Episode
Modern Marvels: F-18 Hornet
Overview
One aircraft in the U.S. arsenal best typifies the will to win. Using the latest and most sophisticated computerized technology, the F-18 Hornet is now one of the foremost fighters of the 21st Century. Once a plane that nobody wanted, today it’s the principal Navy and Marine fighter-attacker–with a flick of a switch, it transforms from bomber to fighter. Interviews with pilots and crews, combined with archive film and color reenactments, take you inside the cockpit of this multi-role aircraft.
Details
- Series
- Modern Marvels
- Season
- Season 11
- Episode
- Episode 16
- Air date
- 2004-04-30
- Runtime
- 44 min
Episode context
F-18 Hornet is Episode 16 in Season 11 of Modern Marvels. It aired on 2004-04-30. The runtime is 44 min.
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Episode 15: Engineering Disasters 6
An in-depth look at the modern era's most complex, deadly, and controversial engineering failures. With the aid of 3-D animation, forensic experts, and footage of disasters, we seek to understand what went wrong and how mishap led to remedy. Stories include: the Marines' AV-8 Harrier "Jump Jet"; the Ford Explorer/Firestone rollovers; fire on the Piper Alpha offshore oil rig; derailment of a high-speed train in Germany; and computer errors that brought the world to the brink of accidental nuclear war.
Episode 17: Hydraulics
The machines that helped build our world have been powered by hydraulics, a compact system of valves, hoses, and pumps that transmits forces from point to point through fluid. This basic concept of powerful force transmission through fluid provides the drive for most machines today. From the ancient Roman mastery of the aqueduct to Universal Studios, a veritable hydraulic theme park, we see how hydraulics power industry, keep planes flying, and make that 3-point-turn a U-turn.
More episodes from this season
Episode 14: Bathroom Tech
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Episode 18: The Subs of WWII
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Episode 19: Plane Crashes
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Episode 12: Bible Tech
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Episode 20: D-Day Tech
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Episode 21: A-10 Tankbuster
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Episode 10: Front Line Reporting
In March 2003, embedded civilian correspondents rolled along with the U.S. military convoy as it invaded Iraq. Equipped with satellite and video phones, digital cameras, and lightweight satellite uplinks, frontline reporters dispatched the news of war as it happened. Reports of war are as old as war itself; once the exclusive province of soldier-scribes like Julius Caesar, the accounts were usually written after the fact. Join us as we review the history and preview the future of frontline reporting.
Episode 22: Rubber
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