How to Build (2010)

Britain is one of the world leaders in aerospace manufacturing and there's one part of a plane the UK is reputed to make better than anyone else - the wings. It's often said that no matter what else is done and what innovations are introduced, the wing defines the aircraft. The A380 wing is the largest ever produced for a civil airliner, at 17.7 metres from front to back and 36.3 metres from fuselage to wingtip. The maximum length of metal in a single wing is 46 metres and the result is an aircraft with a tip-to-tip wingspan of 79.8 metres, making the A380 the world's biggest passenger aircraft. The film follows some of the people who work at the two main Airbus factories in the UK. In Filton, near Bristol (which has manufactured aircraft for almost 100 years, including Concorde) we meet engineers and designers at the company's cutting-edge research and development facility, and in Broughton, in North Wales, one of Europe's biggest factories, we meet the people who actually build the massive wing.

With extraordinary access to one of the country's most secretive companies, this shows how Formula One racing team McLaren is now building a road car using some of their F1 technology. During the summer of 2011, McLaren launched the MP4-12C. It is claimed that this 168,500 pound super car is one of the most cutting-edge and glamorous machines ever built and shows British design and precision engineering at its best. The programme goes inside the McLaren factory, meets the team of engineers and McLaren boss Ron Dennis, and discovers how the car has been designed, tested and built from scratch, including its unique carbon-fibre 'monocell' technology and its engine - the first the company has ever built. Plus the film finds out what racing drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton think about the car and there is a look at how its sound was created in a studio. To build the car the company also had to build a brand new facility. The film follows events as production starts and discovers if the huge investment - and gamble - looks like paying off.

Some of the best and most up-to-date communication satellites in the world are designed and built in Stevenage in Britain. With exclusive access to specialist manufacturer Astrium, this program shows step-by-step how to assemble one of the most complicated machines in the world. The team is followed as they construct a massive communication satellite; from the inner carbon-fibre skeleton to the fuel tanks and engines. At the Portsmouth site, the electronic 'payload' is built and then tested. It has to operate for a minimum of fifteen years - guaranteed, and so precision is everything; these machines are built inside rooms cleaner than the cleanest operating theatre. Once the satellite is built and tested, it is sent to France where solar arrays and antenna dishes are added before it is boxed up and sent for launch in French Guiana in South America. Finally, there is the tense countdown to lift-off - the most dangerous moment of the satellite's life.