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00:01Around the world, the race to win wars and explore the universe has created some of the most incredible products ever designed.
00:09And we use them every day, unaware of their amazing origins.
00:14On incredible inventions.
00:17The flag, a simple piece of cloth with huge historic and symbolic significance.
00:25The hovercraft, a transportation marvel that seems to defy the laws of physics.
00:31And exercise equipment, introduced by the Greeks, still keeping us fit today.
00:37We reveal the amazing history and engineering behind these incredible inventions.
01:00The flag, a symbol of national pride, fanfare and recognition. Flags are flown everywhere, from sports stadiums to government buildings all across the world.
01:11We are all familiar with these colorful banners, but just how many of us know about their military origins?
01:15If you look at flags being used in war, you've got to go right the way back to the ancient times.
01:20To the Roman standards and their eagles. They're rallying points. They have the identification of their legion.
01:26When you follow it through, the Saxons at Hastings, they had their standard right to show where Harold was.
01:32Still to this day in the army, we have the colors of the regiment. And they are a rallying point. The pride of your regiment. The pride of your army.
01:41It's a pride that has been tested throughout history in countless blood-soaked battles, including the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, when medieval Lord Cheney is killed by the infamous King Richard III while defending the flag of his master, Henry Tudor.
01:57In 1879, Lieutenants Coghill and Melville lose their lives gallantly trying to deny the victorious Zulus their regiment's colors at the Battle of Isandluana.
02:08Flags are even more important at sea, where huge battle ensigns identify each side's ships amongst the clouds of gunpowder smoke.
02:16One of the most interesting parts of flags in warfare is the knaving, but also they could be used in subterfuge.
02:22You want to get close to the enemy, run up one of their flags, but of course, when you're going to engage them in combat, you must run your own flag up. Otherwise, it's a bad form.
02:32Sailing under a false flag is still an accepted tactic in modern naval warfare, and it's at sea where flags are first used as an early form of psychological warfare.
02:42The pirates' notorious skull and crossbones, known as the Jolly Roger.
02:47Individual groups also have the need for easy identification, as much as any regular army.
02:53Revolutions, for example, are, by their very nature, fast-moving and chaotic.
02:57After the Parisian militia starts wearing hastily assembled red and blue cloths in their hats during the storming of the Bastille in the French Revolution of 1789, the white and gold royal standard of King Louis XVI is cast aside in favor of the victorious tricolor of red, white, and blue.
03:14A design which still fills Frenchmen with pride to this day.
03:21Then, take the modern flag of Mozambique.
03:23It carries not just traditional bands of color, but also the image of an AK-47 assault rifle, signifying its struggle for independence.
03:31So a piece of cloth, born on the bloody battlefields of history, continues to represent nations and organizations around the world today.
03:42The flag, truly an incredible invention.
03:44J.W. Plant & Company Limited is a fourth-generation family business and have been making flags in Leeds, England since 1908.
04:04The flag design, in this case the Scottish standard flag, is loaded into the design software.
04:09The specific colors are assigned and checked against the design.
04:17The design is then sent to a large format inkjet printer, where it is printed directly onto the fabric.
04:24The printer prints roughly one yard in one and a half minutes.
04:28In the UK, we tend to manufacture most of our flags out of polyester-derived fabrics.
04:33It's got very good wear properties, it's washable, and it keeps the subtleties of lots of the older materials.
04:48The printed design is then fed through a heating oven, in order to dry and bond the inks into the fabric.
04:54The temperature of the oven is approximately 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
05:00The printed fabric is pinned and stitched onto a backing cloth around the edges of the design, sandwiching another piece of cloth in between, which will form the main background color of the flag.
05:10Waste material is then cut away from the edge of the stitched design, to form a relief pattern.
05:20The outer edge of the backing cloth is also trimmed off.
05:25The second panel is prepared the same way, creating the reverse side of the flag when it's complete.
05:41Next, the edges of the flag are measured and marked for hemming.
05:46The flag is then hemmed all the way around the edge using two rows of bonded nylon thread stitches.
05:57There are eight to ten stitches per inch.
06:04A tasseled border is carefully sewn on around the edge of the flag.
06:07Next, the reverse side panel of the flag is pinned into position.
06:18The panel is then hemmed and sewn onto the reverse side of the flag, completing the process.
06:25So there you have it.
06:27The flag, used for identification around the world for over 5,000 years.
06:31Now that's a tried and tested incredible invention.
06:37While flags have flown in battles throughout history, our next incredible invention is a friction-free, gravity-defying marvel.
06:44Our next incredible invention travels friction-free and is able to travel at speeds and to places that boats, trucks and cars simply cannot.
07:05This incredible machine is capable of traveling over a wide variety of surfaces.
07:14It's called the hovercraft.
07:16Because it can carry large cargo loads and it's able to land on three quarters of the world's coastlines, the hovercraft has been successfully adopted by the military.
07:24A hovercraft can cover many terrains, water, mudflats, sandy beaches, it can go over obstacles generally a few feet high.
07:34It can cross a gully of about four feet and still maintain the skirt and move forward.
