:00:12. > :00:17.what's in the nose cone of an aeroplane? Or what it costs to buy a
:00:17. > :00:22.state of the art fire engine, or how to train to be an air traffic
:00:22. > :00:32.controller? Well, wonder no more, we have got the answers here. This is
:00:32. > :00:33.
:00:33. > :00:38.Airport Live. Welcome to Heathrow Airport. Over
:00:38. > :00:44.the last three nights we've discovered that this vast site never
:00:44. > :00:50.stops. It handles 70 million passengers a year and employs 76,000
:00:50. > :00:55.people. But it is also operating more or less at 100% capacity. It
:00:55. > :00:58.simply can't get any busier, so what is the future for this airport and
:00:58. > :01:02.indeed for aviation in general? We'll be discussing that a little
:01:02. > :01:08.later in the programme. Also over the series, we've been asking you to
:01:08. > :01:12.e-mail your questions to Airport Live and Jack Langley, who is ten,
:01:12. > :01:18.did exactly that. He wanted to know whether the airport has its own Fire
:01:18. > :01:23.Service. Anita, can you answer that? I certainly can. Jack, you will be
:01:23. > :01:28.pleased to know they don't only have a Fire Service. They have two fire
:01:28. > :01:31.stations. One is the East fire station, ton other side of the fic
:01:32. > :01:36.traffic control tower, and this is the one in its shadow. If there is a
:01:36. > :01:45.situation the crew is called out to, they need to be able to get there in
:01:45. > :01:53.three minutes. How do they do that? In one of these bad -- one of these
:01:53. > :01:59.bad boys call as Panther. Here at Heathrow they've got 8 of them. It
:01:59. > :02:04.certainly is going to be hot Anita. Dallas Campbell is known universally
:02:04. > :02:07.as Smudger from now on. He is on site and he's put down his
:02:07. > :02:11.paintbrush and moved to the engineering hangar over there.
:02:11. > :02:15.I knew you were going to say something like that. I'm never going
:02:15. > :02:19.to live it down. I'm in North Pen, a huge engineering hangar here at
:02:19. > :02:27.Heathrow. It is one of those spaces that is so big that you completely
:02:27. > :02:31.lose any sense of scale, any sense of perspective, but funnel funnelly
:02:31. > :02:37.yourself -- funnily enough they didn't build it big enough for
:02:37. > :02:42.today's aircraft. If you follow the gantry at the top, you come to a big
:02:42. > :02:47.chunk they had to take out of it to get the enormous A380 super-jumbo
:02:48. > :02:52.tail in there. Next to me is a 747-400 that's in for a service. I'm
:02:52. > :02:57.going to be getting my hands dirty to see what it takes to keep those
:02:57. > :03:01.things this perfect condition. Looking forward to that, Dallas.
:03:01. > :03:05.Thank you. I have spent the series right in the
:03:05. > :03:09.heart of the airport, here at the air traffic control tower. It seems
:03:10. > :03:14.that many of you have been rather than inspired to do a bit of a
:03:14. > :03:20.career change and train as air traffic controllers yourselves. How
:03:20. > :03:25.hard is it? Dan Snow went to find out.
:03:25. > :03:28.With a plane taking off or landing at Heathrow every 45 seconds the
:03:28. > :03:38.mental demands put on the air traffic controllers who work here
:03:38. > :03:40.
:03:40. > :03:48.are among the toughest in the world. It takes up to three years and costs
:03:48. > :03:53.over �700,000 to train a Heathrow controller. Approach on runway 278.
:03:53. > :03:59.You are number two. The men and women who work here are from all
:03:59. > :04:04.kinds of backgrounds. They need abilities and aptitudes not measured
:04:04. > :04:09.by normal exams. Analytical reasoning, quick thinking and
:04:09. > :04:15.calmness under pressure are just some of the attributes needed to fit
:04:15. > :04:20.together this constantly moving jigsaw of aircraft. A British
:04:20. > :04:24.Airways 777 entering now. Not to mention learning a whole new
:04:24. > :04:28.language. Anyone who wants to be an air traffic controller here face as
:04:28. > :04:34.barrage of aptitude tests and interviews. I'm going to try my hand
:04:34. > :04:43.at just a few of these test to see if I'm made of the right stuff. Here
:04:43. > :04:48.goes nothing. The first test is to keep my eye on that ball that just
:04:48. > :04:58.flashed yellow. Visual awareness is key to making a good air traffic
:04:58. > :05:00.
:05:00. > :05:06.controller. Come on you little monkey, where are you? Boom! Level
:05:06. > :05:09.completed. Thank you very much. It soon starts to get a bit more
:05:09. > :05:13.complicated. It's a bit more realistic. I'm surely be good at
:05:13. > :05:21.this one. In this task I have to guide these disks through a series
:05:21. > :05:31.of gates. If they get too close they flash yellow. If they touch, it is
:05:31. > :05:39.
:05:39. > :05:46.myself. Less than 1% of applicants will end up controlling planes.
:05:46. > :05:51.Speedbird 923 contact ground on decimal 250, bye-bye. Dave is
:05:51. > :05:57.prepared to let me test my skills in his multi-approximately pound
:05:57. > :06:02.simulator. This is an exact replica of the control tower at Heathrow. A
:06:02. > :06:05.virtual reality version used to put trainees through their paces in an
:06:05. > :06:08.environment where mistakes can be made. Dave is putting me in charge
:06:08. > :06:11.of departures, one of the most demanding roles at Heathrow. I will
:06:11. > :06:15.need to think about everything an air traffic controller needs to
:06:16. > :06:20.think about - the weather, the planes on the ground, the constant
:06:20. > :06:28.stream of departures and, most importantly, the size of each Arab
:06:28. > :06:35.and its weight vortex -- the size of each aircraft and its weight vortex.
:06:35. > :06:39.I need to leave a safe gap between takeoffs. You need to leave a
:06:39. > :06:43.two-minute vortex separation. good to go. It is frighteningly
:06:43. > :06:50.real. Each virtual plane is someone playing the role of the pilot and
:06:50. > :07:00.the simulator will react to my every command. Speedbird 965, after the
:07:00. > :07:02.
:07:02. > :07:07.departure of the Boeing 763 Ethiopian, er, line-up 039 right.
:07:07. > :07:11.Line up 09 right... My knowledge of the technical language may need more
:07:11. > :07:18.work, but with a few more pointers I seem to be getting the hang of it.
