NextWorld (2008) s01e05 Episode Script
Future Flight
NARRATOR : We'll race through the skies along virtual highways.
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travel in planes that change their shape on the fly.
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and float on an ocean of air.
Technology is pushing from every direction, getting faster with each passing second.
Prepare yourself.
The future is closer than you think.
Air travel has been around for more than 1 00 years, and for lots of us, it's gotten pretty stale.
But now new ideas and technologies are opening up the skies in a whole new way, pointing toward a future where flying is more personal, more luxurious, and most of all, a lot more fun.
The future of aviation is a very personal future.
No more traveling around in flying buses but more something like you do in your car today.
NARRATOR : Coming innovations will erase the line between pilot and passenger and let us imagine a future where everybody flies.
HOLMES: l n the 20th century, we put wheels on America.
l n the 2 1 st century, we'll put wings on America.
NARRATOR : The first step in creating a future of universal flight is learning to see the skies not as a way to get from point ''A'' to point ''B'' but as a playground.
Want to see where the thrill rides of the future are being test-driven? Then, head out to the Mojave Desert and cover your ears.
This is the Rocket Racing League.
lt's an experimental sport in which next-generation rocket planes will go head-to-head through a virtual race course.
Call it NASCAR in the sky at nearly twice the speed.
WH lTELAW: Rocket racers take off side by side, two at a time, separated by about 30 seconds.
So in the race, you'll actually have 6 to 1 0 vehicles flying in a synthetic racetrack in the sky.
lt'll be the most dynamic, interactive racing sport of anything we've seen today.
NARRATOR : The sport's visionary is Granger Whitelaw, a winning l ndy team owner who, along with partner Peter Diamandis, decided that the thrill of racing shouldn't be limited to the ground.
WH lTELAW: We were at the l ndy 500, and he sat back and looked at the crowd.
He said, ''Granger, we should do this with rockets.
'' And l said, ''Peter, what are you talking about?'' Well, about 1 2 hours later, at 3:00 in the morning, eating Steak n Shake and some French fries, we had drawn the blueprint for the Rocket Racing League.
NARRATOR : The blueprint calls for mounted cameras and a futuristic display system that lets pilots and spectators see a three-dimensional, computer-generated track.
WH lTELAW: Close-up view, pilot's view, five cameras in the plane so you can see the planes beside you, in front of you, synthetic view.
lt's a 2 1 st-century sport for 2 1 st-century people using 2 1 st-century technology.
NARRATOR : And for the viewers in the stands, the sensations will be unforgettable.
WH lTELAW: Fans can smell the kerosene.
They can hear the low-thrust loud engine that shakes your chest.
NARRATOR : But actually getting this future sport off the ground will mean completely rethinking planes and propulsion.
The challenge -- how to combine ultralight vehicles with super-powerful rockets and how to do it safely.
WH lTELAW: lt's about aerospace, heroism.
The pilots in these planes are phenomenal guys.
Some have been flying in l raq on different missions protecting us here at home, and now they're out racing for you.
These pilots put themselves in the line of death every time they get in that rocket plane.
SEARFOSS: The dangers in a craft like this, as compared to just general aviation, first of all, is the fact that this engine and this propulsion system is still developmental.
NARRATOR : The heart of that new propulsion system is a closely guarded secret.
Hidden in a World War l l bunker in the middle of the desert is a rocket with enough thrust to launch you to the edge of space with an innovative cooling system that lets it power a small plane without ripping it to shreds.
But managing that much power is no easy feat.
SEARFOSS: This rocket racer -- it's a great hybrid of a glider on one hand, when the engine's turned off, and a screaming machine when you got the engine going.
Normally, this airplane has a speed limit of 200 knots, and you can exceed that in slightly more than 20 seconds, so you have to be on top of the airplane.
You can't get behind it, or you're gonna die.
We could crank the thrust up to 4, 000 or 5, 000 pounds, and it would rip the wings off.
NARRATOR : John Carmack is already a legend in one sport -- a developer of the first-person-shooter style in video games like ''Doom, '' ''Quake, '' and other groundbreaking series.
Now he's a rocketeer, partnering with the Rocket Racing League as the founder of Armadillo Aerospace outside Dallas.
CAR MACK: The way l look at it, just about anything is gonna be better with rockets.
NARRATOR : He's bringing the mind of a software engineer to the world of high-speed aeronautics.
CAR MACK: lt takes hundreds and hundreds of decisions to be made right, implemented correctly, debugged, and tested, and they all, in the end, do succumb to just solid engineering and hard work.
Rocket engine's like a loaded gun -- never put your face right down and look inside it.
NARRATOR : Russell Blink is an Armadillo Aerospace team member.
BLl NK: A rocket engine's almost always a controlled explosion.
The violence going on inside it is enough to liquefy any metal in a second.
NARRATOR : The Armadillo team is coming up with its own approach to rocket racing engines, using a fuel of liquid oxygen and ethanol and pressurizing the mixture with helium.
BLl NK: The pilot, when he flips the switch, is gonna get an instantaneous impact of 1 ''G'' of acceleration, and it doesn't stop.
lt just keeps on going and going until we run out of fuel.
NARRATOR : Taming the rocket's violence is the main goal of current testing.
Only trial and error can determine just how much power these small crafts can handle.
CAR MACK: Notify me when you're ready for actuators.
NARRATOR : Everything is tested, checked, and tested again half a dozen times.
CAR MACK: Everyone clear for a flume test.
LO X dump on.
Off.
We have helium pressure coming in on this manifold.
lt feeds here.
And then this is how much helium we're feeding into the system.
NARRATOR : All of these checks are necessary to ensure that nothing goes wrong.
CAR MACK: Arm your system.
Fire at will.
NARRATOR : Lots of trials and a few dramatic errors.
CAR MACK: lt looks like we do have a crack in the well, probably from thermal cycling.
That was probably the 30th or 40th start on that engine.
After seeing something like this, we'll take every action that we can possibly take.
lt's a failure that we haven't seen before, and that's the way this all works, where you have it all working right, then something that you haven't seen before winds up getting you.
Okay, debrief session in 1 0 minutes, but let's take the plane back to the hangar and pick up the debris before we wheel it through.
M l LBURN : For us, it was another day at the ranch.
We all say that we learn next to nothing from our successes.
We always learn more from our failures.
NARRATOR : Finding the perfect balance between power and agility will take lots of hard, dangerous work, and it will take time, but the payoffs could be huge and not just for race fans.
WH lTELAW: l n the Rocket Racing League, we're testing technologies that not only do our pilots race with but, hopefully, general aviation will be able to use someday.
For example, the heads-up display that a pilot sees as he flies through the gates -- today we could take that and put it in any airplane and create a safe road in the sky down to his home airport.
Biofuels and other types of fuels we're testing, hopefully, one day will enable us to get from New York to London much faster, much funner, at a much higher altitude.
That's the technology we're testing today in the Rocket Racing League.
NARRATOR : Rocket racing may become your favorite spectator sport, but the real future thrills will come from the plane you'll have for yourself.
You're gonna have an absolute blast in this thing.
NARRATOR : Fast, sleek, and sporty are buzzwords for personal vehicles in every category.
HAWKl NS: lf we asked people to go name a sport car, name a sport boat, think of a sport jet ski -- if l say think of a sport plane, odds are you have no idea what that is.
The reason is it hasn't existed until now.
NARRATOR : Former fighter pilot Kirk Hawkins is going to change that.
His lCON A5 will handle like a sports car with the top down, letting you fly in tight spaces, close to the surface, making you a part of the environment.