07:41So it has lots of applications where the ground terrain simply isn't good enough or there is no infrastructure.
07:47A hovercraft's versatility comes from its ability to fly just inches above the terrain surface.
07:54So what is the magic behind the hovercraft's ability to fly?
07:58A hovercraft is made up of a body, powerful engine, fans, rudders and a flexible rubber skirt.
08:06The ability to hover comes from a large centrally mounted fan that blows an enormous amount of air under the craft.
08:12As the rubber skirt creates a seal with the surface beneath the craft, it begins to inflate.
08:18The skirt size dictates how high above the surface a hovercraft will rise, with excess air escaping from the skirt once it has reached its capacity.
08:27The flexible skirt also has the ability to bend around obstacles on water and land.
08:32With the hovercraft sitting on a frictionless cushion of air, the rear fans can then be used to propel the craft forward,
08:39with rear rudders providing the steering by channeling this backwards-blown air from side to side.
08:45The earliest hovercraft design goes all the way back to the 1870s when a British shipbuilder, Sir John Isaac Thornycroft,
08:53patents a design for an air-cushioned ship.
08:55However, his design can't be manufactured, since a powerful enough engine has not yet been developed.
09:02A visionary of his time, Sir John Isaac Thornycroft dreams of a ship that doesn't require huge force or power to achieve great speeds.
09:11It was, however, not until the 1950s that the air-cushioned ship designs are picked up again by Christopher Cockrell, a British mechanical engineer.
09:18While studying the ring of airflow when high-pressure air is blown into the area between two tin cans,
09:25Cockrell realizes that the sheet of fast-moving air presents a type of physical barrier to the air on either side of it.
09:31He calls this effect momentum curtain. He decides that this effect can be used to trap the air inside a barrier.
09:38This means that, with a small amount of active airflow, it is possible to produce lift.
09:42With his revolutionary design, Cockrell has created the modern hovercraft.
09:48The hovercraft becomes a commercial vehicle when the SRN1 successfully crosses the English Channel in 1959.
09:55The first demonstration of the hovercraft with Christopher Cockrell was across the channel between Dover and Calais,
10:02and he showed that it could work as a viable product.
10:04He realized then that the skirt that he had needed to be more flexible because it had problems that deal with waves that are about a foot,
10:12that's 30 centimeters high, and realized it can't cause problems because it needs to permanently be able to partially collapse and then reform.
10:21So, only a few years later, he had a product that would work with six to seven foot high waves and could cross the channel and became a viable commercial product.
10:29Because of its success as a commercial vehicle, the U.S. Army decides to use it in a trial during the Vietnam War in the 1960s.
10:38Soon, military forces around the globe follow suit.
10:46Today, this visionary creation is used by armies and for passenger and cargo transport, but also for rescue operations and sporting events.
10:53A vehicle that can travel quickly on land, ice and water is definitely an incredible invention.
11:02When we return, we show you how to build your very own fantastic flying machine on Incredible Inventions.
11:08Sir Christopher Cockrell's creation may seem like a swirling, complicated system of expensive and powerful engines, but we're going to show you how to make your very own hovercraft from a few everyday items.
11:29We've come to the Incredible Inventions aircraft hangar to build our own fantastic flyer.
11:40To start, your materials.
11:42You'll need wood, screws, string, a marker, spray adhesive, stapler, a shower curtain, and that firm DIYing favorite, duct tape.
11:51To begin, we will need to cut a large circular disc from a piece of wood.
11:58Tap a screw onto the center of your wood and use a marker pen and a piece of string to draw the circumference of your disc.
12:05Next, carefully cut out your wooden shape with a jigsaw.
12:10At one end of your disc, draw and cut a hole to fit snugly around the power source for your personal hovercraft.
12:16More on that later.
12:17Now for the skirt.
12:20Take your shower curtain and place it underneath the round board and then pull it over the top of the wood and carefully staple the material to the top of the disc.
12:29Cut off the excess to leave you with a neat finish.
12:34Go along the edge of the shower curtain with the duct tape to create an airtight seal.
12:38Now, flip the craft over and admire your handiwork.
12:43We actually need some of the air to escape from the skirt.
12:46So, mark and cut six holes equally spaced into the shower curtain and use more duct tape to reinforce the hole's edges.
12:53Don't forget to add an additional small round piece of duct taped wood to protect the underside of the craft.
12:58We're almost ready. We just need power.
13:03Step forward. The biggest industrial sized leaf blower money can buy.
13:08Snugly fix the leaf blower into our pre-cut hole and we are ready for blast off.
13:13Or should that be hover off?
13:14With an additional wooden ring to reinforce the top, our cockerel-inspired craft is complete.
13:20But, will it actually work?
13:26With the leaf blower providing the wind power and our production team the forward motion, our tester has actually created his own personal hovercraft.
13:34So, the answer is yes.
13:36Flying around the hangar on a cushion of air, we have a revolutionary low-cost transportation method up and running.
13:42And is it ready for the rigors of cross-country travel?
13:47Perhaps not.