:07:18. > :07:24.You are clear to take off on runway 09 right. Indicate that on the
:07:24. > :07:34.strip. Who is going after whom? 7451 you are clear to take off on
:07:34. > :07:35.
:07:35. > :07:40.runway 09 right. Good. KLM clear for take off. And there he goes. Nice.
:07:40. > :07:44.Enjoy Amsterdam, my friend. It seems even I can manage to get planes
:07:44. > :07:48.airborne every two minutes but at Heathrow it is not good enough. To
:07:48. > :07:53.satisfy the extraordinary demand they have to squeeze as many planes
:07:53. > :07:58.as possible safely through the season. What we want to do is cut
:07:58. > :08:02.down the two minutes, so we arrange the traffic into the best order.
:08:02. > :08:08.not leave a gap, and it doesn't matter what order they take off in
:08:08. > :08:13.If we do it in a first come first served basis we'll depart 30
:08:13. > :08:17.aircraft in an hour. If we shuffle best route and best type we'll do
:08:17. > :08:20.45-50 an hour. We are trying to balance the heavy aircraft and the
:08:20. > :08:24.medium aircraft. Grouping them direction in different directions if
:08:24. > :08:31.we can to minimise the amount of delay that we would have to build
:08:31. > :08:33.into it. If I can organise the queuing traffic by weight, and if I
:08:33. > :08:38.alternate the departures between those heading south and those
:08:38. > :08:43.heading north, I can theoretically safely clear planes for takeoff with
:08:43. > :08:50.just a minute's separation. Looking for a northbound now, is there a
:08:50. > :08:56.north bound we can have? Easier said than done. Can he go? Are you asking
:08:56. > :09:01.me or telling me. Dan, look out the window, what's happened? Oh, dear,
:09:01. > :09:08.what have I done now. What's that aeroplane doing up there? Which one,
:09:08. > :09:13.where? He's airborne. What does your runway look like now Dan? It is
:09:13. > :09:18.clear. What are we going to do? There are thousands of people
:09:18. > :09:25.waiting. Somehow I think I'm not quite hitting that 45 planes an hour
:09:25. > :09:29.target. Maybe I'm not cut out for this after all.
:09:29. > :09:34.You are quite a tough teacher. I'm up in the visual control room, which
:09:34. > :09:39.is why I'm talking to quietly, because people are doing air traffic
:09:39. > :09:47.control as we speak. And this is not an easy place to get to is it Dave?
:09:47. > :09:52.How many of your applicants get here, do you think? Very small, we
:09:53. > :09:59.get 16,000 applications a near to NATs as a whole and out of that we
:09:59. > :10:03.get 100 into training and out of that we lose 30%. Wow! What about
:10:03. > :10:09.Dan Snow. Would he be a likely person to end up in one of these
:10:09. > :10:15.aloed chairs? It was an interesting time with Dan. We had some fun. In
:10:15. > :10:20.the aptitude test, he did a small bit of aptitude test, but it prove
:10:21. > :10:26.that he is quite accurate. However, in terms of speed and reaction, I'm
:10:27. > :10:31.not sure. I think we saw that in the simulator. So perhaps not an ideal
:10:31. > :10:35.creeper choice for him I think Dan Snow is a great TV presenter.
:10:35. > :10:41.are right. We should quickly mention the weather, because yesterday you
:10:41. > :10:48.had us all rushing for our waterproofs and you said there was a
:10:48. > :10:53.chance of thunderstorms but it seems to have been a quiet day. I think
:10:53. > :10:59.there were cumulonimbus clouds over London but they haven't developed.
:10:59. > :11:03.The MET said it was only a 30% chance. Hopefully a nice calm day
:11:03. > :11:08.for air traffic control. And a perfect day one would think for
:11:08. > :11:13.training. The you've got Lisa behind news training. Is this one of her
:11:13. > :11:17.first days in the visual control room? She is in the early stages of
:11:17. > :11:21.live training, so she went through that simulator process that we put
:11:21. > :11:28.Dan through, but she was there for a good five or six weeks, until she
:11:28. > :11:32.got into a Stade where she can come up into into a live environment, and
:11:32. > :11:38.Richard is listening to her every word and coaching her. Is she doing
:11:38. > :11:42.well? The signs are good for Lisa. It will take another 12 to 18 months
:11:42. > :11:48.before she is on her own. You have to be really dedicated and want to
:11:48. > :11:53.do this. Back to Dallas. Thank you, I'm with Derek cogs well,
:11:54. > :11:58.you are the supervisor here. We are not doing a full stripdown of this
:11:58. > :12:03.plane, this is more a quartly MOT and service for an aircraft? It is
:12:03. > :12:08.like a 60,000 mile service for your car. It happens every three months.
:12:08. > :12:15.How long have you got to get this done? It is 48 hours to get this
:12:15. > :12:20.check. 1,000 man hours of work to be done. And 50 guys on the shift to
:12:20. > :12:25.get it done. And presumably when it is done another comes in?
:12:26. > :12:32.Absolutely. The next one is from Boston. We are just over halfway
:12:32. > :12:36.through it. We've checked the fuselage, the fins, checked the
:12:36. > :12:39.windows and changed a few things. I'm going to help you later, but in
:12:39. > :12:46.the meantime I will let you get on with it.
:12:46. > :12:52.Have you ever wondered what's in the nose cone of an aircraft? Phil Roud
:12:52. > :12:56.is in charge... You can tell us what you are in charge of here. Here we
:12:56. > :12:59.are at the front of the aircraft. This is the eyes of the aeroplane.
:12:59. > :13:03.We've got a whole secret world this here of interesting things. What's
:13:03. > :13:07.this here? This is a couple of things here. This is the eyes of the
:13:07. > :13:11.aircraft. The weather radar dish at the front. This is what pilots use
:13:11. > :13:14.to look in front of them for inclement weather and rain.
:13:14. > :13:18.Yesterday we knew that Charles de Gaulle was closed because of
:13:18. > :13:24.weather, so this is what the pilot would use to spot thunderstorms?
:13:24. > :13:29.Yes. These are components of the instrument landing system. A
:13:29. > :13:34.localiser and the glide slope antennas. These are used when the
:13:34. > :13:39.crew are bringing the plane into land, keeping the aeroplane on the
:13:39. > :13:47.glide slope to land on the sweet spot on the runway. This nose cone
:13:47. > :13:52.is made of composite material, but the metal strips, what are they for?
