Building the Ultimate

Speed, strength, stealth and power: the submarine is a mean machine going where man cannot. So, how does a submarine withstand the huge forces of sea pressure?

Agile and athletic, the helicopter is the only machine designed to take off vertically and hover - and the only vehicle to have saved more lives than it has killed.

Graceful and slender, the suspension bridge is the only structure known to man that can span more than one mile. With new computer technology, we find out what really happened at the infamous Tacoma Narrows collapse of 1940.

A space shuttle has 2.5 million parts and travels at over 7,000 meters per second. With armor that is designed to break and heat shields that are designed to burn, spacecraft technology is literally out of this world.

The tank is a unique combination of firepower, protection and mobility that dominates the battlefield.

At any one time, over 350,000 people are flying in passenger jets - yet, fifty years ago, they didn't exist. Experts from engineering to ornithology reveal the secrets of the jet engine.

Skyscraper architecture has always received plaudits, but the real genius behind our tallest buildings lies in the efforts of the unheralded structural engineers.

How are new threats changing the designs and technology behind bulletproof cars?