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00:00We're living in an age of giants.
00:03Ships a quarter of a mile long.
00:06Factories as big as a country.
00:08Planes as big as warehouses.
00:10And buildings that seem to defy physics.
00:13That's not just a skyscraper.
00:16It's poking right through it.
00:19I'm on a mission to find out what connects all these massive structures and machines.
00:25He's possessive, isn't he? Possessive.
00:28The engineering challenges that set them apart from the ordinary.
00:32A little bit scared, if I'm honest.
00:34And the ingenious inventions that allowed us to build big.
00:38This is the world's largest and most powerful jet engine.
00:46This isn't just the story of some of the biggest things humankind has ever built.
00:51It's the story of how big engineering is changing the world as we know it.
00:56Here I go.
00:58I'm Richard Hammond.
01:00Hello.
01:01And I'm on a mission to explore the really, really big.
01:05Awesome!
01:06Top ten list of insane things I've ever been involved in doing.
01:09This is number one.
01:10And yes, I know, everything seems big to me.
01:13Am I climbing into an engine?
01:15I feel like I've been shrunk.
01:17I'll uncover the incredible ways engineers have supersized our world.
01:22I'm not sure it's supposed to be this close.
01:24Oh!
01:25I looked over my shoulder.
01:26I shouldn't have done that.
01:28I can reveal that sometimes it's the tiny things that make the Titanic possible.
01:33I'm stealing their power!
01:36I could not do this for a job.
01:38And meet the heroes who design, build and live big.
01:45If I do it wrong, are we all blown to pieces?
01:48Maybe.
01:49Maybe.
01:50Maybe.
01:51Maybe.
01:52Maybe.
01:53Yes.
01:54FeForce.
01:59The global economy just keeps growing.
02:04So engineering has to get bigger and better to keep pace.
02:08Today, 90% of all global trade is transported by sea.
02:13And that is only possible because of this.
02:21There's a really big ship up this close.
02:25The Marimersk is one of the biggest moving objects ever built.
02:29Out astern, she's almost half a kilometre long.
02:32She's one of 450 ultra-large container ships that sail our oceans,
02:37each carrying up to 23,000 containers.
02:41They're big enough to hold over 7 million TVs.
02:45That's two sets for every home in London on one ship.
02:50Next time you press buy on your computer,
02:53whatever it is will probably arrive via one of these.
02:57Container ships carry 10 billion tonnes of goods every year.
03:02Their size and efficiency have reshaped the world economy.
03:05Pretty much everything that's made is got from where it's been made to where it needs to be on one of these.
03:12But these new mega-ships are so big, new ports had to be built to cope with them.
03:22Welcome to Rotterdam, now the largest port in Europe.
03:25At over 40 kilometres long, it had to be expanded to service these titans of the sea.
03:30This is reclaimed land, eight square miles on it.
03:33This ship is so big,
03:35that to build a port that can accommodate it,
03:37first they had to build an extension to Holland.
03:40But even that wasn't enough.
03:48These massive ships carry so much cargo.
03:51Humans just couldn't unload and load them fast enough.
03:55Which is why Rotterdam is the world's most advanced fully automated port.
04:00To keep on schedule, this ship is never empty.
04:04It's loaded and unloaded simultaneously.
04:07And that's kind of complicated.
04:12This terminal is run by computerised cranes and driverless vehicles.
04:16Which means they can operate 24-7.
04:22And that's how the port can handle a mind-blowing 469 million tonnes of cargo a year.
04:28There are only a handful of actual people working here.
04:33Here's one of them, operations manager Hans de Boll,
04:36who's going to explain how it all works.
04:39This is the land of the robots, isn't it?
04:41Just talk me to you. It starts over there.
04:44What happens at that end?
04:45At that side, the truck comes in.
04:47He activates the crane.
04:49There's nobody on the crane.
04:50Only the trucker activates the crane.
04:53So each container has its own place.
04:56Each container is identified on the truck.
04:57Moved over there.
04:59And then where is it put?
05:00We put it in the stack.
05:02It's quite spooky to think we are the only two squidgy human beings in all this.
05:06Yes.
05:07Right.
05:07So you've made us all redundant.
05:10Well, not quite.
05:11Humans are still useful for some things.
05:14These 30-ton automated guided vehicles can't repair themselves when they break down.
05:19At least, not yet.
05:21So a human engineer, Darren De Burr, has to remote control them into the workshop.
05:26Darren, give me the box of power.
05:28I'm ready for this.
05:32Like that?
05:32There you go.
05:34I feel in control.
05:35It's too long.
05:35It's not the first strap I'll show, funnily enough.
05:38There.