:13:52. > :13:58.It is not conductive so we've got metallic strips which are bedded
:13:58. > :14:02.into the structure. These absorb any lightning or electrical activity and
:14:02. > :14:07.discharge it to the rest of the aircraft. The thing I love here is
:14:07. > :14:15.look how close we are to the window? That wall is really thin, so if you
:14:15. > :14:22.are sitting in first class in seat 1 K, I think that is, there is a whole
:14:22. > :14:25.secret world of radars and ILS. So when you are enjoying your gin and
:14:25. > :14:30.tonic, bear that in mind. Over the last few days a myriad of systems
:14:30. > :14:38.here, I've been learning to fly the A380 and today I've got to try and
:14:38. > :14:41.land the thing. This is an A380 simulate o one of 17
:14:41. > :14:49.flight simulators BA use for training their pilots at Heathrow.
:14:49. > :14:54.It is so realistic that an already experienced pilot can qualify to fly
:14:54. > :14:59.an A380 simply by training in here. This is a typical Heathrow landing,
:14:59. > :15:09.which like in a real A380, begins by using the autopilot to line up for
:15:09. > :15:10.
:15:10. > :15:14.the approach. What is happening? airport is off to our left, what you
:15:14. > :15:20.will see on my screen here is the instrument landing system. What I
:15:20. > :15:24.can do is we have preprogrammed into the computer, telling it which
:15:24. > :15:28.runway we are aiming for, then I armed the localiser. That is the
:15:28. > :15:33.thing that keeps us straight down the runway, and the piece of
:15:33. > :15:39.equipment on the ground is sending out a beam, and the aircraft will
:15:39. > :15:45.pick up that game and follow it down the centre line, keeping us in the
:15:45. > :15:51.centre of the runway. We are hands-free at the moment, it is
:15:51. > :15:57.doing it by itself. I am going to go for a bit more flap, it makes the
:15:57. > :16:03.wings bigger, we get that much more lift, so we can land at a nice, slow
:16:03. > :16:10.speed. We will take the landing gear down now. It takes a little while on
:16:10. > :16:15.an aircraft like this, a lot of wheels, but is also helps us to slow
:16:15. > :16:21.up a little bit. We are about 500 feet above the ground, shortly you
:16:21. > :16:25.will push the red button, that will switch the autopilot off. Keep it
:16:25. > :16:31.nice and stable, we are coming down nice and smoothly, we want you to
:16:31. > :16:34.concentrate on keeping it nice in the centre line. We have two whites
:16:34. > :16:42.and two reds on the left-hand side telling us we are at the right
:16:42. > :16:47.angle. That is lovely. Keep aiming for that centreline, fabulous. Keep
:16:47. > :16:54.it coming down. We are at 100 feet now, at just below 50, you need to
:16:54. > :17:01.ease back on the control column. Lovely. It means retard the thrust
:17:01. > :17:05.levers, you need to keep it straight now. We have reversed on the
:17:05. > :17:13.engines, that will guide us nicely off the runway. Can I just point out
:17:13. > :17:18.we are all still alive! All pilots have to spend at least four days a
:17:18. > :17:26.year in similar it is like this to stay qualified on the aircraft. They
:17:26. > :17:33.really practice simple landings. Can we do it at night? We even have the
:17:33. > :17:41.constellations! Let's make it hard, let's go to thick fog, AEP is super.
:17:41. > :17:48.We can do that? We are completely blind? We are 500 above the runway.
:17:48. > :17:52.We don't need to see the runaway... Almost all aircraft can land in
:17:52. > :17:56.almost zero visibility. Once locked onto the landing system, the
:17:56. > :18:00.autopilot takes over and with a few exceptions such as lowering the
:18:00. > :18:07.gate, controls every aspect of the landing. I am not go to do anything,
:18:07. > :18:11.I am monitoring the aircraft, make sure nothing will go wrong. We are
:18:11. > :18:21.only 100 feet above the ground, still can't see anything outside.
:18:21. > :18:23.
:18:23. > :18:30.still can't see any flair. Now, retard, reduced the thrust. The
:18:30. > :18:33.thrust is coming on, the brakes are working. It is saying rollout. We
:18:33. > :18:37.have a lot of brakes on there, we are slowing down quite quickly, we
:18:37. > :18:43.can see the centre of the runway. Here we go, some green and white
:18:43. > :18:46.lights. We wouldn't have needed to see anything at all on the runway
:18:46. > :18:55.because the autopilot and the breaking was doing everything. Now
:18:56. > :19:01.we need to find a stand! We can stop and ask someone! I am still in a
:19:01. > :19:05.cockpit, a real cockpit, but still with captain Dave Thomas. He is
:19:05. > :19:12.letting me sit in the captaincy because my landing was so good. What
:19:12. > :19:17.do you think, beginners luck? think you deserve the seat, there is
:19:17. > :19:25.obviously aviation in your genes! The second landing we did wasn't
:19:25. > :19:35.quite so good, have a look at this. Just after it shouts of defeat at
:19:35. > :19:36.
:19:36. > :19:42.you, ease back on the side stick. -- 50 feet. Retard! Retard! Sorry, that
:19:42. > :19:49.was a bit of a bumpy one! That was just to show how good your first one
:19:50. > :19:55.was. Dammit! Almost as bad as my painting yesterday. If you thumped a
:19:55. > :20:00.plane down as hard as that, with there be raised eyebrows? The funny
:20:00. > :20:06.thing is that this looks familiar because the commented on is that my
:20:06. > :20:13.dad was also a captain, a 747 400 captain, so this is all very nice. I
:20:13. > :20:16.used to sit in the seat when you could. You are an Airbus man. How do
:20:16. > :20:22.you decide whether you will be an Airbus man or a towing a man?
:20:22. > :20:27.is some sort of choice, you bid for what you want, it can tell when you
:20:27. > :20:32.have been in the company. With Boeing, you have the central
:20:32. > :20:36.control, with Airbus you have the side stick. But there is a whole new
:20:36. > :20:40.generation of aircraft coming through from the big manufacturers.
:20:40. > :20:50.How do the lines themselves decide what they will buy? You have the
:20:50. > :20:50.
:20:50. > :20:57.really huge process, it it is dependent on fuel efficiency, as
:20:57. > :21:04.into comfort, a whole string of things. The produce ever changed in
:21:04. > :21:10.aviation. We have some more tweets and e-mails. This is my favourite
:21:10. > :21:15.bit! They are not that hard. This is from Keith Stafford, who wants to
:21:15. > :21:25.know, do you have ignition keys per your playing? No ignition keys, no
:21:25. > :21:29.
:21:29. > :21:35.furry dice! The fasten seatbelt sign has been turned on. Down there!You
:21:35. > :21:40.told me you didn't know where it was! That is cheating!
