Look at that!

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00:14:14,400 --> 00:14:17,000
'I just had your normal type of kite,

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00:14:17,000 --> 00:14:19,760
'while Fred's, of course,
was a Magnus effect kite.

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00:14:19,760 --> 00:14:23,640
'It uses its spin to create lift
and stay up in the air.'

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00:14:23,640 --> 00:14:28,760
It looks fantastic! Mine's like
a constant battle for...control,

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00:14:28,760 --> 00:14:31,360
whereas yours just sits there
quite happily.

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00:14:31,360 --> 00:14:34,120
It just loves it.
There's so much more energy.

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00:14:34,120 --> 00:14:38,720
Yup, that's it.
Good old Magnus effect
doing what it's supposed to do.

225
00:14:41,040 --> 00:14:43,080
But like many before him,

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00:14:43,080 --> 00:14:47,600
Fred's attempts to use the
Magnus effect have barely got off
the drawing board.

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00:14:47,600 --> 00:14:51,400
Although some of his prototypes,
like his airship from the '80s,

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00:14:51,400 --> 00:14:54,000
have looked totally
out of this world.

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00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:58,240
The Magnus sphere airship
was very UFO kind of looking,

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00:14:58,240 --> 00:15:00,880
but that design had a reason.

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00:15:02,080 --> 00:15:05,680
It was a rotating sphere
that generated a lift

232
00:15:05,680 --> 00:15:08,120
as the sphere moved forward.

233
00:15:09,960 --> 00:15:14,400
It looks brilliant. As the Magnus
effect helped give the airship lift,

234
00:15:14,400 --> 00:15:17,680
it was cheap to run
but sadly not cheap to build.

235
00:15:17,680 --> 00:15:22,320
It would have been 100 million
to make a full-scale model.

236
00:15:22,320 --> 00:15:25,120
His UFO was grounded.

237
00:15:25,120 --> 00:15:26,920
But 30 years later,

238
00:15:26,920 --> 00:15:30,920
Fred realised that
with a bit of adapting,
he could turn his airship

239
00:15:30,920 --> 00:15:37,000
into a way of getting electricity
out of really high,
fast-blowing winds.

240
00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:41,200
The Magnus rotating-sphere airship
would freewheel in the wind.

241
00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:45,080
I thought, "What if we put bigger
blades on it, like a paddle wheel,

242
00:15:45,080 --> 00:15:47,040
"would it generate energy?"

243
00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:57,840
He turned his airship into a mobile
wind-powered electricity turbine.

244
00:15:57,840 --> 00:16:01,440
The Magnus effect helps provide
the lift to carry his turbine

245
00:16:01,440 --> 00:16:03,480
1,000 metres high

246
00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:05,600
and hold it steady in the fast winds

247
00:16:05,600 --> 00:16:08,800
that are
such a great source of power.

248
00:16:08,800 --> 00:16:12,200
Finally, we're going
to see the Magnus effect

249
00:16:12,200 --> 00:16:15,040
doing something to help energy out.

250
00:16:15,040 --> 00:16:20,160
The energy is there,
and we have the ability to collect
a bit of that energy

251
00:16:20,160 --> 00:16:25,520
and convert it to electricity
and maybe help improve things.

252
00:16:29,520 --> 00:16:33,080
At the moment, Fred's designs
are just prototypes. But,

253
00:16:33,080 --> 00:16:37,240
if he can perfect it,
he could succeed
where countless inventors have failed

254
00:16:37,240 --> 00:16:39,960
and fully harness the power
of the Magnus effect.

255
00:16:42,840 --> 00:16:44,440
Hmm!

256
00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:47,000
Quite revolutionary, really.

257
00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:50,400
You know, people often ask me...
PHONE RINGS

258
00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:53,720
Sorry, I can't talk now -

259
00:16:53,720 --> 00:16:55,520
I'm alive on the air.

260
00:16:57,040 --> 00:17:02,040
Yes, people often ask me, what are
my top six planes that couldn't fly?