HAWKl NS: What this airplane is specifically designed to do is to bring back to aviation a lot of the fun and the adventure that early aviators knew so well, to bring back something that's not just about the functional utility of moving things from ''A'' to ''B.
'' This is about enjoying the amazing experience called flight.
NARRATOR : For the last few years, Hawkins has been designing lightweight and amphibious sport planes that are all about thrills.
HAWKl NS: l could tell you, hands down, the most fun flying you can possibly have is sport flying -- low-altitude, windows open, with your buddies, experiencing the planet in a way you never thought possible.
NARRATOR : The A5 model offers the air equivalent of everything that's exciting about a high-end sports car.
HAWKl NS: When you look at a Ferrari or a Porsche, the first thing it does is evoke this emotional, aspirational feel.
You go, '' l got to have that.
'' And you bring in things like the aesthetics.
How does it look? How does it feel? What's it like when you're not flying and you're hanging out in it? NARRATOR : lt's a plane designed with an easy learning curve with the idea that, if you can drive, you can fly.
Auto designers actually had a hand in its development.
HAWKl NS: You're gonna see a cockpit look like a sports car.
You're gonna go, '' l can do that.
'' NARRATOR : The A5 can hit a top speed of 1 20 miles an hour for getaways up to 350 miles, all on regular unleaded gasoline.
With its unique folding-wing design, the lCON is compact and versatile enough to earn a spot in your garage.
HAWKl NS: You can keep it at your house, treat it like a boat.
You can take it to the lake, launch it like a boat.
Fly it from a lake to an airport.
Lands on land or on water.
Unbelievable flying experience like nothing you've imagined.
The lCON A5 is the ultimate recreational vehicle.
NARRATOR : Having your own flying muscle car sounds pretty good, but how about having your own private fighter jet? The future of flight, to me, is being able to fly on my schedule, utilizing state-of-the-art technologies in first-class comfort and doing it at 500 miles an hour.
This is the future -- making aircraft stronger, lighter, and faster, like this aircraft.
NARRATOR : The Viper FanJet may look like an Air Force fighter, but it's built with the plush interior of a luxury car.
HANCHETTE: ltalian leather, Brazilian burlwood, full integrated flight system, autopilot.
All the things that you might expect on a corporate jet, the Viper FanJet has.
NARRATOR : But don't let its comforts fool you.
This machine was built for speed.
HANCHETTE: This aircraft, when you're sitting at the end of the runway, you're holding the brakes, you're powering up to 1 01 %, you have 2, 850 pounds of thrust.
You release the brakes, you're shoved in the back of your seat.
A thousand feet later, you're off the ground, literally almost going straight up, and you're 8, 000 to 1 2, 000 feet in one minute.
lt's exhilarating.
NARRATOR : The next generation of personal jets will be made possible by new techniques for lightweight materials, namely carbon-fiber composites.
They're created by combining carbon fibers with plastic resin, resulting in polymer tubes twice as stiff and about four times lighter than steel.
Composites allow freedom in engineering, design, low drag, more fuel efficiency, lighter weight, which equates to more performance.
NARRATOR : And more affordability.
While a corporate jet will set you back $20 million, you can own a Viper jet for a mere 400 grand.
And while the average corporate jet chugs over 400 gallons of fuel per hour in the air, the Viper only sips 55 gallons per hour.
Best of all, you won't have to pay for a pilot.
You'll head to your home hangar, pull your plane out, and go, because in the future, we'll be flying ourselves.
One day, you'll simply be able to get into your personal aircraft and push a button where the coordinates of your next destination will be preprogrammed, and the airplane will do everything on its own.
NARRATOR : And future airplanes might even cut out your trip to the airport altogether because other designers are working on radical experiments that might let you take off and land in your own backyard.
The future of flight is vertical takeoff and landing.
The reason l like the idea is you don't need an airport anymore.
You can go and land in any open spot or take off from any spot that is suitable for this.
NARRATOR : This is the holy grail of personal flight.
Vertical takeoff and landing, known as VTOL, is right now available only in a few military planes.
But if someone could figure out a way to do it in a small, safe, and inexpensive airplane, it could transform aviation.
Attila Melkuti thinks he's that someone.
M ELKUTl : Some people probably think, ''This guy's crazy.
He's going to kill himself.
'' One thing that's driving me is this dream, doing something that will advance our way we fly.
l think it's worth to take the risk.
NARRATOR : Crazy to some and a visionary to others, Attila Melkuti thinks he's close to figuring out a way to combine the vertical lift of a helicopter with the forward speed and range of a jet.
His prototype AMV-2 1 1 hasn't quite gotten off the ground yet, but Attila believes the world is ready for his invention.
Now in the 2 1 st century, it's about time to have flying machines like this.
NARRATOR : The core of his concept is this -- an 8-foot fan under the belly of the plane to give it its vertical lift.
As the plane rises, its angle changes, and eventually, the fan helps provide forward thrust.
M ELKUTl : When l fire up this plane, it sounds like music to my ears because l love the sound of the large propeller, and l have this turbine engine that sounds glamorous.
NARRATOR : To get his machine into the skies, Attila still has to work out problems of weight, power, and, most of all, stability.
M ELKUTl : l nitially, when l started testing on this aircraft, it was almost like you are taming a wild horse because this is so unusual of an aircraft that nobody did it like this before.
When l'm talking to the people in the ground control, they are all puzzled -- ''What kind of machine is this?'' NARRATOR : But if he can solve the design problems, he'll have achieved a dream that's been around for a very long time.
M ELKUTl : That's how the birds are doing already for billions of years, so us humans are getting to this point.
NARRATOR : l n the future, when you don't feel like piloting your own plane, you'll board luxury aircraft that will make you rethink commercial air travel.
We're trying to re-create that magic of flight.
NARRATOR : Pete Guard is a designer at Boeing's Concept Center.
GUARD: We're really trying to come to grips with personal space, the cultural norms about how people come together in tight quarters.
NARRATOR : He and his team are developing ways to make flying more majestic with cathedral-style entryways, skylights, and large windows.
They envision theatrical lighting to create day and night skies and are taking cues from Disney, Cirque du Soleil, even Hollywood.
Some of the novel techniques that we use are really looking at films -- films about future and science fiction.
NARRATOR : On Pete Guard's next-generation planes, you may find the world virtually at your feet as you explore your next destination.
You may choose to travel in a private pod or text with other passengers.
We're looking at social networks that may emerge on board or throughout your journey.
NARRATOR : So your future jumbo jet will raise the bar on luxury.
But just think what travel would be like in a five-star flying hotel.
EDSWORTHY: lt's an ocean-liner type of atmosphere but not the limitation of the ocean.
NARRATOR : Fred Edsworthy has a bold vision for a new kind of airship.
EDSWORTHY: lt's big as a football field.
lt begins to rise off the ground, move across the skyline, casting a huge shadow.
Everyone on the ground looking up in awe.
lt would be out of this world.
NARRATOR : The Aeroscraft is five stories high and is held aloft by a helium-filled bubble surrounding an interior of up to 30, 000 square feet.
lt will be the Queen Mary of the clouds that can take you where no ocean liner could.
EDSWORTHY: Can you imagine a 1 00-ton luxury tour vehicle where you're floating across plains in South Africa, viewing the wild animals at a very low altitude, very low noise impact, or floating across the Amazon? NARRATOR : This ship can hover just above the land or rise more than two miles for incomparable panoramas.