05:39For the smaller operator, that's perfect.
05:41I should say something at this point.
05:44I never had a remote control car as a kid.
05:46So bear that in mind.
05:47That's what I'm not going to do.
05:49Right.
05:49What do I do?
05:50Okay.
05:50This is forward and backwards.
05:52Yes.
05:53Oh, yeah.
05:54Yep.
05:55Yep.
05:56I love the power.
05:5730 tons coming at you.
05:59We could run ourselves over with this, couldn't we?
06:01Get some move on.
06:02But if we do run ourselves over, we're okay because we're wearing these.
06:06They know where the finest.
06:07But, but...
06:09Scrape this up.
06:10Yeah.
06:10Right.
06:10That's not how you move these things around the port.
06:12No, but you only use this in order to bring them to the workshop.
06:15So the rest of the time, they know where they are anyway.
06:18Yeah.
06:20Underneath the age of E, on the front and the back, are large transponder antennas.
06:23And that, in combination with a navigation computer, looking for transponders on the floor.
06:30Oh, right.
06:31Transponders.
06:32So these are buried in the deck?
06:33Yeah, and exactly the deck.
06:34You see several little gray holes.
06:36So in here is one of these?
06:39Correct.
06:39And this, so this is looking for them with that gray depth?
06:42Yes.
06:43It receives a route from the control room and follows that route and expects to have a certain
06:47transponder at a certain position.
06:49And how many of these are buried?
06:51I believe roughly 80,000.
06:5280,000 transponders.
06:54So this really is a case of there is a small thing that makes not just the big 30-ton vehicle
07:01possible, but the whole operation, because it's all connected, this entire thing, the cranes,
07:06all of it.
07:07Getting this volume of containers on and off this size of Supership is only possible because
07:13of this fully automated system.
07:16On my travels, I've discovered many of the world's biggest things rely on automation.
07:22Take this place for example.
07:25This is the biggest car factory in the world.
07:28Located in Wolfsburg, Germany, it covers an area of six and a half million square meters,
07:34making it over three times the size of Monaco.
07:37This factory is so big, it can produce 800,000 cars a year.
07:44That's 3,600 every day, or a new car every 16 seconds.
07:49That means since I started telling you this bit, another new car has rolled off its production lines.
07:56Today, you simply couldn't turn out a car every 16 seconds without robots lending a hat or claw.
08:05In this factory, they have a 4,200 strong mechanized army to assemble the cars with ruthless efficiency.
08:13And these workers never clock in late or call in sick.
08:17My grandfather works in the car industry at Mulliner's in Birmingham,
08:23where they built cars by hand out of metal, wood and leather.
08:28I don't know what he'd make of this.
08:30I think he'd be absolutely fascinated and loving it.
08:34Or he'd say, Christ, you've done me out of a job.
08:38It's amazing.
08:44Don't worry, granddad.
08:46The robots haven't completely taken over.
08:49There are still 63,000 people in this factory doing the jobs that robots can't do.
08:55But unlike at Rotterdam Port, the future is for humans and a new generation of robot to work together side by side.
09:03And at the factory's smart production lab, Marcus and Johannes are introducing me to the latest member of their workforce.
09:11Marcus. Hi.
09:12Johannes, nice to meet you.
09:13Hi, Richard.
09:14Do you also want to shake Mirko's hand?
09:16This is Mirko.
09:17What, just?
09:18Yeah.
09:19Hello? Ooh!
09:21His arm's all sort of floppy.
09:23There's some resistance.
09:24But he obviously likes you.
09:26Okay.
09:27Mirko is an acronym for Mobile Intelligent Robotic Coworker.
09:31So we are trying to assist the human worker in the factory.
09:34Mirko can hand over tools to you or work pieces.
09:36Has he got any stuff he can do now with me?
09:39Mirko's up for a game for rock, paper, scissors.
09:41So we bring his arm into position.
09:43That's a proper Terminator hammer.
09:45Look at that.
09:46Is he very strong?
09:47Hmm?
09:48Just press his hand from the front and then he will react to it.
09:51Well, if he reacts by punching me in the throat.
09:58All right.
09:59That's a weird one.
10:00Oh.
10:03Paper, scissors, he wins.
10:04He wins.
10:05Yeah.
10:05Yeah, he wins.
10:07So how long before we look down on the production line,
10:09there is somebody with their head in a car going,
10:11a wrench, and a robot just goes,
10:13there you go, Gav, thank you.
10:15Three to four years to be production ready.
10:18So the future is not just robotic,
10:20it's humans and robots together.
10:22Yeah, a hybrid team of humans and robots.
10:26So, Richard, you and Mirko, you both did a quite good job.