261
00:17:02,040 --> 00:17:04,720
Well, let's join Goronwy,

262
00:17:04,720 --> 00:17:10,000
our archive librarian, for
this week's Contraption Countdown.

263
00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:13,200
GORONWY: Thanks, Mr Wallace.
And in this week's countdown,

264
00:17:13,200 --> 00:17:16,040
we've got six flying machines
that failed to take off.

265
00:17:16,040 --> 00:17:18,880
And at number six,
here's a French gentleman

266
00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:23,080
who's going to launch his home-made
glider off the side of a mountain.

267
00:17:23,080 --> 00:17:27,760
He's got his mum's hat on
and he's ready to go...

268
00:17:27,760 --> 00:17:29,680
Zut alors!

269
00:17:29,680 --> 00:17:34,600
Oh, my word!
Well, he's survived the impact,
but he's still in trouble -

270
00:17:34,600 --> 00:17:36,840
he's lost his mum's hat!

271
00:17:36,840 --> 00:17:41,200
Non-flying flying machine
number five is one of my favourites.

272
00:17:41,200 --> 00:17:44,520
The wings go up and down, and the
propeller goes round and round.

273
00:17:44,520 --> 00:17:48,880
Oh, no. It's happened again.

274
00:17:48,880 --> 00:17:51,200
At number four,
it's the rocket pack.

275
00:17:51,200 --> 00:17:54,000
Oh. Bang goes the rocket pack.

276
00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:58,360
And number three of flying failures
calls himself "The bird man".

277
00:17:58,360 --> 00:18:00,760
But he's not really flying, is he?

278
00:18:00,760 --> 00:18:02,680
I know he's not touching the ground,

279
00:18:02,680 --> 00:18:05,440
but I think we can see
how he's doing it. "Bird man"?

280
00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:07,440
"Roof-rack man", more like.

281
00:18:07,440 --> 00:18:11,680
In second place,
we've got another French gentleman

282
00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:15,040
who really believes he's mastered
the art of flying like a bird.

283
00:18:15,040 --> 00:18:17,040
Off you go, then!

284
00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:22,240
Well, I don't know about you,
but I'd call that jumping
while wearing roller skates.

285
00:18:22,240 --> 00:18:25,520
Nice try, boyo,
but you're not fooling anyone.

286
00:18:25,520 --> 00:18:29,400
And now for my number one
non-flying flying machine,

287
00:18:29,400 --> 00:18:32,040
which was built
by this Chinese gentleman.

288
00:18:32,040 --> 00:18:33,880
It's powered by a tractor engine

289
00:18:33,880 --> 00:18:36,440
and it's loosely based
on a military aircraft.

290
00:18:36,440 --> 00:18:40,120
Very loosely based. I don't think
he followed the instructions at all!

291
00:18:40,120 --> 00:18:44,120
But never mind,
because he's ready to go,

292
00:18:44,120 --> 00:18:47,800
and everybody's waiting for the
moment they've all come to see.

293
00:18:47,800 --> 00:18:52,280
And...there it is!

294
00:18:52,280 --> 00:18:54,640
Of course
he knew it was never going to fly,

295
00:18:54,640 --> 00:18:56,760
but that didn't stop him
building it!

296
00:18:56,760 --> 00:18:58,880
Well done, Boyo!
You reached for the sky

297
00:18:58,880 --> 00:19:02,320
and missed.

298
00:19:02,320 --> 00:19:03,680
# Bom-bom-bom

299
00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:06,480
# Curiosity Corner... #

300
00:19:06,480 --> 00:19:10,440
Oh, welcome to Curiosity Corner,
viewers.

301
00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:12,520
And they don't come much curiouser

302
00:19:12,520 --> 00:19:14,920
than the man we're going to
meet today,

303
00:19:14,920 --> 00:19:18,960
the utterly amazing Gustav Mesmer.

