Engineering The Impossible

David Macaulay: Cathedral

April 1986 •English

Author David Macaulay hosts CATHEDRAL, based on his award-winning book. Using a combination of spectacular location sequences and cinema-quality animation, the program surveys France's most famous churches. Travel back to 1214 to explore the design of Notre Dame de Beaulieu, a representative Gothic cathedral. The program tells period tales revealing fascinating stories of life and death, faith and despair, prosperity, and intrigue.

Supersonic: The Great Adventure

January 2019 •French

Rosies of the North

November 1999 •English

They raised children, baked cakes... and built world-class fighter planes. Sixty years ago, thousands of women from Thunder Bay and the Prairies donned trousers, packed lunch pails and took up rivet guns to participate in the greatest industrial war effort in Canadian history. Like many other factories across the country from 1939 to 1945, the shop floor at Fort William's Canadian Car and Foundry was transformed from an all-male workforce to one with forty percent female workers.

Drafting: Occupations & Opportunities

January 1968 •English

Treats drafting as a means of visual communication and a key to organized training and planning. Discusses the importance of drafting in various fields such as architecture, engineering, and industry. Drafting allows individuals to communicate their ideas visually, leading to accurate planning and construction. It is emphasized that drafting skills open up numerous career opportunities in different industries.

Cutting Corners

July 2021 •English

With building collapses happening around the country, activists band together to confront the real estate developers and hold them accountable for the construction destruction, lives they have destroyed, and deaths they have caused.

Flood in the Desert

May 2022 •English

Explore the 1928 collapse of the St. Francis Dam, the second deadliest disaster in California history. A colossal engineering and human failure, the dam was built by William Mulholland, a self-taught engineer who ensured the growth of Los Angeles by bringing the city water via aqueduct. The catastrophe killed more than 400 people and destroyed millions of dollars of property.

The A350: Star of the Skies

January 2015 •English

After 10 years of tests and 12 billion Euros invested, the state-of-the-art Airbus jet completed its first commercial flight in January 2015. We will discover how it was conceived and built, and explore its technological innovations every step of the way.

Classic Fighter

Invalid date •English

Classic Fighter – the story of the great piston-engined fighters of World War Two. A tribute to the men who flew them, and to the men and women who guided them and kept them in the air. Made in conjunction with the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, this programme tells the story of these great war planes. Stunning air-to-air flying sequences are intercut with interviews with pilots and aircrew of the British and American air forces. Some of the fighter aircraft featured are the Supermarine Spitfire, the Hawker Hurricane, the Messerschmitt Bf109, the P-47 Thunderbolt and the P-51 Mustang.

Spitfire: The Birth of a Legend

January 2006 •English

‘Spitfire— Birth of a Legend‘ tells the story of the Spitfire from a radical design on the drawing board to the fighter aircraft that became the symbol of Britain’s determination to fight on to victory. It celebrates the history of this acclaimed aircraft, the men who designed and built it, and those who flew and fought in it. The story, along with dramatic archive and colour film of aerial combat, graphically illustrates the appeal and fascination the Spitfire has maintained since it faced and fought the fighter and bomber formations of the Luftwaffe.

Mach 2

October 2016 •French

The Concorde remains a legend of the sky. In both looks and performance, it was incomparable, and the technology behind it was nothing less than revolutionary. Learn all about this magnificent craft that was able to fly at over 1300 mph, linking Paris and London to New York in under 4 hours. A unique flying machine, it remains the only supersonic commercial aircraft in the history of aviation.

Water and the Dream of the Engineers

January 1983 •English

Documentary where rich social history frames a spirited debate on the development of water infrastructure throughout the USA.

People and the Nile

January 1972 •Arabic

The construction of the Aswan dam as seen by those who took part in it: engineers, workers, Egyptians, and Soviets.

Churchill's Toyshop

May 2015 •English

In Britain's darkest hour Winston Churchhill assembles a team of eccentric geniuses to fight the Nazi menace by building biizzarre brilliant weapons.

Anthropocene: The Human Epoch

September 2018 •English

Documentary on psychedelic potash mines, expansive concrete seawalls, mammoth industrial machines, and other examples of humanity’s massive, destructive reengineering of the planet.

15 Miles On The Erie Canal (Part 1)

March 2006 •English

The Erie Canal was an engineering marvel in its time and remains so today. This documentary travels from Palmyra to the Genesee River, stopping along the way to visit the people and places that make the canal so special. Canal historian Thomas Grasso offers insight into the canal’s past while the Golden Eagle String Band provides the music track.

15 Miles On The Erie Canal (Part 2)

August 2006 •English

Highlighting the canal’s quiet beauty and fascinating people, Part 2 travels from the Genesee Waterways to Spencerport, Brockport, Holley, and Lockport– taking to the trails and the water, on everything from the historic Sam Patch tour boat to Luxury cabin cruisers. Dr. William Hullfish, a SUNY Brockport associate professor, musician and the expert in Erie Canal Songs.

Guy Martin: The World's Fastest Electric Car?

August 2021 •English

Join self confessed petrol-head Guy Martin as he learns about the alternative to the internal combustion engine, Electric. In this TV special, Guy learns about the advantages of electric transport and the different varieties that exist from bicycles, cars and vans up to buses. Guy also learns some of the disadvantages from range anxiety and with the help of the Leicestershire Fire Brigade, how to deal with a fire. The ultimate aim is to produce a record breaking electrified retro road car that is suitable for the Drag strip, with Guy behind the steering wheel.

Flying : le rêve de Franky Zapata

March 2020 •French

Framing John DeLorean

June 2019 •English

A documentary interspersed with acted scenes, this portrait of John DeLorean covers the brilliant but tragically flawed automaker's rise to stardom and shocking down fall.

L'Odyssée Rosetta, 900 jours sur une comète

March 2017 •French