:21:40. > :21:44.It is not just aeroplanes that are constantly evolving. Airports have
:21:44. > :21:48.two as well. When he throws first built, the passenger terminal was
:21:48. > :21:53.simply a row of tents and now it is the biggest international transport
:21:53. > :22:03.hub in the world. But it still needs constant updating. That is not
:22:03. > :22:11.without its challenges. Since the day it was built, Heathrow
:22:11. > :22:18.hasn't stopped growing. Once just a row of army tents, huge passenger
:22:18. > :22:23.terminals now. The skyline. These gateways to the world have
:22:23. > :22:26.transformed a grassy effort into the international airport we know today.
:22:26. > :22:31.A brand-new terminal two is the latest project to rise from the
:22:31. > :22:38.tarmac. With a 5000 strong labour force on site every day, it is a
:22:38. > :22:43.small city in itself. I have come to meet John, Heathrow 's developer
:22:43. > :22:53.director, to find out how to build a terminal fit for the 21st-century.
:22:53. > :22:57.Good to see you! Welcome to terminal two. How is it going?Very well. And
:22:57. > :23:01.to drink there is nearly a year till it opens to the public, we are
:23:01. > :23:08.getting on fantastically well. -- considering there is nearly a year.
:23:08. > :23:12.Work started here in 2009. Designed by architect Norman Foster, 26,000
:23:12. > :23:19.tonnes of steel and 46,000 square metres of glass maker the imposing
:23:19. > :23:24.structure. You can see all the way through the building, it is very
:23:24. > :23:28.open! It is. We have tried to make it is. We have tried to make it as
:23:28. > :23:34.simple a journey for tried to make walking distances very short, we
:23:34. > :23:38.have tried to make it so there are very few bottlenecks, and everything
:23:38. > :23:42.happens on one level as much as possible, that is the simplest and
:23:42. > :23:52.most intuitive journey for passengers. It is a huge departure
:23:52. > :24:00.
:24:00. > :24:07.most modern in the world. It stands in the footprint of Heathrow 's
:24:07. > :24:11.oldest passenger terminal. Building opened by the Queen in 1955. It was
:24:11. > :24:18.a glimpse of a jet set future, restaurants, a cinema and a rooftop
:24:18. > :24:23.viewing terrace. They made Heathrow a destination in itself. But as
:24:23. > :24:30.package holidays opened air travel to everyone, passenger numbers
:24:30. > :24:34.soared. Terminal two began to creak at the seams. Designed to take just
:24:34. > :24:40.over 1 million passengers a year, by the end of its life, seven times
:24:40. > :24:47.that number were squeezing past its check-in desks. The new terminal
:24:47. > :24:51.hopes to serve 30 million passengers every year. The opening of Heathrow
:24:51. > :24:57.'s terminal five in 2008 made headlines with its teething
:24:57. > :25:04.problems. To make sure this new building can cope, every part of it
:25:04. > :25:13.is being mercilessly tested. That includes all 43 air bridges. What
:25:13. > :25:17.we're doing here is a test to make sure the air bridge can adjust.
:25:17. > :25:20.rather than having a whole aeroplane here, you can see we still have work
:25:21. > :25:30.going on behind us, the small fuse a large is a mock-up of a shorthaul
:25:30. > :25:38.plan, and the other mock-up we have got is more like a 747 or an A-380.
:25:38. > :25:44.I love the way it caused -- concertinas out. Why go to these
:25:44. > :25:51.lengths? You are doing it for the next year, just testing, testing?
:25:51. > :25:54.is an amazingly compact holding, everything has to work perfectly. --
:25:54. > :26:03.complex building. The chance of something going wrong on opening day
:26:03. > :26:09.of very high. The terminal was like most iconic feature is the engine
:26:09. > :26:17.rating 54,000 square metre roof. The north facing windows bringing
:26:17. > :26:23.natural light without overheating the building. That is amazing!
:26:23. > :26:31.looks huge, doesn't it? You can see a perspective of the whole terminal.
:26:31. > :26:39.It is a bit like being at sea. is! The roof offers a unique vantage
:26:39. > :26:41.point, chance to see the airport 's past and its future. The original
:26:41. > :26:45.airport was a cluster of buildings in the middle that slowly grew out
:26:45. > :26:49.and that became inefficient as the airport got bigger. So people would
:26:49. > :26:56.start adding on a satellite here, and a pier there, that is what
:26:56. > :27:01.created this -- these long walking distances, this confusion for
:27:01. > :27:05.passengers. What we're doing is the airport with this new layout, with
:27:05. > :27:11.the main building and the satellites, terminal two will be a
:27:11. > :27:14.mirror image of terminal five. affectionately as the toast rack
:27:14. > :27:22.because of how it looks from above, this modern layout of neat parallel
:27:22. > :27:25.rows allows planes and hasn't is to move around the airport more easily.
:27:25. > :27:32.-- planes and passengers. So you have a row of these buildings on the
:27:32. > :27:35.same axis heading off into the horizon? Also, you see it that
:27:36. > :27:38.planes can move into the northern runway or the southern runway,
:27:38. > :27:48.without getting in each other's way. It will completely change the look
:27:48. > :27:56.and feel of the airport. Dave has just come up with a new
:27:56. > :28:02.name for our programme. Landing live! While we are standing here, we
:28:02. > :28:06.can see the beautiful, and electing roof of the new terminal. --
:28:06. > :28:10.undulating. We all know that builders cause a lot of mess and
:28:10. > :28:16.chaos in our houses, but that is not an option at a very busy airport, is
:28:16. > :28:21.it? The airport is under a bit of transformation at the moment, a lot
:28:21. > :28:29.of the works projects, the airport is to go to extraordinary lengths as
:28:29. > :28:35.the dust and debris that those works can cause. This can be quite costly
:28:35. > :28:40.to airlines. While we are here, can we get a sense of what this old
:28:40. > :28:47.layout, what the challenges present to you as an air traffic controller?
:28:47. > :28:52.Down below us is a good example. This 1960s airport look, we have a
:28:52. > :28:56.big cul-de-sac. We have aeroplanes in that cul-de-sac, it is a one in,
:28:57. > :29:00.one out. If something pushes back there and has a technical fault, and
:29:00. > :29:06.something is waiting to get in, the rest of the aeroplanes are waiting,
:29:06. > :29:13.you end up with a couple of thousand people not going anywhere. So this
:29:13. > :29:19.toast rack layout we heard about, how does that improve things?