304
00:19:21,480 --> 00:19:24,120
ASHLEY: Welcome to Buttenhausen
in Germany,

305
00:19:24,120 --> 00:19:29,400
Wallace, and this extraordinary
festival of very unusual bicycles.

306
00:19:29,400 --> 00:19:32,720
All inspired
by one extraordinary man -

307
00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:34,720
Gustav Mesmer.

308
00:19:36,320 --> 00:19:38,960
The first time I met Gustav Mesmer,
I was a child

309
00:19:38,960 --> 00:19:41,880
and was also with my bicycle
in the fields,

310
00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:46,240
and he was with his bicycle...
flying bicycle.

311
00:19:49,440 --> 00:19:52,400
Gustav's beautifully
quirky inventions

312
00:19:52,400 --> 00:19:54,640
made him a popular local character.

313
00:19:54,640 --> 00:19:58,400
So why was it, then, that
this inventive dreamer was unable

314
00:19:58,400 --> 00:19:59,560
to tell anyone

315
00:19:59,560 --> 00:20:02,280
about his thousands of strangely
original designs

316
00:20:02,280 --> 00:20:05,040
until he was 61 years old?

317
00:20:07,520 --> 00:20:09,120
Well, it's quite a sad story.

318
00:20:09,120 --> 00:20:14,120
The village he grew up in was very
religious, and one Sunday morning,

319
00:20:14,120 --> 00:20:19,440
the 26-year-old Gustav
unwisely burst into the church
and denounced God.

320
00:20:24,240 --> 00:20:27,360
People in the church, in this
village, thought he was mad.

321
00:20:27,360 --> 00:20:32,000
And he was taken to the Bad
Schussenried psychiatric hospital.

322
00:20:34,080 --> 00:20:38,640
It was very grim,
but Gustav found consolation

323
00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:42,440
in creating fantastical designs
for flying machines.

324
00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:46,400
He made hundreds, thousands
of sketches - on every paper

325
00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:48,960
he could find, he made a sketch.

326
00:20:48,960 --> 00:20:53,280
He had the idea for flying
with his bicycle and his wings,

327
00:20:53,280 --> 00:20:55,960
and nothing could stop him.

328
00:20:55,960 --> 00:21:00,360
Gustav was finally released in 1964.

329
00:21:00,360 --> 00:21:03,960
He'd been locked away
for more than 35 years.

330
00:21:03,960 --> 00:21:06,840
And to everyone's surprise,

331
00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:09,680
he started building
the incredible flying machines

332
00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:13,240
he'd been imagining
for all those years.

333
00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:17,320
He made about 10 of these
and about 100 wings.

334
00:21:17,320 --> 00:21:22,440
These are the wings for the bicycle,
to make a flying bicycle.

335
00:21:24,240 --> 00:21:28,640
For the wings,
he used normally wood and plastic.

336
00:21:30,200 --> 00:21:34,520
There's one final twist
in the extraordinary story
of Gustav Mesmer.

337
00:21:34,520 --> 00:21:38,360
Not one of his flying bicycles
could actually fly.

338
00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:45,200
He always said "It's just a model,
it's not really fit for flying,"

339
00:21:45,200 --> 00:21:48,360
but that was not the problem
for him,

340
00:21:48,360 --> 00:21:53,000
because it was just the idea
he wanted to live for.

341
00:21:55,680 --> 00:21:58,120
Gustav's flights of fancy
were just that.

342
00:22:00,440 --> 00:22:04,800
But for him, it was enough
that his inventions raised a smile.

343
00:22:09,960 --> 00:22:12,880
And now his incredible spirit
is living on

344
00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:17,840
in this festival of wheels and wings,
inspired by his imagination.

345
00:22:19,560 --> 00:22:23,560
If Mesmer could see the festival,
I'm sure he would be proud.

346
00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:31,120
I think he inspired a lot of people,
with his work,
with his flying bicycles,

347
00:22:31,120 --> 00:22:35,880
with his sketches -
but also being not frustrated after,

348
00:22:35,880 --> 00:22:39,840
or bitter, after this long time
in the institute.

