City in the Sky

Episode
Arrival -Ep3
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 Three
There are around a million people airborne at any one time. But what goes up must come down - and bringing all those passengers safely back to earth depends on complex global networks and some astonishing technology.
In this programme science broadcaster, Dallas Campbell and Dr. Hannah Fry explore just what is involved in bringing the citizens of the sky back to the ground. Dallas takes a front row seat, joining one of the most experienced pilots in the Himalayas in the cockpit of his plane. This pilot is one of just 26 in the world qualified to land at Paro, in Bhutan, considered by many to be the world’s most dangerous place to land.
In Atlanta airport, in Georgia, Hannah meets up with the air traffic controllers who at certain times of the year may have to guide in over 1000 flights a day. Atlanta is the busiest airport in the world, and Hannah finds out how its ingenious layout helps it cope with the sheer weight of numbers. Even with three runways landing planes simultaneously, this place runs an incredibly tight schedule with no margin for error.
This episode also takes us to Bangor Airport, in Maine where staff are on a constant state of high alert: this is a designated emergency airport, and there have been over 2000 unscheduled landings here in the last decade alone.
With the City in the sky predicted to double in size in the next 20 years, in this last episode in the series, the team determine what challenges will be faced in the decades to come, are and what the future of aircraft themselves might be.
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/225919 (Accessed 10 Jan 2025)