:29:19. > :29:22.western end of the airport now, as you describe it, the toast rack
:29:22. > :29:30.element, it allows us to move the traffic more efficiently on the
:29:30. > :29:33.ground. We are looking now, with a beautiful view of Windsor Castle, we
:29:34. > :29:43.are looking now at terminal five, this is the newest part of the
:29:44. > :29:48.
:29:48. > :29:52.airport. You do get that real sense the British Airways one. That is not
:29:53. > :29:57.a cul-de-sac. If there is traffic inbound behind him, it just fellows
:29:57. > :30:02.much better. It is much more efficient for us. What is the plan?
:30:03. > :30:09.Is the idea to try and turn the whole of the airport into this much
:30:09. > :30:14.more sort of grid-like pattern? think that's the airport's plan to
:30:14. > :30:20.modernise, get away from that 1960s style. And the new Terminal 2, it
:30:20. > :30:25.has lots love environmental benefits as well. The idea we think is that
:30:25. > :30:29.the idea will go "Toast Rack" all the way up and be far more efficient
:30:29. > :30:35.for us on the ground. Would be very happy air traffic controllers
:30:35. > :30:40.wouldn't you? Very much so.Back to Anita, who is down there with her
:30:40. > :30:45.firemen. I am indeed, in the Panther with Keith Howard, the station
:30:45. > :30:53.manager. He's been an airport firefighter for 27 years. You are
:30:53. > :30:57.good Keith? Thank you very much Anita. Why don't we see Panthers on
:30:57. > :31:01.the streets of Britain? They are designed for aviation firefighting,
:31:01. > :31:07.so you see them at airports around the world. We are buying eight of
:31:07. > :31:12.them as we speak and modernising our fleet. Aircraft off and on-road.
:31:12. > :31:17.know they are expensive, they cost �700,000 each. What makes them so
:31:17. > :31:23.special? As you can see, they are modern, this is all the pump-work
:31:23. > :31:28.and the pipe work. This is environmentally friendly. Water very
:31:28. > :31:33.environmentally friendly for firefighting if, and foam. We can
:31:33. > :31:39.reach speeds of 75 miles per hour, and carrying 36 tonnes of weight.
:31:39. > :31:43.You are going ate 7 5 -- you are going at 75 miles per hour and you
:31:43. > :31:47.have massive aeroplanes. You have to be very careful don't you? . Even
:31:47. > :31:52.when we are on blue lights aircraft have the right of way. You don't
:31:52. > :31:57.want to be playing chicken with a 747. They can turn on a penny as
:31:57. > :32:03.well, these things, can't they? are a fantastic piece of machinery.
:32:03. > :32:11.We can turn around in 36 metres, thanks to the rear axle. It helps us
:32:11. > :32:18.reach the stands. You have impressed me with the stats. Can I press some
:32:18. > :32:25.buttons and maybe fire your cannon? Yes, here we have the lights and the
:32:25. > :32:31.blues. All the blues are on. Gosh! Don't worry about the door. How far
:32:31. > :32:37.can this go? 80 metres up to that grass area. And there we go. Let's
:32:37. > :32:42.see... I will do the pump pressure. Woo-hoo! That's fun. You've made
:32:42. > :32:48.your own rainbow. That's fantastic. I could push over a car with this
:32:48. > :32:53.can I? You can push over a car and knock it down. And people would be
:32:53. > :32:57.like skittles. That's beautiful, that rainbow. Keith, I'm having so
:32:58. > :33:01.much fun. Dallas, you are not the only one who gets to play with
:33:01. > :33:05.expensive toys. I've moved from the front of the
:33:05. > :33:10.plane to the table. This is called the stabiliser and controls the
:33:10. > :33:14.pitch of the plane, nose up, nose down, if you like. Because it is a
:33:14. > :33:21.moving part, it needs maintenance, particularly greasing. So I'm going
:33:21. > :33:29.inside the stabiliser bay door into the tail itself. Here we are inside
:33:29. > :33:34.the tail of a 7 747-400, with Derek again. The This is amazing. This
:33:34. > :33:39.isn't a pressurised compartment is it? No, no pressure at all.And this
:33:39. > :33:46.is where the passengers are? Just behind the toilets. We've got a
:33:46. > :33:56.screw jack, and this controls the stabiliser? That's right. The pilot
:33:56. > :33:58.
:33:58. > :34:03.inputs during the flight, so we have move it by hand? No, the we have the
:34:03. > :34:09.power on and we (Inaudible) into position. Am I going to get covered
:34:09. > :34:15.by grease? Quite possibly. A piece of rag for you, so if the grease
:34:15. > :34:20.comes urgent, you can catch it. we go.
:34:20. > :34:30.I'm holding it like this. Has it moved down, the grease is going in,
:34:30. > :34:33.
:34:33. > :34:43.is that right? Keep going, Phil.How many times does this have to go up
:34:43. > :34:44.
:34:44. > :34:50.and down? We'll do this up and down (Inaudible)
:34:50. > :34:54.That is incredible. Amazing. A huge myriad of complex systems on board a
:34:54. > :34:57.747. How many of them need to be greased like that? How many moving
:34:57. > :35:01.parts? There are hundreds, especially on the wings and the
:35:01. > :35:07.undercarriage. We have a team of mechanics, four on each shift, eight
:35:07. > :35:11.hours in the morning and eight in the afternoon. Greasing the wings
:35:11. > :35:14.and the undercarriage. Live from the tail, Kate, I have a souvenir for
:35:14. > :35:18.you. I will give it to you later. I can't wait. Thank you.
:35:18. > :35:24.As I said at the beginning of the programme, Heathrow is running
:35:24. > :35:27.pretty much at 100% capacity. It simply can't handle any more
:35:27. > :35:32.aircraft, and yet demand continues to increase. There are possible
:35:32. > :35:36.solutions. One is to build a third runway here. Another is to build
:35:36. > :35:42.another whole new airport in the South East. But what do the people
:35:42. > :35:47.who live right on Heathrow's doorstep think?
:35:47. > :35:54.A million people live in the five boroughs that border Heathrow. The
:35:54. > :35:59.airport is an unavoidable part of daily life. For some, it is the
:35:59. > :36:05.reason they moved here. We looked at several places to buy and Heathrow
:36:05. > :36:09.was a good spot. Others have had to build a life around it. Hounslow has
:36:09. > :36:12.thousands of families who depend on Heathrow for jobs and employment.
:36:12. > :36:18.And also the whole community is built around Heathrow being there.
