Mon, Sep 14, 2009
Richard Hammond climbs to the top of Sydney's iconic Opera House to unlock the Engineering Connections behind one of the most instantly recognizable buildings in the world. He reveals how an architect's sketch, rejected by the design competition jury, was transformed into concrete and glass through trail-blazing building techniques inspired by a First World War gas mask, a set of false teeth, a collapsible puppet toy, an Ancient Pharaoh's chest and a 19th century sailing ship.
Sun, May 15, 2011
Richard Hammond reveals the surprising engineering connections behind the Formula 1 car. The stars of the most glamorous, and expensive sport on earth wouldn't even cross the starting line without inspiration drawn from a revolutionary 19th-century cannon, ancient sailing boats, jet engine fan blades, body armour and a technique practised by blacksmiths for thousands of years.
Mon, Oct 5, 2009
Richard Hammond reveals the engineering inspirations behind the tallest road bridge in the world - the Millau Viaduct, in France. He fires three quarters of a million volts from his finger tips to see how the power of lightning cut the steel structure quickly and accurately. The huge piers - 340 metres high, and which would look down on the Eiffel Tower - were positioned to millimetre accuracy with the system that located lost nuclear submarines. The longest road-deck in the world was launched along the top of the piers - and required the slipperiest substance known to man - Teflon; not even a gecko can stick to it. Steel cables hold the bridge in shape - born of a series of mining accidents. And to allow the bridge to expand a metre and a half in the summer sun the engineers turned to an ancient Celtic boat-building technique which can make concrete as bendy as wood.