City in the Sky

Episode
Airborne -Ep2
Broadcast Info
2016 (59 mins)
Description
At any one time, there are a million people airborne somewhere in the world. That equates to an entire airborne city - a ‘city in the sky’. Yes this is a metropolis unlike any other: it is a city that straddles not just countries but whole continents. The fabric of this extraordinary constructions is made up of the 100,000 flights that crisscross the world every single day.
So what does it take to run a ‘city’ at 30,000 feet? In this new series, Science Broadcaster, Dallas Campbell and Mathematician Dr Hannah Fry set off around the world to uncover the invisible global networks and complex logistics that make it all possible. They meet the hidden army of experts working to keep the city aloft, and discover the extraordinary engineering and technology that makes it tick.
The city in the sky is set to double in size over the next two decades, and keeping it airborne is testing our ingenuity to its absolute limits. Yet despite its extraordinary rate of growth, air travel is now safer than ever before, and the series will explore how this achievement is sustained.
The series follows the arc of an actual journey: episode one, ‘Departure’, focuses on how aircraft are prepared for take-off; episode two examines what happens in flight, and episode three, ‘arrival’ looks at what it takes to bring flights safely back down to earth.
In order to gain real insights into the nature of the global aviation network, we travel to some of its most extreme, busiest or far flung outposts. From the coldest airport in the world at Yakutsk, to the busiest (Atlanta, Georgia) and the airport that is one of the most dangerous at which to land (Paro, in the Himalayas). At all of these places and more, the series meets the men and women who keep the planes in the sky.
Across the series, we uncover a fascinating world that has transformed the way we live in the 21st century. Our modern way of life would simply not be possible without the city in the sky.
Episode Two
There are around a million people airborne at any one time and keeping that number of people safely aloft depends on complex global networks and astonishing technology that stretches our ingenuity to the absolute limit.
In this programme science broadcaster, Dallas Campbell and Dr. Hannah Fry explore just what it takes to keep this city in the sky safe between between take-off and landing. Dallas discovers just how pilots find their way across thousands of miles of sky in the dead of night. Hannah meets up with the air traffic controllers who are responsible for the busiest airspace in the world - over Atlanta in southeast America - and reveal just what is involved in co-ordinating the 100,000 flights that cross the globe every day, while avoiding collisions.
And it’s not all about the planes themselves whether its the care of 64 horses that regularly fly around the globe to compete in showjumping competitions or inflight medical advice from ER doctors in Phoenix, for passengers who fall ill at 35,000 feet .
You will never look at your time aloft in the same way again.
Genre
Design; Engineering; Science; Technology; Computing

How to cite this record

The Open University, "City in the Sky". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/225815 (Accessed 10 Jan 2025)