:36:18. > :36:22.But for some, is expansion threatens their way of life. This is all I've
:36:22. > :36:31.ever known, and my business is here as well, so I would lose everything
:36:31. > :36:35.if the runway came through here. Sipson is home to 1,000 people, a
:36:35. > :36:44.hairdresser's, and a village shop. It sits on the airport's northern
:36:44. > :36:49.perimeter. A third runway could wipe Sipson off the map. Jackie has lived
:36:49. > :36:54.here all her life. Seven years ago she set up a hairdressing business
:36:54. > :36:59.with husband Danny. But living under the threat of Heathrow expansion has
:36:59. > :37:02.altered village life. Everything was great. We had a really profitable
:37:02. > :37:06.business until two or three years ago. Three years ago the airport's
:37:06. > :37:11.owners started buying up the houses here. It was quite depressing at the
:37:11. > :37:14.time. A lot of friends and neighbours that I had known all my
:37:14. > :37:19.life were suddenly leaving the village. But Jackie and Danny
:37:19. > :37:28.decided to stay. Is We lost about 30% of our trade that year, so it
:37:28. > :37:31.was difficult for us. We decided it was probably best if Danny got a job
:37:31. > :37:37.somewhere else. Ironically Danny now works at the airport, like 30,000
:37:37. > :37:41.other locals. I feel torn at times, because I can see from an economic
:37:41. > :37:47.point of view why Heathrow want to expand, but from a personal point of
:37:47. > :37:50.view I don't want it to come here, I don't want it to happen. But for
:37:50. > :37:59.other airport neighbours the economic benefits outweigh any
:37:59. > :38:04.disadvantages. Pub landlord Cliff deliberately chose to move to
:38:04. > :38:08.Longford, next door to the northern runway. With a We decided to buy
:38:08. > :38:12.this pub because of Heathrow Airport. We thought it would be a
:38:12. > :38:16.good starting point for the business. For him and his regulars a
:38:16. > :38:20.bigger airport is the obvious Joyce. Just about every customer I've
:38:20. > :38:27.spoken to who lives locally is for it and they want it to grow. You
:38:27. > :38:30.can't complain too much, we've had a good living out of it. Every small
:38:30. > :38:35.business around here needs that airport to generate business for
:38:35. > :38:40.them. It is not just small businesses that benefit. The airport
:38:40. > :38:44.is worth 9. . 2 billion a year to the British economy. Something has
:38:44. > :38:48.got to happen, the airport has to be expanded or another one is built,
:38:48. > :38:51.and Heathrow expansion is the obvious thing for me. It is for the
:38:51. > :38:58.greater good, surely. Expansion would mean more money and jobs for
:38:58. > :39:04.this Europe. It would also mean more crowded and noisier skies. Aircraft
:39:04. > :39:12.noise already affects over 725,000 people and generates the most
:39:12. > :39:21.complaints. At Hounslow Heath infant school planes skim just 600 feet
:39:21. > :39:28.above the playground. When I'm reading, I can't hear what I'm
:39:28. > :39:32.reading because of the aeroplanes. It is noisy and it distracts me when
:39:32. > :39:38.I'm reading. The head teacher is concerned about the impact that
:39:38. > :39:43.noise has on her pupils. Every 60 or 90 seconds you've lost 25 seconds of
:39:43. > :39:46.the teaching time, so half of what the children are hearing and half of
:39:47. > :39:51.what they are saying is lost. school has had to adapt to its noisy
:39:51. > :39:56.neighbour. These unusual look domes provide protection for the children
:39:56. > :40:05.when they are playing and learning outside. Inside, aircraft noise is
:40:05. > :40:10.reduced by 17 decibels. You can still hear the aircraft in the
:40:10. > :40:15.distance but you don't have to raise your voice or move closer to the
:40:15. > :40:17.person you are speaking to, so it is not impacting on the learning.
:40:18. > :40:22.Heathrow's neighbours may never agree on the plans for the future
:40:22. > :40:27.but they do see eye to eye on one thing. It has been going on for such
:40:27. > :40:31.a long time now, a lot of us are battle weary with talking about it
:40:31. > :40:38.and living with it on a daily business. I would like a decision to
:40:38. > :40:44.be made. If we have to move on, we have to move on. So there clearly is
:40:44. > :40:46.no simple neat solution, but I've been joined by Simon Calder the
:40:47. > :40:50.senior travel editor at the Independent. Lovely to see you.
:40:50. > :40:55.Thank you for being with us this evening. We know the Government set
:40:55. > :41:00.up the Davies Commission to look at exactly this con um drum. The
:41:00. > :41:03.residents and here are not going to get an answer until 2015 at the
:41:03. > :41:07.earliest. What do you think might happen? I am a betting man. I've
:41:07. > :41:12.been brought up innive yaismcts I was born at the end of the -- I've
:41:12. > :41:17.been brought up innive yaismcts I was born at the end of the runway at
:41:17. > :41:21.Gatwick to. Be here at the tower of power is fantastic. Nothing is going
:41:21. > :41:26.to happen for 8 or 10 years. Governments keep saying doing
:41:26. > :41:32.nothing is not an option and they keep doing nothing. If we can get by
:41:32. > :41:37.with Dave and his friends upstairs squeeze squeezing a quart into a
:41:37. > :41:42.pint pot for a few more years. And there is lots of capacity in the
:41:42. > :41:50.South East with Gatwick Airport and Stansted. We'll get a second runway
:41:50. > :41:57.at gait wick in 2022 and after that a third runway at Heathrow, but not
:41:57. > :42:02.at Sipson but Stanwell Moor. That's where my money is. One thing isna is
:42:02. > :42:07.ir refutable really is that we do love flying. We are so dependent on
:42:07. > :42:11.the aircraft industry. Because that is because it is the greatest force
:42:11. > :42:18.of the modern age amounts what brings us all together and takes us
:42:18. > :42:22.to the end of the earth. I came here tonight on the Tube, trundling
:42:22. > :42:28.through the suburbs here of West London, thinking people here are
:42:28. > :42:34.going to be walking on the beach of Rio in the morning or hugging their
:42:34. > :42:39.nearest and dearest in South Africa. That is miraculous and we need it.