10:29So in order to celebrate, move into his arms and then we close his arms.
10:33Do what?
10:35If you like.
10:36Move into his arms?
10:37We call this hugging.
10:40Okay.
10:41Is he in hugging mode or crushing to death, Nick?
10:44We'll find out.
10:45What do I do?
10:46Ah!
10:48Oh.
10:51He's very gentle.
10:52Ooh.
10:53Ooh, I've read about robots like this on the internet.
10:57Ah!
10:58Ah!
10:59Okay.
11:00He's possessive, isn't he possessive?
11:03There's no doubt that intelligent automation is the future for big engineering.
11:08Without robots, our world would be, well, it would be smaller.
11:13Next, I discover the greatest challenge to building big is mother nature.
11:18Awesome!
11:19And battle the elements deep underground.
11:22I am quite scared.
11:23Technological advances in engineering are allowing us to build bigger than ever before.
11:40But these also create their own big challenges.
11:45The bigger the structure, the bigger the threats it faces from mother nature.
11:49The four elements, earth, wind, water and fire are all magnified when you're building at scale.
11:55And engineers have to find ever more ingenious ways of beating them.
12:00To find out how, I'm about to fly to one of the most hazardous places in the world.
12:10An oil and gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
12:13But the site is so hazardous, I first need special training on how to escape from a helicopter crash.
12:19Is it true that you make people do this with it upside down?
12:22Yes.
12:23Oh, come on!
12:26The extreme winds could ditch a helicopter into the sea, so I need to do special escape training.
12:32Standby for me just landing.
12:34Oh God, tell Mindy I love her.
12:36Brace, brace, brace for your back.
12:39This dummy chopper is about to sink and spin, replicating the confusion of a crash.
12:47I need to unbuckle, then push out the safety window and get out.
13:09Well, let's just hope that doesn't happen for real.
13:20With that training under my belt, I'm now allowed to visit one of the biggest
13:24and most technologically advanced oil and gas platforms in the world, the Appomattox.
13:29Luckily, it looks like good flying conditions.
13:32But off the coast of Louisiana, weather can change.
13:35And fast.
13:37Out there, 80 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, there is a whole other world waiting.
13:44A world where winds could reach 200 miles an hour, where waves could be as high as 10-storey buildings.
13:51That's where we're going.
13:53This platform is a multibillion-dollar factory at sea.
13:58Every day, it draws an expected 175,000 barrels of oil and gas from wells 2,000 metres down on the sea.
14:07And pumps it ashore.
14:09And the massive 124,000-ton facility has to float on just four vast, hollow columns.
14:17All at the mercy of Mother Nature.
14:19Down here, almost at sea level, at the base of one of the hull columns, is the first time I got a real sense of just how exposed to the elements the platform is.
14:28When hurricanes Katrina and Rita ripped through the Gulf in 2005 with 280-an-hour winds, they created 20-metre waves.
14:39These decimated 115 offshore platforms.
14:44But this is a revolutionary platform, built to withstand the world's worst hurricanes.
14:49Project manager Mano de Jong helped design it.
14:54The force with which that water could come through in a bad storm is mind-blowing, isn't it?
14:58I mean, coming through here just with immense force.
15:01That would be indeed immense, and were we to have equipment at that low level, it would certainly be washed away easily if we would have a heavy tropical storm.
15:10Hence, we lift the whole platform up to a safe height.
15:13And that's just done by adjusting the buoyancy in these huge buoyancy columns?
15:19That's right.
15:20All of these four columns have a lot of buoyancy, and we adjust the levels on each one of them.
15:25Adjusting the buoyancy in each column also keeps the Appomattox perfectly level.
15:31The platform also keeps from being blown away by fixing itself to the sea floor.
15:36It does take a lot to keep 137,000 US tons of steel in one place.
15:43Yeah.
15:44And so we've got 16 mooring lines that are attached to the sea bottom.
15:50These massive chains are what is keeping this platform in its place.
15:55So there's a set of these at each corner, and they're enormous.
16:00How much per link does that chain weigh? Because I'm guessing it's a lot.
16:04It's more than 500 pounds per link, the chain.
16:09In total, it takes 63 kilometers of mooring lines to anchor the platform to the seabed
16:16and protect itself against the destructive forces of nature.
16:22But some of the biggest engineering projects on Earth are actually designed to exploit water's power.
16:29This is the Columbrine Dam, one of the biggest dams in the world.
16:35And it can use this huge reservoir of water to generate enough electricity to power an entire city for a week.
16:44This 200 meter high wall in the mountains of Austria is one of the tallest and thinnest on the planet.
16:52It's not just the height of it, which is considerable.