EDSWORTHY: Giving you a view across the city, 8, 000, 1 0, 000, 1 2, 000 feet above the ground -- it's gonna be a sought-after ride.
NARRATOR : Like the most luxurious cruise ships, the Aeroscraft will be a destination in itself.
When you're not looking out the huge windows, there are restaurants, theaters, and state rooms.
This isn't your grandfather's blimp.
EDSWORTHY: The traditional airship or blimp takes many, many people on the ground to control them, so what we've done with the Aeroscraft is developed a buoyancy-management system.
NARRATOR : The Aeroscraft keeps its massive weight aloft with the lighter-than-air qualities of helium and the lift of forward and rear fins.
But the real secret of its success is air used as ballast, taken in and released to change weight, crucial so that it can become heavy enough for its vertical landing.
And when the ship is not cruising, it could become your corporate headquarters anywhere you like.
EDSWORTHY: You take your entire office, float in to another country, land.
lt would be spectacular.
You would have people asking to get on board and come and visit you at your office.
NARRATOR : lts huge internal space would also allow the Aeroscraft to become a transport for troops, tanks, an entire fighting force, or a cargo vehicle, taking whole warehouses wherever they're needed.
EDSWORTHY: Just imagine with a very, very large cargo-bay area built into a complete hospital, bypassing the ports into the interior of the country.
NARRATOR : But for travelers, the Aeroscraft vision is to bring back the era of airships, when luxury was truly luxurious.
EDSWORTHY: M uch like going on a cruise on an ocean liner, we can return to those dreams that were built early in the '30s in a modern era today.
NARRATOR : Whether we're looking for speed or luxury, in the future, a lot more of us are going to be spending a lot more time flying.
So does that mean bumper-to-bumper traffic in the skies? The number of flights will double or triple within the next 20 to 30 years.
Push-button flying from point to point anywhere in the United States.
Where l want to go, when l want to go.
More and more people are gonna be able to travel in aircraft that really mimic more how they drive today.
NARRATOR : So is anybody really planning for a future in which we all fly, a future without mile-high traffic jams? These guys are.
l nstead of thinking about airspace as a scarcity, let's think about it as an abundance.
NARRATOR : Bruce Holmes was the chief strategist at NASA's Langley Research Center.
At his new company, DayJet, he's trying to widen the skies.
HOLMES: lf we could use airspace and airports that we do not use today, then we might have an abundance of airspace.
NARRATOR : How do we unlock that abundance? l n today's hub-and-spoke system, most of the 8 7, 000 airplanes per day in U.
S.
skies are funneled through just 3 1 airports.
That's because only the big airports have the high-tech control towers needed to manage the planes.
But what if the planes could manage themselves? A very significant effect is created when the intelligence that used to be on the ground is now in the airplane.
NARRATOR : Putting the intelligence in the plane means installing new satellite navigation systems, on-board weather-tracking systems, and advanced communication gear.
The result -- planes that can talk to each other and plan and execute their flight paths by themselves.
HOLMES: What you wind up with is this distributed intelligence that allows us to think about the nation's airspace in ways we haven't been able to think about before.
NARRATOR : For one thing, you could throw out the hub-and-spoke system and take off and land just about anywhere.
And a lot more planes could share the same stretch of sky.
HOLMES: l n the 20th century, our airways were 8 miles wide.
Well, instead of 8 miles wide, why not a few hundred feet wide? And that's what's possible with satellite navigation.
The next-gen system is the transformation of the air-transportation system from a ground-based, radar-based system to a satellite-based system that allows information to flow all across the system in a digitized manner.
NARRATOR : And if we can make the air-traffic system that smart, pilots don't have to be.
l n fact, you already know everything you need to know to fly a plane of the future.
lf you can operate a cellphone, you can run the systems to fly in tomorrow's digital airspace.
NARRATOR : Why should instrument-rated air jockeys have all the fun? Gordon Pratt is developing display and control systems that will let anyone fly a plane.
And he does mean anyone.
We took a friend's nephew, a 1 0-year-old kid, and he was able to fly a complete instrument approach right down to the runway.
He never was able to see over the dashboard.
NARRATOR : How is it possible for fourth graders to fly airplanes? By using a computerized cockpit display system called Highway-l n-The-Sky.
PRATT: Highway-l n-The-Sky takes all the mental gymnastics out of interpreting all the instruments that are on a typical panel.
NARRATOR : Altimeter, compass, airspeed -- forget the dials.
All you'll need to see is this.
PRATT: You just fly the airplane symbol through the boxes.
lt figures all of your turns.
lt figures your approach procedures.
lt corrects for the wind.
And it gives you your climbs and descents.
NARRATOR : The system takes in air traffic, weather, terrain, and other data and summarizes it all in one simple-to-follow path.
All you have to do is follow the virtual trail, like staying between the lines on the highway.
Even in its early forms, this system makes flying easy, fun, and incredibly safe.
PRATT: Commercial aviation in southeast Alaska has had a fatal accident every nine days, on average, because of terrain.
Since the implementation of our system, they haven't had a single accident of this nature in the last five years.
NARRATOR : Ultimately, the plane will be able to fly even when you can't.
PRATT: Should the pilot become incapacitated, an aircraft will automatically generate a course to the nearest airport with medical services, will fly to the airport, land, auto-brake, and taxi up to the terminal.
NARRATOR : All the on-board intelligence in our future flights means more choices in the air.
So when you board a plane, you won't have to cram yourself into a massive airliner.
Soon you'll be able to fly when and what you want.
RABURN : No longer will you have to choose to only fly in a big, airborne bus.
You're gonna be able to fly in an airplane that's like the one behind me.
NARRATOR : Planes like the Eclipse, known as very light jets, may be your best choice for flying the sky highways of the future.
RABURN : lt's a vision of a much more personal form of aviation than what most people are used to today.
NARRATOR : Small and cheap to operate, very light jets can fly some 1 , 500 miles at 400 miles an hour and are designed to land on short runways so you can go places no airline will take you.
Maybe l'll get in one of these very light jets, approximately the size of an S.
U.
V.
, and take my family for a vacation.
NARRATOR : Whether or not you want to be in the pilot's seat, very light jets, combined with next-generation network avionics, just may transform the way you use the skies.
M ERKLE: Maybe you'll just walk outside and hail an aircraft that'll take you directly to your destination.
The future of flight's very exciting.
We're only one century into this.
NARRATOR : While the next generation of flight will bring us ocean liners in the air, some innovative designers are looking to the sea for their inspiration, opening up a window on an entirely new way of flying.
This is the future, and it's 500 million years old.
Markus Fischer is the head of design for Festo, a future-flight think tank, where they're creating radical new approaches to flight, clearing the way for others to develop future applications.
By watching ancient creatures of the deep, Festo is coming up with new designs to reach the heights.
Peristaltic motion is like the opening and closing of an umbrella.
Jellyfish move forward by opening their circular mantle, called a bell, and then expelling the water below.
Festo's AirJelly works much the same way, except it's pushing air with its tentacles.
lt's the first time peristaltic propulsion has ever been used in the air, a whole new approach for future flight and one that could lead to a new class of aircraft.
The manta ray and the motion of its winglike pectoral fins is inspiration for another Festo creation.
The Air Ray is a helium ballonet within an elastic polymer that gives the craft its 1 4-foot wingspan.
The fluid muscle movement of a beating wing is created by a small servo motor that bends the wing in a Fin Ray motion.
lt's covered by a treated aluminum skin, and all of it is made by hand.
NARRATOR : For Festo, these have been explorations into new ways of using air.
