Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections: Formula One

 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.
 

Eight hundred horsepower purebreds, F1 cars cost millions of pounds to design and build. They require hundreds of people to ensure they just start, but they have a simple purpose: to go as fast as possible around a track for about two hours on a Sunday. Attaining huge speeds requires a precision-built engine, which maximises its power thanks to a revolutionary cannon, (which is like an open-ended engine cylinder). Richard fires his own home-made cannon to show how minimising what gunners called 'windage', the gap between the cannon ball (or piston) and the barrel (or cylinder) increases the power of the shot (or engine). With so much power F1 cars can hit easily 200mph - faster than a Jumbo Jet at take-off - and they too could become airborne. But those same wings that lift a Jumbo into the air can also press an F1 car into the ground. Richard takes his modified car to a wind tunnel and adds a ton of weight to it using wind alone, all thanks to a shape derived from the sails of ancient dhows.

Carbon fibre was pioneered by Rolls Royce as a new material for fan blades in jet engines. It is light but still stronger than stee, the sort of claim Richard can't resist testing and proving. F1 cars carry 200 litres of petrol in a tank that sits between the driver and a hot engine. To contain the fuel the engineers need a strong, light, puncture-proof tank. The answer is Kevlar, the same material used in body armour such as bullet-proof vests, which Richard tests with flaming arrows. Finally, Richard visits modern blacksmiths to see how the ancient technique of forging makes stronger swords - and F1 wheels.

BBC2 - Monday 16th May 2011 - 50 minutes

Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections: Burj Al Arab

Richard Hammond checks out the world's tallest and most distinctively shaped hotel, the 320-metre-high Burj Al Arab, or Arabian Tower. Rising from its own custom-built island, 300 metres off-shore, the sail-shaped building has already become one of the world's most recognisable buildings, and an icon for Dubai.
 

Constructing the island was the first engineering challenge. Protecting it from two-metre-high waves called for strong sea defences. Richard demonstrates the power of quite small waves by explosively releasing a ton of water just two metres above a coffee table. His second coffee table relies on a furniture protection system inspired by the Burj's sea defences. Tyres lashed together create spaces that absorb the destructive energy of the 'wave'.
 

Building in the extreme heat of the desert posed construction challenges due to steel expansion. The 85-metre steel trusses forming the hotel's exoskeleton were fitted together thanks to an ingenious solution inspired by an engine cam, a rotating mechanism which presses down on valves by moving eccentrically or off-centre. Clever rotating fixings were used, which allowed builders to move the fixing pin off-centre until the two holes married.
 

The Burj Al Arab is a high-tech palace: remote controls operate lights, doors, curtains, and climate control. Richard creates his own luxury hotel room, with a sophisticated lighting system, and watches it all go up in flames simply because of what dimmers do to the electrical current. The solution lies in a capacitor - the electrical component used to fire a camera flash.
 

Finally Richard reveals how the secret of the Burj's extraordinary and unnaturally glassy water fountains - achieved thanks to laminar flow - and a revolutionary fire hose.

BBC2 - Monday 9th May 2011 - 50 minutes

 

Rolf On Welsh Art

The exuberant Rolf Harris goes in search of some of the greatest artists to be inspired by Wales in a new series Rolf on Welsh Art (Wednesday 16 February, BBC One Wales).

In the series Rolf, whose own family hail from Merthyr Tydfil, looks at the landscapes and the people who inspired the late great Sir Kyffin Williams, Graham Sutherland, Josef Herman and Shani Rhys James - like Rolf, an Australian who has long lived in Britain.

And in each of the four episodes, Rolf tackles a tricky challenge - trying to paint a picture in the style of each of the artists.

BBC1 Wales. 16 February-9 March 2011. 4x30 Minutes