16:56It's the knowledge that behind it, it is quietly restraining millions of tons of water exerting an imaginable force on it.
17:06It's dizzying.
17:09The dam's arch shape means the force of the water on the wall is transferred into the mountains on either side.
17:17So, incredibly, it actually uses the power of the water to secure itself into the valley,
17:23which is why this dam is one of the thinnest on the planet.
17:26But when you're holding back such colossal force, things can go very wrong.
17:31Heavy rains and floods can put massive pressure on dams,
17:35and occasionally they can even burst with devastating consequences.
17:42That's why if there's ever too much water in this reservoir,
17:45they must take drastic measures before disaster strikes by opening an emergency tap called an outlet pipe.
17:54The outlet is over there in the middle and right at the bottom of the dam.
17:59And it's not there because it means every last drop will be drained out.
18:02It's there because the water pressure is greater there.
18:05Water pressure is pretty simple, really.
18:07So, if this were my dam, if the hole were, you know, just off the top of the wall,
18:12there's only so much water on top, the water only comes out so quickly.
18:16If it lower down at the bottom, when all the water's on top,
18:19more water, greater water pressure, water comes out with more force.
18:23Simple, really.
18:25And if that's the effect of, what, 25 centimetres of water,
18:29what's it going to be like with 190 metres?
18:32We'll find out.
18:34Today, they're doing something that happens only once or twice a year,
18:38testing the emergency valve.
18:40Ten, nine, eight, seven, six.
18:45This is fun.
18:46Five, four, three, two, one.
18:49That weight of water exerting that pressure turned into velocity.
19:12This enormous tap is what allows this hydroelectric dam to control the power of water,
19:22rather than getting destroyed by it.
19:26And that's it.
19:27The end of an expression of power like I've never seen.
19:33Big engineering has other natural elements to conquer,
19:37and I'm travelling to the border between Austria and Italy,
19:40where another enormous engineering project is fighting the earth,
19:44or more precisely, rock.
19:47This is the Brenner Pass,
19:49one of the most vital road and rail routes between Northern and Southern Europe.
19:54It's been in use since the ice ages,
19:56but there's a problem.
19:58It's so vital that 40% of Europe's road and rail freight goes through this narrow route.
20:08It's chaos.
20:14The solution?
20:15A 55-kilometre rail tunnel under the Alps.
20:19Four giant machines weighing up to 3,000 tonnes are boring through the mountain at one metre an hour.
20:27When it's finished in eight years' time,
20:30this will be the longest rail tunnel in the world.
20:34Down here, a kilometre beneath the Alps,
20:37fearless tunnellers are digging where no human has gone before.
20:41It's a dirty business.
20:43It's dangerous, but it's also really impressive.
20:48A little bit scared, if I'm honest, but I'm going to hide that,
20:51because they're all very bloody terrified.
20:54And this is the only thing that protects us now from being crushed and smashed to pieces.
21:00I can feel through my feet.
21:02It's amongst the most exciting things I've ever been involved in.
21:05All this drilling has one goal in mind,
21:08to cut a perfect tunnel through millions of tonnes of rock.
21:12It's engineers versus mountain.
21:15Water! Water!
21:27I don't like that!
21:30Am I the only one who saw the water and didn't realise it was for lubricating the drill and thought,
21:34oh, we've hit the mains or something?
21:36I panicked.
21:37I thought, we've hit an underground river, we're all going to die.
21:41I wouldn't be a good miner.
21:43The final element of nature poses by far the greatest risk to big engineering.
21:49Fire.
21:50Because the bigger the structure, the bigger the blaze it creates.
21:54So engineers have had to design ever more sophisticated solutions to fight it.
22:00I'm at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware,
22:02home of the biggest transport aircraft in the US military arsenal,
22:06the awesome Super Galaxy C5M.
22:09At 75 metres, each wing is as long as a basketball court.
22:13Still walking.
22:15It's powered by four enormous turbofan engines.
22:20Still walking.
22:22It has an articulated nose to speed up loading.
22:26Still walking.
22:27And a cavernous hold that can carry up to 15 Humvees.
22:31Pretty much anything the military needs can fit in there.
22:35But delivering essential cargo across the world requires enormous fuel tanks.
22:41Master Sergeant Ken Smalecki Jr. services these massive fire risks.
22:47There's 12 tanks.
22:48It's over 320,000 pounds of fuel.
22:51Our tanks are stored in our wings.
22:53Most people don't know, but the wings are actually integral fuel tanks.
22:57Yeah, I've also noticed something else.
22:59You've been sighted quite a long way from everybody else.
23:02Oh, yeah, they keep us away from everyone else on purpose.