349
00:22:39,840 --> 00:22:44,240
He was still a humorous,
impressive man.

350
00:22:53,040 --> 00:22:55,080
Mesmerising!

351
00:22:55,080 --> 00:22:58,160
And finally, here's an invention

352
00:22:58,160 --> 00:23:02,040
guaranteed to get you
out of sticky situations...

353
00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:04,360
PHONE RINGS

354
00:23:04,360 --> 00:23:06,320
I thought I told you...

355
00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:09,480
Oh! A bit uncalled for!

356
00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:16,000
Moving swiftly on,
it's the trusty jet pack.

357
00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:19,600
Come and look at this, lad.
It'll blow you away!

358
00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:28,880
ASHLEY: If there's one invention
that sums up our sheer determination

359
00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:32,200
to master gravity,
it has to be the jet pack.

360
00:23:32,200 --> 00:23:37,080
They have a great superhero look
about them, and, believe it or not,

361
00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:38,600
that's where they came from.

362
00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:45,800
Jet packs were born
in the comic books of the 1950s.

363
00:23:45,800 --> 00:23:50,880
Then, in 1961, American scientist
Wendell Moore at Bell Aerospace

364
00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:54,240
brought sci-fi imagination
into reality.

365
00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:58,960
Well, we foresee many applications
of the Jet Belt system

366
00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:02,400
in both the police department work
and in individual family life.

367
00:24:02,400 --> 00:24:06,120
It would certainly have
revolutionised cleaning windows!

368
00:24:06,120 --> 00:24:09,240
But 50 years on,
we're still using ladders.

369
00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:11,800
In fact, only one man
in the whole of the UK

370
00:24:11,800 --> 00:24:16,120
has got a working jet pack -
in his garage.

371
00:24:16,120 --> 00:24:18,280
He's commercial pilot Stuart Ross.

372
00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:25,840
This is the garage, and
this is Stuart's latest jet pack.

373
00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:30,160
'It's not until you get up really
close and see a jet pack flying

374
00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:34,760
'that it becomes a memory
that will stay with you
for the rest of your life.

375
00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:38,320
'The noise, the debris...
To see a guy fly through the air,

376
00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:40,520
'with one of these
strapped to himself,'

377
00:24:40,520 --> 00:24:43,720
it's just truly amazing.
There's nothing like it on Earth.

378
00:24:43,720 --> 00:24:46,320
So how does it work?

379
00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:49,080
Three tanks on the back -

380
00:24:49,080 --> 00:24:51,920
two contain a fuel,
which is hydrogen peroxide,

381
00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:54,680
and one contains nitrogen gas.

382
00:24:54,680 --> 00:24:58,920
The hydrogen peroxide reacts
with a catalyst in the engine

383
00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:02,480
to create super-high-pressurised
steam, which then jets out

384
00:25:02,480 --> 00:25:04,680
with such force
you can blast straight up.

385
00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:08,920
And the direction and speed
of your flight is all controlled

386
00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:11,040
by his hand-operated throttles.

387
00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:15,280
Sounds simple -
actually, it's anything but.

388
00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:21,080
Even Stuart, with all his experience,
is going to need
75 practice liftoffs

389
00:25:21,080 --> 00:25:24,360
with this new jet pack
to get the hang of it.

390
00:25:24,360 --> 00:25:27,440
It's not even that easy
to get to your launch pad.

391
00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:31,480
Hang on, Stuart, what does every
pilot have to do before takeoff?

392
00:25:31,480 --> 00:25:34,000
That's right - a safety check.

393
00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:37,640
A lot of people ask me just how
dangerous it is to fly a jet pack.

394
00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:43,400
Where do you start?! You've got
the pressure involved - 5,000 psi.

395
00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:45,720
That's enough to blow you
to smithereens.

396
00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:50,000
You've got the exhaust temperature,
600 centigrade -

397
00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:51,600
six inches from your elbows.