They were not created with specific applications in mind, but Markus Fischer believes one day devices like this could be a smart, low-cost way to ferry people and packages around town.
l magine AirJelly taxis or Air Ray couriers dotting the skyline.
And they can be made more cost-effective by taking another tip from the world around us.
Lessons from nature that could lead to lighter, more efficient, more affordable aircraft.
[ Seagulls squawking .]
Flying will be easier because planes will someday have adaptable wings and bodies that will give them the agility of a bird.
We have developed technologies for the first time in the world where the airplane wing can change shape as needed.
NARRATOR : What if planes were not rigid? What if their wings and tails could instinctively change shape, responding and maneuvering like a bird? NextGen Aeronautics envisions next-generation smart planes that can reinvent themselves as they streak through the clouds.
The future of flight is morphing technology.
The future of flight is cognitive aircraft.
The future of flight is to infuse enormous amount of intelligence into the airplane.
NARRATOR : Birds are smart enough to adapt their shape to weather and air currents for gliding, climbing, diving, hovering.
Planes will, too.
KUDVA: One minute, it could have a large-aspect ratio, flying at a high altitude.
Then it could tuck its wing in, changes, reduce its aspect ratio, dive down.
NARRATOR : This kind of efficiency will create versatile, flexible planes.
One airplane that could do three or four different missions that certain airplanes right now could only do one mission.
NARRATOR : l magine a jumbo jet hovering like a helicopter or a cargo plane moving like a jet fighter.
But are flexible planes possible? KUDVA: Nobody believed we could build a skin which is not like aluminum.
l nnovation came in the way we supported it underneath it so that it doesn't collapse or it doesn't wrinkle too much.
NARRATOR : But these future high-tech planes will have skins made from surprisingly low-tech material -- rubber.
FLANAGAN : lt stretches up to over 600 %.
We actually use that rubber to attach to substructure.
That structure can handle the air pressure exerted on the wing and the forces that an airplane sees during flight.
KUDVA: lt could be bending, twisting, flexing, vibrating.
All of it is captured by the sensors in real time at a very high data rate and communicated to the center of a computer.
NARRATOR : Sensors stretched across the plane provide the feedback for decisions.
SM lTH : The strain arrays give the aircraft computer a better indication of the exact state of the airframe, so the airplane can fly closer to its structural limits, as in it can fly harder, faster.
KUDVA: lt makes decision on whether something is wrong and how critical it is and what to do about it.
So it not only monitors the health, it manages itself.
NARRATOR : And that will lead to intelligent planes that fly faster, use less fuel, and are more versatile.
KUDVA: This is the beginning.
This is the beginning of this kind of adaptable, autonomous, aware, intelligent technologies.
NARRATOR : The future promises a return to the magic and luxury of flying and experiences that are truly out of this world.
Get ready to be weightless.
Get ready to leave Earth.
BRANSON : The beauty of space is enormous, and man's natural instinct is to explore.
NARRATOR : Billionaire Sir Richard Branson is expanding his air empire with Virgin Galactic, set to become the first commercial enterprise to take tourists into space.
l remember, as a teenager, just dreaming of one day being able to go into space myself and really then waiting for NASA to develop spaceships that would enable you and me to be able to go into space.
Anyway, it never happened, so in the end l decided maybe l need to build my own spaceship.
NARRATOR : Branson wants as many people as possible to see the Earth from space, to appreciate just how unique it is, and to enjoy the ride of their lives.
BRANSON : They'll be taken up 60, 000 feet by the mother ship.
They'll then go 2, 500 miles an hour in 1 0 seconds.
They'll have one hell of a rush as they head off into space.
They'll become astronauts.
NARRATOR : His team believes the venture will help develop environmentally friendly energy sources, as well as far lighter air vehicles.
WH lTEHORN : Our new WhiteKnightTwo mother ship for Virgin Galactic will actually be able to carry nearly 1 4 tons of weight underneath it.
lt'll do that with about the efficiency of a large American S.
U.
V.
truck.
NARRATOR : Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn sees the company becoming the space truckers of the future.
The mother ship could bring down the cost of ferrying satellites, carry commercial operations into space, and even help to clean the planet by moving ventures like computer-server farms beyond the atmosphere.
lf we could take all the ground infrastructure of l .
T.
and put server farms in space instead, solar-powered, we'd take out one of the biggest causes now of CO2 going into the atmosphere.
NARRATOR : With space, the final frontier for tourism, Branson won't be the only one offering passenger flights to the heavens.
Hugues Laporte-Weywada heads the Astrium Space Plane project for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company.
While Virgin Galactic uses a mother ship to carry a spacecraft aloft, the Astrium spacecraft streaks skyward right from Mother Earth.
And while you're floating, you'll also get a new perspective.
NEWSON : You're actually in space looking back at the Earth because that's kind of what it's all about -- seeing the Earth as sort of an independent body.
You've experienced something really, really, really special.
NARRATOR : Adventures in space during the early years will be limited to minutes.
The Space Plane's forward-looking designer, Marc Newson, envisions a future where flights like these will be used to radically reduce international travel time.
NEWSON : The way that we're going to get from London to Sydney in a matter of three or four hours is going up to 1 00 kilometers high and then coming back down.
NARRATOR : lt's a new way of traveling, offering all of us an opportunity to experience our universe in a way very few have seen it.
NEWSON : Just to go into space, at least for a few minutes -- this has got to be one of the coolest things in the world.
l n fact, to me, it doesn't matter how long you go.
The fact that you've just gone there at all is just a completely mind-boggling concept.
NARRATOR : But we won't only fly above our own planet.
The future will find planes carrying us on explorations of distant worlds in our solar system and beyond.
LEVl NE: We are proposing a robotic, rocket-powered airplane that flies about a mile above the surface and travels for thousands of miles.
NARRATOR : This is ARES, designed to make the first powered flight through the atmosphere of another planet.
Joel Levine of NASA's Langley Research Center sees this aircraft first flying on Mars, literally sniffing out signs of life.
LEVl NE: ARES will measure gases that are only produced by living systems.
We can then tell the next rover or eventually human explorers where to look for the most likely place to find living systems.
NARRATOR : While the plane's early flights will be as a scout, it's eventually envisioned as a passenger craft.
But taking a plane to another planet has its challenges, since an airplane has to have an atmosphere in order to fly.
LEVl NE: We developed ARES with a large wing-surface area and an airfoil with a curvature that would give us the lift in a very rarified atmosphere.
NARRATOR : Because of that thin atmosphere, flight testing is also a challenge.
ARES has undergone extensive wind-tunnel tests to perfect its aerodynamics, and a model has been put through maneuvers at dizzying heights.
LEVl NE: We used actual flight tests in the Earth's atmosphere above 1 25, 000 feet, which simulates the pressure and density of the atmosphere where we'll be flying.
NARRATOR : ARES will then be tucked into an aeroshell for its half-year flight and its dramatic descent.
LEVl NE: As it enters the atmosphere, the airplane unfolds, and the rocket engine begins, and it begins its flight through the atmosphere of Mars.
NARRATOR : And when it finally gets to the planet's surface, we'll all be along for the historic ride.
LEVl NE: We have a video camera in the tail of the plane, and as we fly through the atmosphere of Mars, we will transmit this journey, this exciting journey back to Earth all over the planet.
NARRATOR : The future is the place where your imagination will take flight.
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because you'll pilot your own plane along a sky highway, cruise in luxury on ocean liners in the air, enjoy the speed and thrills of sport flying and rocket racing.
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fly planes that change shape in midair, never have another layover or delay, and blast off beyond the limits of Earth.