23:05Just for safety and everything.
23:06Yes, sir.
23:07You're the outcast?
23:08Yes.
23:09This is the most dangerous place here.
23:10For sure.
23:11Flaming jet fuel is notoriously difficult to extinguish and can burn at a hangar melting 800 degrees Celsius.
23:19Emergencies leave no time to call the fire department.
23:22So technicians like Master Sergeant Albin use a system that douses the entire hangar in an instant.
23:30In the event of a fire, the suppression system would be triggered.
23:33And within a minute, this entire hangar will be completely submerged in a foam substance.
23:39One minute.
23:40In one minute.
23:41Any personnel who are on top of the aircraft, that gives them a very short amount of time to get off of the aircraft.
23:46Because once they hit the ground, they can't see anything.
23:49And that chemical is designed to suck the oxygen out of the air.
23:52So they won't be able to breathe down there.
23:54So it has to happen very quickly.
23:56I think this is a brilliant example of you make a bigger plane, you've got to have a bigger fuel system.
24:00You need a bigger hangar to look after it, and then you need bigger cover if there's a problem.
24:05Absolutely.
24:06Because if there is a problem here, it's going to be a big one.
24:08It's a very big one.
24:09Next, I discover the big inventions that change the world as we know it.
24:15Do we get crushed to death when we get to the top?
24:16I've braved the elements to discover what amazing megastructures need to survive.
24:32And I've noticed that one thing links them all.
24:35Each contains a moment of genius, a single invention without which big could not exist.
24:42I'm traveling to the desert city of Dubai, where the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, towers 828 meters into the sky.
24:53But this cloudbuster would never have been built without an invention that we all take for granted.
25:01There's no way anyone living or working in this towering skyscraper is going to take the stairs to climb 163 floors.
25:12The only reason this mega building can function is because of one man, Elisha Otis.
25:1919th century elevators were simple platform hoists fraught with danger if a cable snapped.
25:26Then in 1853, Elisha Otis, an American industrialist, invented a system of ratchets and safety catches,
25:34which, in the event of a fall, automatically locked into place.
25:38If I get this wrong, do I plummet to my death?
25:41A new, safer elevator was born.
25:44And now, if the cable snaps in the Burj Khalifa, disaster is averted.
25:49I've never ridden on top of a lift.
25:51Do we get crushed to death when we get to the top?
25:53Today, elevators are like express trains to the sky.
25:58So, how high are we going?
26:02We will go to level 153 now.
26:04It's not often do you see numbers going that high on the buttons in a lift.
26:08I don't think you can see it anywhere else.
26:11Oh, my ears are popping.
26:12The Burj Khalifa is more like a vertical city.
26:17Its 57 elevators are a mass transport system, varying 800 people at any time,
26:23across 163 floors, faster than a subway train.
26:28So, how far up the building are we here?
26:30We are 448 metres.
26:33This is only half way.
26:34Elisha Otis isn't the only man coming up with big, life-changing ideas.
26:41Halfway across the globe, back at the port of Rotterdam,
26:45I want to introduce you to another man whose stroke of genius changed the global economy forever.
26:50This port and global trade as we know it would never have happened without these steel boxes.
26:5790% of what we eat and wear is shipped around the world in containers like these.
27:03And we have a man from North Carolina to thank for them.
27:07Malcolm MacLean, of whom there happens to be a photograph stuck to the front of this container,
27:12was a very impatient man.
27:14He got cross and bored, waiting for cargo to be loaded from the ship onto his truck.
27:19So he invented a steel box to put the cargo in,
27:22so you could move the box from the ship to the truck and back.
27:26Because MacLean's metal boxes were a standard size, they could be stacked on top of one another.
27:31And so was born the shipping container.
27:34Back in the 1950s, ships could accommodate around 50 of them.
27:38Today's megaships can carry over 20,000.
27:42Cranes in ports and even trucks have been designed to carry them.
27:46And at any one time, there are 20 million containers in service globally.
27:51The beauty is the simplicity of it.
27:54This invention has been compared to the invention of the wheel.
28:00It changed the world.
28:02Malcolm MacLean, he was a clever trucker.
28:05Oh, hello.
28:09Right, I'm here.
28:11Look, I'm back at the VW factory.
28:16Whilst American Malcolm MacLean's invention transformed shipping,
28:20an engineer from Japan did the same for mass manufacturing.
28:24But he didn't invent an object, he invented a process that changed how and when
28:29factories took delivery of the parts they needed on the assembly line,
28:33enabling this VW car plant in Germany to be the biggest car factory in the world.
28:39I shall now demonstrate the principle that revolutionised mass production
28:44by setting up a very modern sandwich factory.