398
00:25:51,600 --> 00:25:54,840
Six times hotter
than a boiling kettle.

399
00:25:54,840 --> 00:25:58,600
You've got the speed of the exhaust,
2,500 miles an hour.

400
00:25:58,600 --> 00:26:01,440
That's over three times
the speed of sound!

401
00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:04,640
You've got the fuel -
90% hydrogen peroxide.

402
00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:07,640
That's 30 times
the strength of household bleach.

403
00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:10,760
On top of that,
you're actually flying this thing

404
00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:15,160
with it attached to you. So,
the whole thing, yeah, is dangerous,

405
00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:19,200
but, to me, it's the most
exciting machine in the world,

406
00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:21,120
and nothing will ever touch it.

407
00:26:21,120 --> 00:26:25,400
Now, I've got to be honest with you.
Stuart's not quite

408
00:26:25,400 --> 00:26:28,920
at the exciting stage yet, and with
the help of his friend, Lindsay,

409
00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:32,160
he's having an early practice session
with his new pack.

410
00:26:35,120 --> 00:26:38,040
With such power to control,
Stuart's feet stay firmly

411
00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:42,800
on the practice wheel. Just left
to right training today. Sadly...

412
00:26:42,800 --> 00:26:44,120
no up and down.

413
00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:49,080
But when you do get up,
you can fly anywhere you like.

414
00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:51,640
Well, until you run out of fuel,

415
00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:54,520
which unfortunately
only takes about 30 seconds.

416
00:26:54,520 --> 00:26:57,600
So it's not surprising that more men
have walked on the moon

417
00:26:57,600 --> 00:27:00,120
than have flown free in a jet pack.

418
00:27:00,120 --> 00:27:05,200
Oh, and flying free
is very, very expensive.

419
00:27:05,200 --> 00:27:08,400
It's a six-figure sum before
you can actually get hold of one,

420
00:27:08,400 --> 00:27:10,920
and on top of that,
you've got the running costs.

421
00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:16,640
It's about £600 per minute
to run just on the fuel alone.

422
00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:20,400
And if you equate it
with a fully loaded 747 jumbo,

423
00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:24,400
they burn three times as much fuel
per second,

424
00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:28,160
and that's just carrying me around,
as opposed to 400 passengers.

425
00:27:28,160 --> 00:27:31,880
It might be cheaper
to burn £20 notes as fuel!

426
00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:36,080
But for Stuart, it's worth it,
because he knows that the jet pack,

427
00:27:36,080 --> 00:27:38,360
although way hotter
than a boiling kettle,

428
00:27:38,360 --> 00:27:41,360
is really incredibly cool.

429
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:49,800
This is the furthest anyone's
ever flown by jet pack -

430
00:27:49,800 --> 00:27:53,960
a 500 metre-wide canyon in the USA.

431
00:27:56,000 --> 00:28:00,920
Touchdown...
with only nine seconds of fuel left.

432
00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:04,760
Ooh! That was a close shave!

433
00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:09,600
Still, those jet packs
are just the thing when you need
to make a hasty exit.

434
00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:11,280
I think you'll agree,

435
00:28:11,280 --> 00:28:15,200
we've seen some truly uplifting
inventions today.

436
00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:19,360
Mind you, all these
new-fangled flying doodahs

437
00:28:19,360 --> 00:28:22,160
and supersonic thingamajigs
are all very well,

438
00:28:22,160 --> 00:28:27,000
but sometimes you're better off
with both feet firmly on the ground.

439
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:29,440
Don't you agree, lad?

440
00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:33,280
Hey! What have you done
with me rocket?

441
00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:37,520
If you've enjoyed our show,

442
00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:40,920
grab your mouse and log on to
our World Of Invention website.

443
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:51,080
You'll find a fantastic competition,
details of our roadshow,

444
00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:53,640
as well as lots of ways
to get you inventing.

445
00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:56,640
Pull your finger out
and get clicking.