:42:39. > :42:43.So much of our food comes in this way. It seems that we can't do
:42:43. > :42:50.without it but the Government also has a serious target to cut kits CO2
:42:50. > :42:54.emissions by 80% by 2050. If it allows ming seemingly never ending
:42:54. > :42:59.expansion, doesn't it make that target meaningless? Absolute, unless
:42:59. > :43:03.we are all driving around in electronic Maglev cars. No, things
:43:03. > :43:07.will change. Not too much, because London is the world centre of
:43:07. > :43:12.aviation. Heathrow isn't by any means busiest airport in the world
:43:12. > :43:17.but add in all the others and we are way ahead of Paris, Tokyo and New
:43:17. > :43:22.York. We are going to see incremental improvements. On
:43:22. > :43:27.Wednesday British Airways gets its first Dreamliner, two years late,
:43:27. > :43:31.which will replace the old smelly Boeing 767s. I'm responsible for
:43:31. > :43:36.this partly as well, but we are addicted to air travel. We love it
:43:36. > :43:41.and we are not going to stop flying. Simon, thank you.
:43:41. > :43:44.Let's go back to Anita. Safety is paramount at airport as.
:43:45. > :43:51.The reason we are kept so safe is down to rigorous troughed you've
:43:51. > :43:56.seen Dan train to be an air traffic controller, Dallas trained to land
:43:56. > :44:01.an A380. Now for some procedure hard graft. I'm going to train to be a
:44:01. > :44:06.firefighter. I've been put with Matt Collier, who
:44:06. > :44:16.is teaching me a handy bit of first aid before... And it is action
:44:16. > :44:27.
:44:27. > :44:30.stations. OK, I need to put that on. Yes. Let's do it. With a potential
:44:30. > :44:33.serious incident, it is imperative to get there quickly. Because of
:44:34. > :44:37.this, the fire service is able to get to any site on the airfield in
:44:38. > :44:43.under three minutes. Just because they are on a call doesn't mean the
:44:43. > :44:48.airport comes to a halt. The drivers have to be wary of any aircraft
:44:48. > :44:54.manoeuvring. This is what is lovingly known as the Green giant.
:44:54. > :45:00.It is designed to simulate Boeing 747. Here they have replicated in
:45:00. > :45:05.engine fire and fuel spill. Before we have even stopped, they are
:45:05. > :45:15.getting water on the fire. It is important to move fast as aviation
:45:15. > :45:21.
:45:21. > :45:25.have to get here and react as quickly. The water cannon smothers
:45:26. > :45:35.the flames while the crew get the hoses out. And they put their
:45:36. > :45:37.
:45:37. > :45:46.breathing apparatus on. This is your headgear? Yes. The fire engines
:45:46. > :45:50.being used here can hold over 12,000 litres of water each. If this was a
:45:50. > :45:57.real engine fire, the team may also use a file or dry powder in addition
:45:57. > :46:03.to the water. The firefighters moved in closer with hoses, which given
:46:03. > :46:09.greater control when tackling the flames. Within a couple of minutes,
:46:10. > :46:12.the fire is out. The team keeps spraying the engine with water to
:46:13. > :46:22.cool it down because any residual heat could cause the aviation fuel
:46:23. > :46:25.
:46:25. > :46:30.to reignite. How similar to the real thing is this? With training, it is
:46:30. > :46:34.gas, so it is a clean burn. If you start getting a lot of smoke it
:46:34. > :46:40.start interfering with air traffic control, and bringing the planes in.
:46:40. > :46:44.As far as a real fire, they would be a lot of black smoke. As well as
:46:44. > :46:48.having to deal with the people and everything else involved. Our main
:46:48. > :46:53.priority is to make it as safe as we can for the passengers that will be
:46:53. > :46:57.coming out on the shoots, so that is something we need to consider when
:46:58. > :47:02.we position ourselves. We don't want to be in the way they should come
:47:02. > :47:12.indelible when we are firing a monitor, with about 6000 litres per
:47:12. > :47:12.
:47:12. > :47:19.minute. That can do some damage! well done! , help me roll up some
:47:20. > :47:23.hose? I would love to. I will definitely be leaving the
:47:23. > :47:28.firefighting to the professionals. How do you find out if there is a
:47:28. > :47:33.situation at Heathrow? The captain will tell the tower, they will tell
:47:33. > :47:37.us, we are all linked up, we are alerted by the system. So the pilot
:47:37. > :47:43.will tell them and they will tell you. We have had a good look at the
:47:43. > :47:51.Panther, what is this? This is the aerial ladder platform. We need this
:47:51. > :47:58.to land A-380s. So will it be able to land at Heathrow if you do not
:47:58. > :48:06.have one? No, because you need this to land and A-380, we used this as
:48:06. > :48:11.part of our safety. How high can this go up? This is 42 metres in
:48:11. > :48:18.height and over 20 metres in reach. As a benchmark for you, that red
:48:18. > :48:23.light... There is no way as I'm going to go that high! Maybe we
:48:23. > :48:31.should have a of a go. I don't know how brave am going to be, but let's
:48:31. > :48:34.see. We have heard a little bit about
:48:34. > :48:38.this new generation of aircraft that are coming in, that are more fuel
:48:38. > :48:48.efficient, less damaging to the environment. But noise pollution is
:48:48. > :48:50.
:48:50. > :48:58.Imagine flying to the edge of space. Faster than twice the speed of
:48:58. > :49:08.sound. So quick, you could travel from London to New York in just over
:49:08. > :49:22.
:49:22. > :49:27.three hours. This is the future of waited for. It pushed the boundaries
:49:27. > :49:36.of what we thought was possible. The first passenger jet to make the
:49:36. > :49:41.sound barrier, reaching speeds of over 1350 mph. But in 2003, Concord
:49:41. > :49:45.'s time in the air came to an end. Today, this is the closest we can
:49:45. > :49:55.get to supersonic travel. I have come to Brooklyn 's Museum in
:49:55. > :50:04.
:50:04. > :50:12.Surrey. I am quite excited about this. John, it is tiny! It is like a
:50:12. > :50:16.little tunnel! It really was a small plane, it was like a flying pencil.
:50:16. > :50:22.Only 100 people could fit on this, who would apply on it? It was really
:50:23. > :50:29.an aircraft for the elite. It sounds so glamorous. How much would it cost
:50:29. > :50:33.to buy one of these seats? It would have been several thousand pounds,
:50:34. > :50:37.perhaps �10,000 in today's money. Because of the time difference and
:50:37. > :50:43.the speed of Concorde, you could leave London at 1030 in the morning
:50:43. > :50:49.and be in New York at 10am. The fundamental point is the price of
:50:49. > :50:53.jet fuel. Concorde, as you could imagine, was a gas guzzling machine.
