Discovery Science announces new series 'Impossible Engineering'

The series discovers cutting-edge engineering techniques and the history behind the world's pioneering mega-structures. To premiere on March 12, the programme will be aired at 10 PM every Saturday

New Delhi, March 8, 2016

Behind every seemingly impossible marvel of modern engineering is a cast of historic trailblazers who designed new building techniques, took risks on untested materials and revolutionized their field. Discovery Science's new series 'Impossible Engineering', discovers the cutting-edge engineering techniques and the history behind the world's pioneering mega-structures. The series premieres on March 12 and goes on air at 10 PM, every Saturday.

The show will take viewers to some of the world's engineering marvels, like the spectacular Shanghai Tower. The tower is the world's second tallest building and is designed to withstand earthquakes and typhoons. The Kansai International Airport in Japan can withstand destructive natural disasters. The Maglev Shanghai Train is the world's fastest commercial train and can reach speeds of over 400 km per hour - even with leaves on the line.

Discovery Science will take its viewers back in history to show how improbable feats of engineering were accomplished. The building of the three-km-long Rion Antirion Bridge in Greece, for instance, faced may obstacles - not least of which was seismic activity. The show will tell its audience how the British Navy's mammoth HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier was built. The series about breathtaking feats of construction concludes with a climb aboard the four-engine Airbus A380, the largest passenger plane in the world.

Each episode details how giant structures, record-beating buildings and the world's most cutting-edge ships, trains and planes are built and work, using 3D graphics, archive and specially shot footage. As the series revels in these modern day creations, it leaps back in time to recount the stories of the exceptional engineers whose technological advances made it all possible.

Architectural triumphs

The Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier is at the vanguard of naval engineering and the largest vessel in the British Navy's history.  At 65,000 tons, the $ 4.9 billion vessel dwarfs its predecessors. The Queen Elizabeth has a range of 10,000 nautical miles and can carry up to 40 aircraft, including the groundbreaking F-35B lightning fighter jets.

The Rion Antirion Bridge, crossing the Gulf of Corinth in Greece, is a modern engineering marvel. The Gulf of Corinth is one of the most important and busiest shipping routes in Europe. Even at its narrowest, it is nearly three kilometers wide. The engineering colossus boasts the longest, fully suspended deck, the deepest foundations and the largest supporting piers of any bridge on Earth. The longest fully suspended cable stayed bridge on the planet is made up of   3,20,000 cubic meters of concrete, more than 1,00,000 tons of steel and 62 kilometers of cabling. In attempting a construction of this scale and complexity, engineers had set themselves a seemingly impossible challenge.

At an astounding 632 meters, the Shanghai Tower is the second tallest building on Earth, the tallest in China and one of the tallest ever built in a seismic zone. It is the most advanced building of its kind on the planet, weighing 8,50,000 tons. It has 128 floors and nine indoor gardens, where more than 16,000 people work, sleep and shop - making it a true sky city. The engineering complications begin at this mighty tower's roots, because not only is Shanghai an active seismic and typhoon zone, but amazingly this mega city is sinking into the soft soil below. The solid bedrock is 200 meters down, with Shanghai itself wallowing on a soft later of sand, clay and soil.

Kansai Airport Island is the biggest manmade island in the world. It is built on the unpredictable waters of Osaka Bay. Its construction was a seemingly impossible challenge. Building in Osaka Bay meant tackling one of the most hostile environments on earth, with typhoon winds a regular occurrence.  Nearly 50 per cent of Japan's coastline now relies on tetrapods, The Kansai Airport's seawall is one of the largest single applications in the world, with more than 48,000 pieces of the tetrapod installed.

Media contact:

Ruchika Tandon,

Discovery Communications India,

ruchika_tandon@discovery.com

Ruddhika Ardey,

Golinopinion,

ruddhika.ardey@golinopinion.in

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