28:47So here's the story.
28:48The traditional American model of car manufacturing was to get in all the parts
28:53you needed to make a load of cars all at once.
28:55That's my sandwich ingredients here.
28:56It took up a lot of space.
28:58Then to set about making a load of cars.
29:01Any colour, any colour at all.
29:02Just make them and put them out and hope people bought them.
29:05Like my big pile of sandwiches here.
29:07Then in the 1950s, along came a guy called Taichi Ono from Toyota,
29:11who realised, that's ridiculous.
29:13And he said, wait a minute.
29:15Why don't we wait until somebody's ordered a car?
29:18And then ordering the parts we need to make it to arrive just in time to make it.
29:23Then we know it'll go.
29:25It was efficient.
29:25It was fast.
29:26It's now the way pretty much everything mass produced is made.
29:30So these are orders for sandwiches that have come in from the crew.
29:34Over here is my new, smaller, streamlined warehouse.
29:38This is right next to my factory from where they're going to hold just about
29:41enough stock for the next three, four sandwiches, which you're going to deliver to me
29:45on my assembly line to put together in sequence and just in time.
29:49Right.
29:50Over here are our suppliers.
29:52They have a list of what's needed for the next four sandwiches each time of their own particular products.
29:58So they will be supplying to my warehouse.
30:00My warehouse will be supplying them to the assembly line and I'll be assembling them.
30:04It's utterly brilliant and it really can't go wrong.
30:09Okay.
30:10Could my remote suppliers please supply the warehouse with sufficient ingredients to make four sandwiches?
30:16Put that on there.
30:17Thank you very much.
30:18Just in time delivery of that first energy is done.
30:20Next one.
30:21Come on.
30:21When you consider that a car is made of 10,000 parts from 2,600 suppliers from all around the world,
30:29you realize how much bread and cheese that is and how precise delivery has to be.
30:35Quick!
30:37You've stopped my assembly line and you've dropped a tomato.
30:40We are not stockpiling cars, remember.
30:43In this example, each of these sandwiches has been ordered already.
30:47Sandwich ready.
30:48See, I don't think we could possibly have done this more quickly and by occupying less space with sandwich ingredients than we have done so far.
30:57Thank you very much.
30:58In my mind, I thought this might go horribly wrong.
31:01But these guys are, yeah, they're scientists, they're engineers.
31:06They're also Germans.
31:07Taichi Ono's just-in-time plan increased productivity and profit.
31:12And guess what?
31:13The idea caught on fast.
31:15So that now, thanks to this innovation, this mega car factory in Germany can turn out 800,000 cars a year.
31:24That was irritatingly brilliant.
31:26Thank you very much.
31:27Our new modern sandwich factory is open and available to take orders.
31:31Taichi Ono's innovation didn't just make mass manufacturing more efficient.
31:36It's the reason we have so much choice in what we order.
31:40But if I had to choose my favorite invention, it's the one that revolutionized air travel and made big aviation possible.
31:50The jet engine.
31:50Invented by Frank Whittle in the 1930s, the jet changed the world as we know it and powers everything from passenger jets to huge military cargo planes.
32:02I can feel it in my chest, the power it takes to get that into the air.
32:07It's allowed aircraft to fly further and faster.
32:10And as planes have gotten bigger and bigger, so have the engines.
32:15This monster is the GE9X.
32:18And Dave Groff is going to tell me how and why it's so big.
32:23This is it, Richard.
32:24This is the world's largest and most powerful jet engine.
32:28That's the kind of stats that that's an absolute, that's it.
32:30This whole engine is the size of the fuselage of a Boeing 737.
32:36Just the engine?
32:37Just the engine.
32:38134,000 pounds of thrust in the Guinness Book of World Records, just as of last week.
32:46This beast of an engine delivers more thrust than the rockets that put the first Americans in space.
32:52What did you have to do there to make this the biggest and most powerful jet engine in the world?
32:57Well, we've had to use all our latest technology, right?
33:00We have ceramic matrix composites.
33:03We have 3D printed parts in this engine.
33:07And we've advanced these fan blades, okay?
33:10These are carbon fiber fan blades, and they're bigger and badder than all of the other engines we've done before.
33:17Is this as big as you can get? Is this it?
33:20That's classified, Richard.
33:23Do you want to give it a spin?
33:24Just push it that way?
33:25Just, just, yep.
33:26I treat it as delicate.
33:28It must be the toughest thing that ever it can.
33:29It's not, it's super tough, you can do it.
33:31Oh, wow.
33:31And that's, this whole vast thing.
33:34That's how the little bearings are.