Prepare for takeoff.
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travel in planes that change their shape on the fly.
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and float on an ocean of air.
Technology is pushing from every direction, getting faster with each passing second.
Prepare yourself.
The future is closer than you think.
Air travel has been around for more than 1 00 years, and for lots of us, it's gotten pretty stale.
But now new ideas and technologies are opening up the skies in a whole new way, pointing toward a future where flying is more personal, more luxurious, and most of all, a lot more fun.
The future of aviation is a very personal future.
No more traveling around in flying buses but more something like you do in your car today.
NARRATOR : Coming innovations will erase the line between pilot and passenger and let us imagine a future where everybody flies.
HOLMES: l n the 20th century, we put wheels on America.
l n the 2 1 st century, we'll put wings on America.
NARRATOR : The first step in creating a future of universal flight is learning to see the skies not as a way to get from point ''A'' to point ''B'' but as a playground.
Want to see where the thrill rides of the future are being test-driven? Then, head out to the Mojave Desert and cover your ears.
This is the Rocket Racing League.
lt's an experimental sport in which next-generation rocket planes will go head-to-head through a virtual race course.
Call it NASCAR in the sky at nearly twice the speed.
WH lTELAW: Rocket racers take off side by side, two at a time, separated by about 30 seconds.
So in the race, you'll actually have 6 to 1 0 vehicles flying in a synthetic racetrack in the sky.
lt'll be the most dynamic, interactive racing sport of anything we've seen today.
NARRATOR : The sport's visionary is Granger Whitelaw, a winning l ndy team owner who, along with partner Peter Diamandis, decided that the thrill of racing shouldn't be limited to the ground.
WH lTELAW: We were at the l ndy 500, and he sat back and looked at the crowd.
He said, ''Granger, we should do this with rockets.
'' And l said, ''Peter, what are you talking about?'' Well, about 1 2 hours later, at 3:00 in the morning, eating Steak n Shake and some French fries, we had drawn the blueprint for the Rocket Racing League.
NARRATOR : The blueprint calls for mounted cameras and a futuristic display system that lets pilots and spectators see a three-dimensional, computer-generated track.
WH lTELAW: Close-up view, pilot's view, five cameras in the plane so you can see the planes beside you, in front of you, synthetic view.
lt's a 2 1 st-century sport for 2 1 st-century people using 2 1 st-century technology.
NARRATOR : And for the viewers in the stands, the sensations will be unforgettable.
WH lTELAW: Fans can smell the kerosene.
They can hear the low-thrust loud engine that shakes your chest.
NARRATOR : But actually getting this future sport off the ground will mean completely rethinking planes and propulsion.
The challenge -- how to combine ultralight vehicles with super-powerful rockets and how to do it safely.
WH lTELAW: lt's about aerospace, heroism.
The pilots in these planes are phenomenal guys.
Some have been flying in l raq on different missions protecting us here at home, and now they're out racing for you.
These pilots put themselves in the line of death every time they get in that rocket plane.
SEARFOSS: The dangers in a craft like this, as compared to just general aviation, first of all, is the fact that this engine and this propulsion system is still developmental.
NARRATOR : The heart of that new propulsion system is a closely guarded secret.
Hidden in a World War l l bunker in the middle of the desert is a rocket with enough thrust to launch you to the edge of space with an innovative cooling system that lets it power a small plane without ripping it to shreds.
But managing that much power is no easy feat.
SEARFOSS: This rocket racer -- it's a great hybrid of a glider on one hand, when the engine's turned off, and a screaming machine when you got the engine going.
Normally, this airplane has a speed limit of 200 knots, and you can exceed that in slightly more than 20 seconds, so you have to be on top of the airplane.
You can't get behind it, or you're gonna die.
We could crank the thrust up to 4, 000 or 5, 000 pounds, and it would rip the wings off.
NARRATOR : John Carmack is already a legend in one sport -- a developer of the first-person-shooter style in video games like ''Doom, '' ''Quake, '' and other groundbreaking series.
Now he's a rocketeer, partnering with the Rocket Racing League as the founder of Armadillo Aerospace outside Dallas.
CAR MACK: The way l look at it, just about anything is gonna be better with rockets.
NARRATOR : He's bringing the mind of a software engineer to the world of high-speed aeronautics.
CAR MACK: lt takes hundreds and hundreds of decisions to be made right, implemented correctly, debugged, and tested, and they all, in the end, do succumb to just solid engineering and hard work.
Rocket engine's like a loaded gun -- never put your face right down and look inside it.
NARRATOR : Russell Blink is an Armadillo Aerospace team member.
BLl NK: A rocket engine's almost always a controlled explosion.
The violence going on inside it is enough to liquefy any metal in a second.
NARRATOR : The Armadillo team is coming up with its own approach to rocket racing engines, using a fuel of liquid oxygen and ethanol and pressurizing the mixture with helium.
BLl NK: The pilot, when he flips the switch, is gonna get an instantaneous impact of 1 ''G'' of acceleration, and it doesn't stop.
lt just keeps on going and going until we run out of fuel.
NARRATOR : Taming the rocket's violence is the main goal of current testing.
Only trial and error can determine just how much power these small crafts can handle.
CAR MACK: Notify me when you're ready for actuators.
NARRATOR : Everything is tested, checked, and tested again half a dozen times.
CAR MACK: Everyone clear for a flume test.
LO X dump on.
Off.
We have helium pressure coming in on this manifold.
lt feeds here.
And then this is how much helium we're feeding into the system.
NARRATOR : All of these checks are necessary to ensure that nothing goes wrong.
CAR MACK: Arm your system.
Fire at will.
NARRATOR : Lots of trials and a few dramatic errors.
CAR MACK: lt looks like we do have a crack in the well, probably from thermal cycling.
That was probably the 30th or 40th start on that engine.
After seeing something like this, we'll take every action that we can possibly take.
lt's a failure that we haven't seen before, and that's the way this all works, where you have it all working right, then something that you haven't seen before winds up getting you.
Okay, debrief session in 1 0 minutes, but let's take the plane back to the hangar and pick up the debris before we wheel it through.
M l LBURN : For us, it was another day at the ranch.
We all say that we learn next to nothing from our successes.
We always learn more from our failures.
NARRATOR : Finding the perfect balance between power and agility will take lots of hard, dangerous work, and it will take time, but the payoffs could be huge and not just for race fans.
WH lTELAW: l n the Rocket Racing League, we're testing technologies that not only do our pilots race with but, hopefully, general aviation will be able to use someday.
For example, the heads-up display that a pilot sees as he flies through the gates -- today we could take that and put it in any airplane and create a safe road in the sky down to his home airport.
Biofuels and other types of fuels we're testing, hopefully, one day will enable us to get from New York to London much faster, much funner, at a much higher altitude.
That's the technology we're testing today in the Rocket Racing League.
NARRATOR : Rocket racing may become your favorite spectator sport, but the real future thrills will come from the plane you'll have for yourself.
You're gonna have an absolute blast in this thing.
NARRATOR : Fast, sleek, and sporty are buzzwords for personal vehicles in every category.
HAWKl NS: lf we asked people to go name a sport car, name a sport boat, think of a sport jet ski -- if l say think of a sport plane, odds are you have no idea what that is.
The reason is it hasn't existed until now.
NARRATOR : Former fighter pilot Kirk Hawkins is going to change that.
His lCON A5 will handle like a sports car with the top down, letting you fly in tight spaces, close to the surface, making you a part of the environment.