13:51From the time of the ancient Greeks to the modern day, men and women have been on a never-ending quest for fitness, health and beauty.
14:01That quest has led us to develop groundbreaking workout programs, nutrition plans and equipment that allows us to stay fit, strong and healthy.
14:12That quest has led us to stay fit, strong and healthy, strong and healthy, strong and healthy.
14:18Cardiovascular exercise is an excellent way to increase your vitality, to reduce fat and burn fat, to manage stress, to lower cholesterol, to reduce your blood pressure and in many cases it's a great treatment for the avoidance of or management of diabetes.
14:38It is said the birth of Western civilization took place in ancient Greece.
14:44Democracy, debate and the dramatic arts are just some of the gifts these extraordinary people gave to the world.
14:50The Greeks also create the ancient games where a group of young men compete, sometimes naked, in order to encourage aesthetic appreciation of the male body and as a tribute to the gods.
15:01The Greeks invented several tools to help their athletes. These include barbells made out of stone and wood, and the pull-up bars.
15:10Since then, different civilizations see how similar equipment benefits their military forces.
15:15And when it came to prepare men for the greatest adventure of all, the journey into space, NASA built upon the ancient Greek fitness techniques to prepare their astronauts to combat the effects of zero gravity.
15:31After the break, we look at how these techniques have been adapted for space travel, and see how modern gym equipment is manufactured.
15:37Exercise equipment may be an efficient way to stay in shape on Earth, but it's just as important for astronauts in space. Crazy, you say? But here's why.
15:56When you're in space, you don't have any gravity present, and therefore your muscle and your bone density reduces over time, as it's not working against any resistance.
16:07So whilst we're on Earth, when we're even walking around, let alone doing any exercise, we're working against gravity, and that helps to reduce our muscle bulk and strength, and also our bone density.
16:17When you're in space, you don't have that resistance, and even doing exercise in space, you'll still reduce your muscle bulk and your bone density over time to about 0.4%, 1% every month that you're in space.
16:32So it's very important for astronauts to do exercise in space to help reduce that.
16:38Today, exercise equipment is not just limited to the simple barbell.
16:42There is a wide variety of computer-controlled treadmills and running machines that can aid your workout.
16:48An example of this high-tech fitness gadgetry is the PreCourse EFX Elliptical Trainer, which is made in their American factory in Washington State.
16:56At the heart of the elliptical is a system of circular pulleys, which are worked by the user's movements.
17:04The sub-assembly of these units is the first stage in the construction of the machine.
17:08To begin, the pulley shaft and pillow block bearings, which connect the shaft to the drive unit that allow it to spin, are assembled.
17:16The bearing and the pulley are then aligned to the drive frame and secure it.
17:21Then, the crank arms are fitted.
17:24Later in the production process, these will be attached to the stair arms.
17:27Next, as the EFX is electronically controlled, a generator is installed onto the pulley, and the belts are aligned before being thoroughly tested by hand and machine to make sure the tension is correct.
17:41A resistor that regulates the power to the machine is secured to the unit before being taken to a cart, so it's ready for the next stage of assembly.
17:53The main EFX frame has previously been welded together.
17:57An operator attaches the feet and takes it to the production line.
18:00The new drive is fixed onto the frame, and a second operator laces all the electrical components together for the generator and the battery, while the outer covers are also fitted.
18:13The steps of the elliptical can be inclined to create a tougher workout for the user, and further down the line, the lift motor and battery that power this functionality are fixed onto the frame.
18:23Next, the EFX is fitted with its high-tech display and heart monitoring features.
18:30A new welded display unit is taken from the line, and the internal wiring for the display is threaded inside.
18:39The unit is then passed on for the heart rate monitors to be fitted and tested before being wrapped and added to the machine later.
18:46It is the responsibility of everyone who puts this product together to have a responsibility for the efficiency and the quality that goes into the build.
19:02Our engineers work really, really hard to work with their counterpart on the manufacturing floor, the manufacturing engineer,
19:10to make sure that we'll do whatever we need to do on the assembly line, but that this thing flows smoothly down the assembly line.
19:23Back at the EFX frame, two operators attach the ramp, which provides the incline feature for the trainer, onto the unit.
19:29The ramp is connected to the lift motor by a long metal threaded bar, and then the stair arms are installed into the ramp, and also connected to the crank arms at the rear of the machine.
19:40Before the EFX is completed, the unit's accessories kit is gathered and taken into the pre-court testing booth, where the trainer's features are inspected.
19:49Once the new EFX machine has passed inspection, it is released and is finally ready for packaging.
20:00All the key components are wrapped before being securely fastened onto a pallet.
20:05It is then taken off the line, and all the remaining accessories are also added, fastened to the pallet and boxed, ready for delivery.
20:11Invented by the ancient Greeks, used by the military and NASA, and now being expertly built for use in your home.
20:23Modern exercise equipment, truly an incredible invention.
20:27So there you have it, a glance through the hidden history and super science of some amazing products that you use every day.
20:34The flag, the hovercraft, and exercise equipment.
20:42They may seem common and ordinary, however, these products help change the world, one incredible invention at a time.