Impossible Engineering is a tribute to the ingenious experts who are behind every seemingly impossible marvel of engineering.
This new and exclusive six-part series, on Yesterday from Tuesday 26th May at 9pm, is an intriguing insight into modern-day structures, from record-beating buildings, to the worlds most cutting-edge ships, trains and planes. Each episode uses captivating 3D graphics, insight from engineering experts and specially shot footage to explore the innovations that account for todays mind-blowing structures.
This fascinating programme takes an in-depth look at the worlds most influential engineering projects across Europe, China and Japan that have been developed from prominent historic structures by their forward-thinking engineers. Featured in this series are the HMS Queen Elizabeth Carrier, the Rion-Antirion bridge, the Shanghai Tower, Kansai airport, the Maglev Train and the Airbus A380.
Episode Guide 1. Aircraft Carrier
The HMS Queen Elizabeth is the largest aircraft carrier in the history of the British Royal Navy. With a surface area bigger than two football pitches, and the most advanced short take-off strip and vertical landing in aircraft history, building this ship would have been impossible without the great engineering innovators of the past. In this episode experts explain some of the historic engineering principles from around the world, including the first British shipboard aircraft take-offs in 1912 and the revolutionary HMS Argus. Both of these enabled engineers in the 21st century to create the ground-breaking Queen Elizabeth.
2. Rion-Antirion Bridge
The three kilometres long Rion-Antirion Bridge is awe-inspiring, not only due to its record-breaking dimensions, but also due to its location in one of Europes most active seismic zones where winds reach up to 70mph. This episode gives an insight into the engineers who had to conquer the problems of deep water, high winds, earthquake risks and constant land mass movement to engineer the colossal bridge. Engineering experts travel around the world to understand how iconic creations such as the Salginotobel Bridge in Switzerland and World War II sea forts paved the way for the Bridge.
3. The Shanghai Tower
Due to Shanghai being so densely populated the only place to build is up. Soaring 632 metres into the sky, the Shanghai Tower is the second tallest building in the world. Constructed within one of the most seismically active corners of the globe, it is built to withstand damaging winds of typhoon proportions. Analysing revolutionary designs of the past and engineers such as Jack E. Carmak and Dankmar Adler, this episode demonstrates how trail-blazers allowed ambitious engineers to build an 850,000 tonne skyscraper in a city that is slowly sinking into the soft soil below.
4. Kansai Airport
The construction of Kansai International Airport in Osaka Bay, Japan, on the largest man-made island in the world, was one of the most ambitious engineering projects of modern times. Pioneering innovators from the past such as Pierre Danel, who developed a system against the pounding sea, and nineteenth century mechanic Richard Dudgeon made it possible. In this episode the development of airports including Berlins Tempelhof Airport and Londons Croydon Airport are explored to see how engineers attempted this feat of impossible engineering.
5. Maglev Train
This episode explores the history of locomotives. Experts analyse the work of engineers including Sir Nigel Gresley who engineered the worlds fastest steam train in 1938 and Eric Laithwaite, whose linear motor made frictionless travel a real possibility. These audacious innovators of the past influenced the engineering of The Shanghai Maglev, the fastest passenger train in operation on the planet. Held in place by a series of electromagnets, it levitates on an air gap of just ten millimetres and is able to reach a phenomenal top speed of 431 kilometres per hour. Built to cut through a busy metropolis in one of the worlds most active seismic zones, the Shanghai Maglev was an ambitious project that broke engineering boundaries.
6. Airbus
The Airbus A380 is the largest passenger plane ever built and can carry over 850 people non-stop nearly half way around the world. With the largest wingspan of any commercial aircraft, and four specially developed mighty turbo jet engines, the A380 weighs a colossal 560 tonnes. However getting a plane this size off the ground would not have been possible without the nifty innovators of the past: Sir George Cayley, whose ground-breaking work in aerodynamics launched the worlds first glider in the 19th century and Frank Whittle, whose jet engine changed the aviation industry forever. Key developments in aerospace engineering from Richard Whitcombes energy-efficient wing-tip designs, to NASA engineers cutting edge control system, Fly by Wire, helped bring the A380 to fruition.
For more information contact: Emily Jones, Publicist
or email: pressoffice@uktv.co.uk
Notes to Editors About Yesterday Sky 537, Virgin 206, Freeview 19, BT and TalkTalk 019 and on demand via UKTV Play Showcasing UK premiere series such as Raiders of the Lost Past, Forbidden History, and UFO Declassified, Yesterday provides fascinating factual stories. The channel also features dynamic nature and science programming including David Attenboroughs Natural Curiosities and Why Planes Crash, and programmes which challenge expectations including Secrets of the Bible. Ancient history is also featured in series including Medieval Dead, plus modern conflict in shows such as Black Ops.
About UKTV UKTV is the multi-award winning media company that reaches over 42 million viewers every month.
UKTVs eleven imaginative brands - UKTV Play, Dave, Watch, Gold, Alibi, Yesterday, Drama, Really, Home, Eden and Good Food - include the most popular non-PSB channel in the UK
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Impossible Engineering is a tribute to the ingenious experts who are behind every seemingly impossible marvel of engineering. 