HAWKl NS: What this airplane is specifically designed to do is to bring back to aviation a lot of the fun and the adventure that early aviators knew so well, to bring back something that's not just about the functional utility of moving things from ''A'' to ''B.
'' This is about enjoying the amazing experience called flight.
NARRATOR : For the last few years, Hawkins has been designing lightweight and amphibious sport planes that are all about thrills.
HAWKl NS: l could tell you, hands down, the most fun flying you can possibly have is sport flying -- low-altitude, windows open, with your buddies, experiencing the planet in a way you never thought possible.
NARRATOR : The A5 model offers the air equivalent of everything that's exciting about a high-end sports car.
HAWKl NS: When you look at a Ferrari or a Porsche, the first thing it does is evoke this emotional, aspirational feel.
You go, '' l got to have that.
'' And you bring in things like the aesthetics.
How does it look? How does it feel? What's it like when you're not flying and you're hanging out in it? NARRATOR : lt's a plane designed with an easy learning curve with the idea that, if you can drive, you can fly.
Auto designers actually had a hand in its development.
HAWKl NS: You're gonna see a cockpit look like a sports car.
You're gonna go, '' l can do that.
'' NARRATOR : The A5 can hit a top speed of 1 20 miles an hour for getaways up to 350 miles, all on regular unleaded gasoline.
With its unique folding-wing design, the lCON is compact and versatile enough to earn a spot in your garage.
HAWKl NS: You can keep it at your house, treat it like a boat.
You can take it to the lake, launch it like a boat.
Fly it from a lake to an airport.
Lands on land or on water.
Unbelievable flying experience like nothing you've imagined.
The lCON A5 is the ultimate recreational vehicle.
NARRATOR : Having your own flying muscle car sounds pretty good, but how about having your own private fighter jet? The future of flight, to me, is being able to fly on my schedule, utilizing state-of-the-art technologies in first-class comfort and doing it at 500 miles an hour.
This is the future -- making aircraft stronger, lighter, and faster, like this aircraft.
NARRATOR : The Viper FanJet may look like an Air Force fighter, but it's built with the plush interior of a luxury car.
HANCHETTE: ltalian leather, Brazilian burlwood, full integrated flight system, autopilot.
All the things that you might expect on a corporate jet, the Viper FanJet has.
NARRATOR : But don't let its comforts fool you.
This machine was built for speed.
HANCHETTE: This aircraft, when you're sitting at the end of the runway, you're holding the brakes, you're powering up to 1 01 %, you have 2, 850 pounds of thrust.
You release the brakes, you're shoved in the back of your seat.
A thousand feet later, you're off the ground, literally almost going straight up, and you're 8, 000 to 1 2, 000 feet in one minute.
lt's exhilarating.
NARRATOR : The next generation of personal jets will be made possible by new techniques for lightweight materials, namely carbon-fiber composites.
They're created by combining carbon fibers with plastic resin, resulting in polymer tubes twice as stiff and about four times lighter than steel.
Composites allow freedom in engineering, design, low drag, more fuel efficiency, lighter weight, which equates to more performance.
NARRATOR : And more affordability.
While a corporate jet will set you back $20 million, you can own a Viper jet for a mere 400 grand.
And while the average corporate jet chugs over 400 gallons of fuel per hour in the air, the Viper only sips 55 gallons per hour.
Best of all, you won't have to pay for a pilot.
You'll head to your home hangar, pull your plane out, and go, because in the future, we'll be flying ourselves.
One day, you'll simply be able to get into your personal aircraft and push a button where the coordinates of your next destination will be preprogrammed, and the airplane will do everything on its own.
NARRATOR : And future airplanes might even cut out your trip to the airport altogether because other designers are working on radical experiments that might let you take off and land in your own backyard.
The future of flight is vertical takeoff and landing.
The reason l like the idea is you don't need an airport anymore.
You can go and land in any open spot or take off from any spot that is suitable for this.
NARRATOR : This is the holy grail of personal flight.
Vertical takeoff and landing, known as VTOL, is right now available only in a few military planes.
But if someone could figure out a way to do it in a small, safe, and inexpensive airplane, it could transform aviation.
Attila Melkuti thinks he's that someone.
M ELKUTl : Some people probably think, ''This guy's crazy.
He's going to kill himself.
'' One thing that's driving me is this dream, doing something that will advance our way we fly.
l think it's worth to take the risk.
NARRATOR : Crazy to some and a visionary to others, Attila Melkuti thinks he's close to figuring out a way to combine the vertical lift of a helicopter with the forward speed and range of a jet.
His prototype AMV-2 1 1 hasn't quite gotten off the ground yet, but Attila believes the world is ready for his invention.
Now in the 2 1 st century, it's about time to have flying machines like this.
NARRATOR : The core of his concept is this -- an 8-foot fan under the belly of the plane to give it its vertical lift.
As the plane rises, its angle changes, and eventually, the fan helps provide forward thrust.
M ELKUTl : When l fire up this plane, it sounds like music to my ears because l love the sound of the large propeller, and l have this turbine engine that sounds glamorous.
NARRATOR : To get his machine into the skies, Attila still has to work out problems of weight, power, and, most of all, stability.
M ELKUTl : l nitially, when l started testing on this aircraft, it was almost like you are taming a wild horse because this is so unusual of an aircraft that nobody did it like this before.
When l'm talking to the people in the ground control, they are all puzzled -- ''What kind of machine is this?'' NARRATOR : But if he can solve the design problems, he'll have achieved a dream that's been around for a very long time.
M ELKUTl : That's how the birds are doing already for billions of years, so us humans are getting to this point.
NARRATOR : l n the future, when you don't feel like piloting your own plane, you'll board luxury aircraft that will make you rethink commercial air travel.
We're trying to re-create that magic of flight.
NARRATOR : Pete Guard is a designer at Boeing's Concept Center.
GUARD: We're really trying to come to grips with personal space, the cultural norms about how people come together in tight quarters.
NARRATOR : He and his team are developing ways to make flying more majestic with cathedral-style entryways, skylights, and large windows.
They envision theatrical lighting to create day and night skies and are taking cues from Disney, Cirque du Soleil, even Hollywood.
Some of the novel techniques that we use are really looking at films -- films about future and science fiction.
NARRATOR : On Pete Guard's next-generation planes, you may find the world virtually at your feet as you explore your next destination.
You may choose to travel in a private pod or text with other passengers.
We're looking at social networks that may emerge on board or throughout your journey.
NARRATOR : So your future jumbo jet will raise the bar on luxury.
But just think what travel would be like in a five-star flying hotel.
EDSWORTHY: lt's an ocean-liner type of atmosphere but not the limitation of the ocean.
NARRATOR : Fred Edsworthy has a bold vision for a new kind of airship.
EDSWORTHY: lt's big as a football field.
lt begins to rise off the ground, move across the skyline, casting a huge shadow.
Everyone on the ground looking up in awe.
lt would be out of this world.
NARRATOR : The Aeroscraft is five stories high and is held aloft by a helium-filled bubble surrounding an interior of up to 30, 000 square feet.
lt will be the Queen Mary of the clouds that can take you where no ocean liner could.
EDSWORTHY: Can you imagine a 1 00-ton luxury tour vehicle where you're floating across plains in South Africa, viewing the wild animals at a very low altitude, very low noise impact, or floating across the Amazon? NARRATOR : This ship can hover just above the land or rise more than two miles for incomparable panoramas.
EDSWORTHY: Giving you a view across the city, 8, 000, 1 0, 000, 1 2, 000 feet above the ground -- it's gonna be a sought-after ride.