33:36That's it.
33:37That is absolutely monumental.
33:39It's pretty amazing.
33:40I don't want to be in here when it's at full speed.
33:42At any given moment, there are one and a quarter million people in the skies, in airplanes, being powered by jet engines.
33:49The world is now a much smaller place.
33:52And it's all thanks to Frank.
33:54Next, I join the heroes that make big possible.
33:59I think I might need to find a simpler job.
34:01And the extraordinary jobs they have to do.
34:04It's plenty high enough.
34:05I'm on a journey to find out how big engineering is changing our world.
34:21I've seen how technology has tamed the elements and how our future will involve working alongside robots.
34:29But my most surprising discovery is that despite all these advances in technology, it's people that are the most essential part of the way big is built and maintained.
34:40Often in unexpected ways.
34:45Thanks to a brilliant blend of machine and man, the giant Volkswagen factory in Germany is able to churn out one car every 16 seconds.
34:54So only when you see the assembly line close up for the first time, do you really appreciate how big, how complex this operation is.
35:02Thousands of jobs to be coordinated and orchestrated.
35:05The 20,000 humans on the assembly line have made themselves as efficient as the robots they work alongside by upgrading their tools in ingenious ways.
35:15I want to go on one of these. That is the thing for me.
35:19The magic chair.
35:21This floating chair was specially designed to help workers move quickly and effortlessly in and out of the vehicle they're building.
35:29But I'm not allowed anywhere near the production line until I've had a tutorial with Adrian in the training lab.
35:36This chair that you see here is one of our ergonomic chairs.
35:39It's basically to help you find an ergonomic position in the car without having to lean over and get back problems.
35:45Have yourself a seat.
35:47I'm having a seat.
35:48Now, you see this seat is too high, right? You've got to have your feet onto the ground.
35:53You could have broken that to me more gently. Yeah, I can't reach the ground.
35:57Right. This is where the joystick comes in handy. Move it up.
36:01That's worse.
36:02Or down.
36:03It's barely off the ground, is it?
36:05Right. Let me get it down a bit more.
36:09Now, you can pull yourself towards the car.
36:12And once you've reached the car, feet forward.
36:15Feet forward.
36:16Pull yourself in.
36:17Is that going to clear the car?
36:19And now we see that the seat is too low.
36:22For the shorter worker, it's a problem right there.
36:24Yeah. So that's why we've got to lift you up a bit.
36:26Okay.
36:27So you can pull yourself, watch your head.
36:28Mind my head?
36:29Pull yourself inside the car.
36:30I'm in the car.
36:31And now we've found the perfect position to reach the belt.
36:34Operating the custom-made chair is a skill in itself.
36:38And once workers have maneuvered themselves into the car,
36:41they have 60 seconds to install a seat belt.
36:44How hard can it be?
36:46Ready? Set.
36:47Yeah. Go.
36:48Right.
36:49Feet forwards. Mind head.
36:51Into the car.
36:52Into the car. Turn around.
36:53Spinning round.
36:54Now I've got this that doesn't go that way round.
36:56It goes this way round.
36:58Okay.
36:59Yep, that goes right there.
37:02You like that.
37:03I'll keep going.
37:07So the people next to me on the line,
37:09I presume by now might be getting a bit.
37:11They're going to be working on your nerves.
37:13Right.
37:14And then?
37:15Towards the bottom.
37:16Okay.
37:17And go.
37:18There you go.
37:19They pulled it out.
37:20I had it set the roll.
37:21It was undoing, not doing.
37:24Reverse that.
37:25Boom.
37:26Stop the clock.
37:28But you're still in the car.
37:29You've got to get out the car first.
37:31Oh, right.
37:33That's where your job is done.
37:34Oh, I left my tool in there.
37:36Is that bad?
37:37Yeah.
37:38Okay.
37:39Obviously, I've remembered this normally.
37:42I need that, and I need that.
37:44I've got to clear the field for the next person at work.
37:46Um, stop the clock.
37:48Three minutes and 14 seconds.
37:49I think I might need to find a simpler job.
37:53Excluding me, people still have a vital role in big manufacturing.
37:58Without them, this factory wouldn't be able to produce 800,000 cars a year.
38:05And humans aren't just needed to build big.
38:08They're also essential to keep these titans operational.
38:12Behemoths like the Mary Maersk still need mechanics.
38:18What are we doing?
38:19What's happening?
38:20Right, so I'm going to go in for the monthly crankcase inspection.
38:23Right, go on then.
38:24The engine that powers this ship across the oceans is so huge that engineer Liam has to climb inside it to make checks and repairs.
38:33If you're interested in medicine, this is like being able to climb inside a heart and just look around.