:50:53. > :50:57.It was expensive to fly, so ticket prices were very high. Now everybody
:50:57. > :51:04.is watching their wallets that is why we have seen low-cost airlines
:51:04. > :51:09.develop. So if speed is no longer to put the agenda, what is? What is the
:51:09. > :51:12.future, where are we heading? future today is based on the need
:51:12. > :51:18.for people to travel cheaply, comfortably, we are looking at
:51:18. > :51:23.bigger aircraft in some cases, we have the double-decker Airbus
:51:23. > :51:27.A-380, but smaller aircraft that fly further and more comfortable it, we
:51:28. > :51:33.have the Dreamliner. Fuel efficiency is also key to improving
:51:33. > :51:36.performance, that is the way forward. But it is not just soaring
:51:36. > :51:43.fuel prices driving new aircraft technology. Airlines increasingly
:51:43. > :51:52.have to consider the environmental impact. The industry has set targets
:51:52. > :51:56.to reduce aircraft noise by 65% by 2015. At the Airbus noise technology
:51:56. > :51:59.Centre at the University of Southampton, this professor and his
:51:59. > :52:06.team are professing -- developing technology to combat noise
:52:06. > :52:13.pollution. What is noise? It is basically undesirable, unwanted
:52:13. > :52:18.sound. There are two types, engine noise and air freight noise. --
:52:19. > :52:24.airframe noise. That is the noise caused by the physical structure of
:52:24. > :52:34.the plane. Engines are only part of the problem. The landing gear also
:52:34. > :52:39.
:52:39. > :52:43.generates a surprising amount of it faces the oncoming airflow, the
:52:43. > :52:49.landing gear generates noise. If you have a clean stream of air, like
:52:49. > :52:53.what I am blowing out committee wouldn't hear that. But if you place
:52:53. > :52:59.an obstacle in the path of that flow, you would hear the noise. That
:52:59. > :53:05.is what happens when landing gear comes down. The team is using a wind
:53:05. > :53:11.tunnel to see exactly how much noise landing gear generates. Shall we do
:53:11. > :53:14.the experiment, give it a go? There are hundreds of microphones
:53:14. > :53:21.built into the walls and floors of the wind tunnel, measuring the level
:53:21. > :53:29.of noise generated when airheads the landing gear. -- air hits the
:53:29. > :53:33.landing gear. The team collates the data to late a sound map. The
:53:33. > :53:42.darkest spots tell them which are the noisiest spots. It is quite warm
:53:42. > :53:50.in here! OK, now you see the noise hotspot outside. That is caused by
:53:50. > :53:58.this sharp edge. It is bad news ever done it with. If it was smooth, they
:53:58. > :54:05.would be less noise? Correct. We could cover this. Covering part of
:54:05. > :54:15.the landing gear makes it more aerodynamic and therefore quieter.
:54:15. > :54:15.
:54:16. > :54:19.It is much smoother. Now you see the difference. On the left-hand side,
:54:19. > :54:23.this is the original configuration without cover. You see the high
:54:23. > :54:30.level of noise. On the right-hand side, this is with cover on, you can
:54:30. > :54:36.see the level of noise is significantly reduced. Change like
:54:36. > :54:44.this is never simple. It can't happen in isolation. Safety, fuel
:54:44. > :54:47.consumption and mechanics all need to be considered. Nevertheless, the
:54:47. > :54:52.professor is quietly confident about the impact his work will have on
:54:52. > :54:57.aviation noise pollution. With all this exciting technology
:54:57. > :55:01.development, future air planes will be much quieter, and I think a large
:55:01. > :55:06.part of the community noise problem we experience today will be
:55:06. > :55:15.eliminated. It is a small change every year but there is change,
:55:16. > :55:19.there is reduction. A fascinating film. We are definitely entering a
:55:19. > :55:24.new age of aircraft design. I had no idea that airframe is made so much
:55:24. > :55:29.noise, the landing gear and the flaps. Also down here looking at the
:55:29. > :55:36.undercarriage, I am with Derek. When I take my car in for an MOT, what
:55:36. > :55:40.gets me is the brakes, how do you guys do the brakes on a 747? This
:55:40. > :55:46.aircraft has 16 break packs, one for each main wheel. That is where most
:55:46. > :55:51.of the weight of the aircraft sits. I know the nose gear works very
:55:51. > :55:54.differently, doesn't it? We don't have any brakes on the nose gear,
:55:55. > :56:00.the advantage it would give you, you would have to have a heavy
:56:00. > :56:09.undercarriage. It is not worth the effort. How'd you get the wheel to
:56:09. > :56:14.stop? Shut the undercarriage doors. These are the doors that the landing
:56:14. > :56:17.gear will retract into? They are just retracting now. You can see two
:56:17. > :56:22.brackets in the ceiling of the undercarriage bay, some brown pads
:56:22. > :56:28.on them with black marks, they are called spin pads. As the wheels
:56:28. > :56:33.rotate up, they are spilling out... They will contact this pin pads and
:56:33. > :56:38.come to stop. So it is just friction that stops them spinning? That must
:56:38. > :56:47.generate an incredible amount of heat. You can see bits of rubber and
:56:47. > :56:50.heat damage, it must get pretty warm. Does it come up with a thud?
:56:50. > :56:55.The first-class passengers, they are totally unaware of this secret world
:56:56. > :57:01.going on beneath them! You can hear a rumbling sound. If you can hear it
:57:01. > :57:05.in the seeds, it is only a couple of feet below your seat. It might
:57:05. > :57:09.disturb your drink, but that is about it! The amazing thing that I
:57:09. > :57:15.realise is that this plane will be going out of here at 230 tomorrow,
:57:15. > :57:19.it will be in the air at 515 and right behind it, another plane is
:57:19. > :57:27.coming in. It is an incredible conveyor belt. That is it from the
:57:27. > :57:34.engineering bay. I have made it into the platform and
:57:34. > :57:44.the firefighters are two hours into a 12 hour watch. They will carry on
:57:44. > :57:44.
:57:44. > :57:53.the 24-hour 's, seven days a week, 306 to five days a year. -- 365.
:57:53. > :57:57.Since we came on-air on Monday, 5400 planes have arrived or departed
:57:57. > :58:03.Heathrow, carrying 870,000 passengers. On Monday it was edge
:58:03. > :58:10.traffic and troubles Mac easiest day of the year. -- air traffic control
:58:10. > :58:15.'s busiest day of the year. It has been busiest -- dismissed as usual.
:58:15. > :58:22.Thank you to all of you. If you would like to know more about the
:58:22. > :58:29.airport, you can do that through the open University. Now here at