NARRATOR : Like the most luxurious cruise ships, the Aeroscraft will be a destination in itself.
When you're not looking out the huge windows, there are restaurants, theaters, and state rooms.
This isn't your grandfather's blimp.
EDSWORTHY: The traditional airship or blimp takes many, many people on the ground to control them, so what we've done with the Aeroscraft is developed a buoyancy-management system.
NARRATOR : The Aeroscraft keeps its massive weight aloft with the lighter-than-air qualities of helium and the lift of forward and rear fins.
But the real secret of its success is air used as ballast, taken in and released to change weight, crucial so that it can become heavy enough for its vertical landing.
And when the ship is not cruising, it could become your corporate headquarters anywhere you like.
EDSWORTHY: You take your entire office, float in to another country, land.
lt would be spectacular.
You would have people asking to get on board and come and visit you at your office.
NARRATOR : lts huge internal space would also allow the Aeroscraft to become a transport for troops, tanks, an entire fighting force, or a cargo vehicle, taking whole warehouses wherever they're needed.
EDSWORTHY: Just imagine with a very, very large cargo-bay area built into a complete hospital, bypassing the ports into the interior of the country.
NARRATOR : But for travelers, the Aeroscraft vision is to bring back the era of airships, when luxury was truly luxurious.
EDSWORTHY: M uch like going on a cruise on an ocean liner, we can return to those dreams that were built early in the '30s in a modern era today.
NARRATOR : Whether we're looking for speed or luxury, in the future, a lot more of us are going to be spending a lot more time flying.
So does that mean bumper-to-bumper traffic in the skies? The number of flights will double or triple within the next 20 to 30 years.
Push-button flying from point to point anywhere in the United States.
Where l want to go, when l want to go.
More and more people are gonna be able to travel in aircraft that really mimic more how they drive today.
NARRATOR : So is anybody really planning for a future in which we all fly, a future without mile-high traffic jams? These guys are.
l nstead of thinking about airspace as a scarcity, let's think about it as an abundance.
NARRATOR : Bruce Holmes was the chief strategist at NASA's Langley Research Center.
At his new company, DayJet, he's trying to widen the skies.
HOLMES: lf we could use airspace and airports that we do not use today, then we might have an abundance of airspace.
NARRATOR : How do we unlock that abundance? l n today's hub-and-spoke system, most of the 8 7, 000 airplanes per day in U.
S.
skies are funneled through just 3 1 airports.
That's because only the big airports have the high-tech control towers needed to manage the planes.
But what if the planes could manage themselves? A very significant effect is created when the intelligence that used to be on the ground is now in the airplane.
NARRATOR : Putting the intelligence in the plane means installing new satellite navigation systems, on-board weather-tracking systems, and advanced communication gear.
The result -- planes that can talk to each other and plan and execute their flight paths by themselves.
HOLMES: What you wind up with is this distributed intelligence that allows us to think about the nation's airspace in ways we haven't been able to think about before.
NARRATOR : For one thing, you could throw out the hub-and-spoke system and take off and land just about anywhere.
And a lot more planes could share the same stretch of sky.
HOLMES: l n the 20th century, our airways were 8 miles wide.
Well, instead of 8 miles wide, why not a few hundred feet wide? And that's what's possible with satellite navigation.
The next-gen system is the transformation of the air-transportation system from a ground-based, radar-based system to a satellite-based system that allows information to flow all across the system in a digitized manner.
NARRATOR : And if we can make the air-traffic system that smart, pilots don't have to be.
l n fact, you already know everything you need to know to fly a plane of the future.
lf you can operate a cellphone, you can run the systems to fly in tomorrow's digital airspace.
NARRATOR : Why should instrument-rated air jockeys have all the fun? Gordon Pratt is developing display and control systems that will let anyone fly a plane.
And he does mean anyone.
We took a friend's nephew, a 1 0-year-old kid, and he was able to fly a complete instrument approach right down to the runway.
He never was able to see over the dashboard.
NARRATOR : How is it possible for fourth graders to fly airplanes? By using a computerized cockpit display system called Highway-l n-The-Sky.
PRATT: Highway-l n-The-Sky takes all the mental gymnastics out of interpreting all the instruments that are on a typical panel.
NARRATOR : Altimeter, compass, airspeed -- forget the dials.
All you'll need to see is this.
PRATT: You just fly the airplane symbol through the boxes.
lt figures all of your turns.
lt figures your approach procedures.
lt corrects for the wind.
And it gives you your climbs and descents.
NARRATOR : The system takes in air traffic, weather, terrain, and other data and summarizes it all in one simple-to-follow path.
All you have to do is follow the virtual trail, like staying between the lines on the highway.
Even in its early forms, this system makes flying easy, fun, and incredibly safe.
PRATT: Commercial aviation in southeast Alaska has had a fatal accident every nine days, on average, because of terrain.
Since the implementation of our system, they haven't had a single accident of this nature in the last five years.
NARRATOR : Ultimately, the plane will be able to fly even when you can't.
PRATT: Should the pilot become incapacitated, an aircraft will automatically generate a course to the nearest airport with medical services, will fly to the airport, land, auto-brake, and taxi up to the terminal.
NARRATOR : All the on-board intelligence in our future flights means more choices in the air.
So when you board a plane, you won't have to cram yourself into a massive airliner.
Soon you'll be able to fly when and what you want.
RABURN : No longer will you have to choose to only fly in a big, airborne bus.
You're gonna be able to fly in an airplane that's like the one behind me.
NARRATOR : Planes like the Eclipse, known as very light jets, may be your best choice for flying the sky highways of the future.
RABURN : lt's a vision of a much more personal form of aviation than what most people are used to today.
NARRATOR : Small and cheap to operate, very light jets can fly some 1 , 500 miles at 400 miles an hour and are designed to land on short runways so you can go places no airline will take you.
Maybe l'll get in one of these very light jets, approximately the size of an S.
U.
V.
, and take my family for a vacation.
NARRATOR : Whether or not you want to be in the pilot's seat, very light jets, combined with next-generation network avionics, just may transform the way you use the skies.
M ERKLE: Maybe you'll just walk outside and hail an aircraft that'll take you directly to your destination.
The future of flight's very exciting.
We're only one century into this.
NARRATOR : While the next generation of flight will bring us ocean liners in the air, some innovative designers are looking to the sea for their inspiration, opening up a window on an entirely new way of flying.
This is the future, and it's 500 million years old.
Markus Fischer is the head of design for Festo, a future-flight think tank, where they're creating radical new approaches to flight, clearing the way for others to develop future applications.
By watching ancient creatures of the deep, Festo is coming up with new designs to reach the heights.
Peristaltic motion is like the opening and closing of an umbrella.
Jellyfish move forward by opening their circular mantle, called a bell, and then expelling the water below.
Festo's AirJelly works much the same way, except it's pushing air with its tentacles.
lt's the first time peristaltic propulsion has ever been used in the air, a whole new approach for future flight and one that could lead to a new class of aircraft.
The manta ray and the motion of its winglike pectoral fins is inspiration for another Festo creation.
The Air Ray is a helium ballonet within an elastic polymer that gives the craft its 1 4-foot wingspan.
The fluid muscle movement of a beating wing is created by a small servo motor that bends the wing in a Fin Ray motion.
lt's covered by a treated aluminum skin, and all of it is made by hand.
NARRATOR : For Festo, these have been explorations into new ways of using air.