38:41Are you alive?
38:42Still alive.
38:43There is a man in the crankcase splashing about in the sump.
38:48It's absolutely doing my noggin.
38:54The bigger the engineering project, the bigger the job can be to keep the thing working.
38:59Working work, ships, planes, factories.
39:03They all have thousands of moving parts that require endless hours of maintenance to keep them functioning.
39:09But this huge dam is a single solid thing.
39:13So I thought that would make life simpler.
39:15I was wrong.
39:18This may be a 38 meter thick, 200 meter high wall of concrete, but it's not invincible.
39:25Holding back 200 million tons of water puts enormous strain on the dam.
39:31And it takes a team of engineers, led by Roman, to monitor it every day of the year.
39:36So now we'll take you deeper into the dam.
39:39Deeper into the dam?
39:40Yes, now we go down, but actually...
39:42Well, I don't like the locked door, Roman, that's alarmingly.
39:45Why is it locked? Is that to keep monsters in?
39:47Yes.
39:48We'll lock you down.
39:50How far down do we get?
39:51To the very bottom of the dam.
39:53Really? Yes.
39:53That's a lot of stairs.
39:55Yeah, these are 839 steps.
39:58Inside the dam, there's a labyrinth of tunnels, two miles of them.
40:02And dotted along their walls are an array of highly accurate sensors
40:06that allow Roman to measure the dam's vital signs.
40:10Just put that in there.
40:12Yeah, in there.
40:13That's it.
40:14So that I can remember it.
40:163.83.
40:183.83.
40:19Yes.
40:20Is that right?
40:21It is right, because the last measurement, again, was taken at a very low water level,
40:26and now we have a movement of a few millimetres.
40:28See, it's, well, five and a bit millimetres.
40:31Yes.
40:32And is that the whole dam?
40:34Yes, the dam was moving, yeah.
40:35By five millimetres?
40:36Five millimetres?
40:37Yeah.
40:38Five millimetres?
40:39Yes.
40:42I'm a little panicked by that thought, but it turns out, as the reservoir fills and empties
40:47over different seasons, the top of the dam moves by as much as 14 centimetres.
40:52So you're not worried that they do move a bit?
40:55No.
40:56The dam is breathing.
40:57Not collapsing?
40:58No.
40:59Doing what you expect?
41:00Yes.
41:01Breathing?
41:02Yeah.
41:03Okay, carry on.
41:04And it takes strict record keeping to make sure that it stays safe.
41:08Now we're at the dam control book.
41:10Every time we take measurements or do an inspection, we have to write a note into a book,
41:17because the authority checks it if we do regular measurements here.
41:21So you did some measurements, now you have to sign.
41:24Is this legally binding?
41:26Yeah, this is legally binding.
41:27Now something goes wrong.
41:28Now you're responsible for your measurements.
41:30Well, I'm just a tele-presenter, I'm not a dam engineer.
41:33So we put it back there and we keep it forever.
41:36Have you got good lawyers?
41:37This is for eternity.
41:41The bigger the engineering project, the bigger the job is in keeping the thing working.
41:47And when you build something as big as the Burj Khalifa, just keeping it clean is a mammoth undertaking.
41:54And one terrified presenter is joining the world's bravest window cleaners.
41:59The first day you did this, were you feeling like I'm feeling now?
42:03Yeah, first day of skating.
42:04Really?
42:05Yeah, yeah, yeah.
42:06For only one month or two months, after that is like same every day.
42:09After one month?
42:10Yeah, like playing every day.
42:12Yeah, yeah, okay.
42:14They're easing me in gently.
42:16We're cleaning the windows just a fifth of the way up.
42:19From here, it's plenty high enough.
42:22Very slowly.
42:24Let's go down.
42:25Dangling precariously off the side of the world's tallest building for a living takes nerves of steel.
42:33I could not do this for a job.
42:36It's not everyone's cup of tea.
42:38And after just a few minutes, I quit.
42:41I need a job where my feet are firmly on the ground.
42:44No, I can't. No.
42:45All you have to focus on is slowly going down.
42:50Slowly going down.
42:52Go down, go down.
42:55You're pretty much on the ground.
42:57Whoa, whoa.
42:58Slowly.
43:02And you're down.
43:04Would you do that again?
43:05No.
43:06Let alone every day.
43:08That's one of the things about big.
43:11Sometimes big can also be terrifying.
43:15But most of the time, big is awe-inspiring.
43:20Us humans have always been fascinated by size and scale.
43:24But today's massive structures are changing our world, improving our lives.
43:30And, well, they just keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
43:36And, well, they just keep getting bigger and bigger.