They were not created with specific applications in mind, but Markus Fischer believes one day devices like this could be a smart, low-cost way to ferry people and packages around town.
l magine AirJelly taxis or Air Ray couriers dotting the skyline.
And they can be made more cost-effective by taking another tip from the world around us.
Lessons from nature that could lead to lighter, more efficient, more affordable aircraft.
[ Seagulls squawking .]
Flying will be easier because planes will someday have adaptable wings and bodies that will give them the agility of a bird.
We have developed technologies for the first time in the world where the airplane wing can change shape as needed.
NARRATOR : What if planes were not rigid? What if their wings and tails could instinctively change shape, responding and maneuvering like a bird? NextGen Aeronautics envisions next-generation smart planes that can reinvent themselves as they streak through the clouds.
The future of flight is morphing technology.
The future of flight is cognitive aircraft.
The future of flight is to infuse enormous amount of intelligence into the airplane.
NARRATOR : Birds are smart enough to adapt their shape to weather and air currents for gliding, climbing, diving, hovering.
Planes will, too.
KUDVA: One minute, it could have a large-aspect ratio, flying at a high altitude.
Then it could tuck its wing in, changes, reduce its aspect ratio, dive down.
NARRATOR : This kind of efficiency will create versatile, flexible planes.
One airplane that could do three or four different missions that certain airplanes right now could only do one mission.
NARRATOR : l magine a jumbo jet hovering like a helicopter or a cargo plane moving like a jet fighter.
But are flexible planes possible? KUDVA: Nobody believed we could build a skin which is not like aluminum.
l nnovation came in the way we supported it underneath it so that it doesn't collapse or it doesn't wrinkle too much.
NARRATOR : But these future high-tech planes will have skins made from surprisingly low-tech material -- rubber.
FLANAGAN : lt stretches up to over 600 %.
We actually use that rubber to attach to substructure.
That structure can handle the air pressure exerted on the wing and the forces that an airplane sees during flight.
KUDVA: lt could be bending, twisting, flexing, vibrating.
All of it is captured by the sensors in real time at a very high data rate and communicated to the center of a computer.
NARRATOR : Sensors stretched across the plane provide the feedback for decisions.
SM lTH : The strain arrays give the aircraft computer a better indication of the exact state of the airframe, so the airplane can fly closer to its structural limits, as in it can fly harder, faster.
KUDVA: lt makes decision on whether something is wrong and how critical it is and what to do about it.
So it not only monitors the health, it manages itself.
NARRATOR : And that will lead to intelligent planes that fly faster, use less fuel, and are more versatile.
KUDVA: This is the beginning.
This is the beginning of this kind of adaptable, autonomous, aware, intelligent technologies.
NARRATOR : The future promises a return to the magic and luxury of flying and experiences that are truly out of this world.
Get ready to be weightless.
Get ready to leave Earth.
BRANSON : The beauty of space is enormous, and man's natural instinct is to explore.
NARRATOR : Billionaire Sir Richard Branson is expanding his air empire with Virgin Galactic, set to become the first commercial enterprise to take tourists into space.
l remember, as a teenager, just dreaming of one day being able to go into space myself and really then waiting for NASA to develop spaceships that would enable you and me to be able to go into space.
Anyway, it never happened, so in the end l decided maybe l need to build my own spaceship.
NARRATOR : Branson wants as many people as possible to see the Earth from space, to appreciate just how unique it is, and to enjoy the ride of their lives.
BRANSON : They'll be taken up 60, 000 feet by the mother ship.
They'll then go 2, 500 miles an hour in 1 0 seconds.
They'll have one hell of a rush as they head off into space.
They'll become astronauts.
NARRATOR : His team believes the venture will help develop environmentally friendly energy sources, as well as far lighter air vehicles.
WH lTEHORN : Our new WhiteKnightTwo mother ship for Virgin Galactic will actually be able to carry nearly 1 4 tons of weight underneath it.
lt'll do that with about the efficiency of a large American S.
U.
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truck.
NARRATOR : Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn sees the company becoming the space truckers of the future.
The mother ship could bring down the cost of ferrying satellites, carry commercial operations into space, and even help to clean the planet by moving ventures like computer-server farms beyond the atmosphere.
lf we could take all the ground infrastructure of l .
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and put server farms in space instead, solar-powered, we'd take out one of the biggest causes now of CO2 going into the atmosphere.
NARRATOR : With space, the final frontier for tourism, Branson won't be the only one offering passenger flights to the heavens.
Hugues Laporte-Weywada heads the Astrium Space Plane project for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company.
While Virgin Galactic uses a mother ship to carry a spacecraft aloft, the Astrium spacecraft streaks skyward right from Mother Earth.
And while you're floating, you'll also get a new perspective.
NEWSON : You're actually in space looking back at the Earth because that's kind of what it's all about -- seeing the Earth as sort of an independent body.
You've experienced something really, really, really special.
NARRATOR : Adventures in space during the early years will be limited to minutes.
The Space Plane's forward-looking designer, Marc Newson, envisions a future where flights like these will be used to radically reduce international travel time.
NEWSON : The way that we're going to get from London to Sydney in a matter of three or four hours is going up to 1 00 kilometers high and then coming back down.
NARRATOR : lt's a new way of traveling, offering all of us an opportunity to experience our universe in a way very few have seen it.
NEWSON : Just to go into space, at least for a few minutes -- this has got to be one of the coolest things in the world.
l n fact, to me, it doesn't matter how long you go.
The fact that you've just gone there at all is just a completely mind-boggling concept.
NARRATOR : But we won't only fly above our own planet.
The future will find planes carrying us on explorations of distant worlds in our solar system and beyond.
LEVl NE: We are proposing a robotic, rocket-powered airplane that flies about a mile above the surface and travels for thousands of miles.
NARRATOR : This is ARES, designed to make the first powered flight through the atmosphere of another planet.
Joel Levine of NASA's Langley Research Center sees this aircraft first flying on Mars, literally sniffing out signs of life.
LEVl NE: ARES will measure gases that are only produced by living systems.
We can then tell the next rover or eventually human explorers where to look for the most likely place to find living systems.
NARRATOR : While the plane's early flights will be as a scout, it's eventually envisioned as a passenger craft.
But taking a plane to another planet has its challenges, since an airplane has to have an atmosphere in order to fly.
LEVl NE: We developed ARES with a large wing-surface area and an airfoil with a curvature that would give us the lift in a very rarified atmosphere.
NARRATOR : Because of that thin atmosphere, flight testing is also a challenge.
ARES has undergone extensive wind-tunnel tests to perfect its aerodynamics, and a model has been put through maneuvers at dizzying heights.
LEVl NE: We used actual flight tests in the Earth's atmosphere above 1 25, 000 feet, which simulates the pressure and density of the atmosphere where we'll be flying.
NARRATOR : ARES will then be tucked into an aeroshell for its half-year flight and its dramatic descent.
LEVl NE: As it enters the atmosphere, the airplane unfolds, and the rocket engine begins, and it begins its flight through the atmosphere of Mars.
NARRATOR : And when it finally gets to the planet's surface, we'll all be along for the historic ride.
LEVl NE: We have a video camera in the tail of the plane, and as we fly through the atmosphere of Mars, we will transmit this journey, this exciting journey back to Earth all over the planet.
NARRATOR : The future is the place where your imagination will take flight.
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because you'll pilot your own plane along a sky highway, cruise in luxury on ocean liners in the air, enjoy the speed and thrills of sport flying and rocket racing.
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fly planes that change shape in midair, never have another layover or delay, and blast off beyond the limits of Earth.
Prepare for takeoff.