The White Diamond (2004) Movie Script
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the age-old dream of flying was realized
for the first time in the late 18th
century and like a fever dream of the
ensuing mechanical age engineer's
devised all manner of motorized
contraptions some of them imitated the
flight of birds that did not go anywhere
but bold aviators had more practical
dreams they would fly machines that
today are known as aeroplanes
some of them resembled belts with wings
there were fragile and often things went
wrong
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Aviation had its erly disappointments
and groundings but that did not deter
Alice from pursuing the great purpose
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but what to do with passengers where
these planes powerful enough to carry
people and if so where to tuck them away
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not much later stronger engines allowed
for greater payload in planes were built
like taxis
but that was not enough in order to
carry a significant number of passengers
massive clumsy planes had to be built
which required an array of high-powered
engines
but these behemoths could hardly get off
the ground
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the real future of aviation was thought
to be the airship like the highways now
filled with automobiles the skies were
teem with airships
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as the crowning achievement the German
engineer Graf Zeppelin built airships of
gigantic proportions they could carry a
multitude of passengers on
intercontinental voyages Zeppelin's
began regular flights from Europe to
India to Brazil to the United States
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the cabin was so spacious that during
flight passengers enjoyed luxuries on a
par with a much slower ocean liners
dining rooms grand pianos even a dancing
hall
and then it all ended with a catastrophe
of the Hindenburg
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the promise of the Zeppelin was never
completely discarded but it took until
the end of the 20th century for the idea
to be revived today applying non
flammable gases and with different
applications in mind a new breed of
high-tech engineers has emerged
I teach aerospace engineering here Queen
Mary University of London and this is my
laboratory here we've got aircraft and
what we're doing here is we're checking
the safety of the structure we're
bending it with a ton of load check
these panels don't buckle we've got
strain gauges on it and then we'll
measure the deflections in there to
check we don't have any distortions but
the most of the work we do in here is
aerodynamics and this yellow thing is a
big window the flow comes from this the
back of the room here is coming through
here goes around onto the floor and gets
up to about 100 miles per hour in there
so we could test things subsonically
less than the speed of sound and give us
useful information about the forces and
measure the forces on bodies like this
thing this isn't a model of an airship
or an airship body we can measure the
forces on the balance
but also we set up a little test here
with a smoke filament coming over the
top round the nose of the airship you
can see the flow there coming over the
top but come with me come right round
here this is a smoke tunnel this is used
for visualization you can see these comb
of smoke filaments coming down through
the smoke tunnel it's coming around this
model which is a model of the airship
it's round spherical with a code
underneath like a raindrop
the reason it's fat and round like this
is so it can be maneuverable now
Zeppelin's the big German Zeppelin's
were long shapes like cigars and they
could barely maneuver when they turn
they were fast but they could could
barely turn so this airship can turn
quite quickly and that's the little
breakthrough just just reducing the drag
by a factor of two the test here isn't
exactly representative because there's a
thin layer there we call the boundary
layer just a millimeter above the
surface
and that layer of air dictates the
entire flow around the airship but on
the big airship it will be a turbulent
little Eddie's in that boundary layer
and that will make the flow more
turbulent close the body and the
separation region it'll be closer it
should be even lower drag so I'm hopeful
this airship will be maneuvering from
these tests I'm quite confident we'll be
able to maneuver close the trees round
near them and that's the important thing
I want to get done in this test and from
what I've seen today what we've seen
here and the testing I've done the wind
times I'm confident we'll have a good
airship doctor Dori
you won't happen to your left hand gonna
be showy well when I was a small boy I
had an accident I was always interested
in spaceflight wanting to get to orbit
and things like that and I was building
a rocket town it's about 14 years old
and I was holding the rocket in this
hand and very I didn't understand
propellants if the chemistry teacher
just taught me the year before but I was
only 14 and the lesson I need it was a
year later about oxidation reactions and
I had a spontaneous explosion but
holding the rocket but luckily I live it
but at that time it was a 50% chance he
could have gone this way and looking on
alive today
so I recommend any any small children or
teenagers home be careful there you mess
around with rockets because I can't be
an astronaut now
for a long time I've had a dream of just
floating or flying zooming through the
air dreams during the night as well just
flying through cities and through
valleys and under bridges and flying
everywhere just floating above the
surface seeing life
we need something very maneuverable and
a balloon isn't ideal something like
this would be much better if it could be
quiet as well that's the important it's
gonna be really quiet you can see here
what I've got on the back is a small jet
engine just enough to lift my weight we
can realize our dreams this that's the
thing that I've learned in this whole
project is that you start from a concept
you do the design and you can actually
see your ideas being made and you can
realize dreams it's just a simple step
and it just requires a little bit of
determination but you can do it you can
do it whenever you want you just have to
have that dream just and then just zoom
up that's the thing we should let's go
boy let's go fly
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carving north of London in these
gigantic hangars most of Great Britain's
glorious airships were built here dr.
doreen who plans to test his new
prototype
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so that was the first time it's flown
and I think I think it on the whole I'm
quite confident again prides not quite
the right feeling to be honest with you
throughout this whole project until now
I feel quite a lot of heaviness which is
quite the difference to the levity show
you know I really want to have you know
the airships about levity being light
but I feel a little bit heavy about the
situation still but I'm getting back
some confidence because of what's doing
it fast because the past I mean it's
it's it's for me it's a little bit
difficult getting in an airship again
it's always brings back memories and you
asked me only about safety it brings
back all these memories and it was ten
years ago but I still think about that
constantly and it's nice to get back in
the air you know if you've had an accent
little bicycle anyone knows it it's the
best thing you can do is get back on a
bicycle what darling miss referring to
is a catastrophe which befell him with
an early airship he built
that's why evacuation measures in this
test top priority
during his plan is to fly this airship
over the jungle canopy and use it as a
platform for studying and filming the
largely unexplored treetops
we chose the area of kaieteur falls deep
in the rain forests of Guiana in South
America here untouched landscape in
diversity of flora and fauna found in
perfect unity
the other waterfall is an airstrip where
a few in the components of the airship a
large quantity of compressed helium gas
and supplies
for backup safety we also brought in an
ultralight aircraft and an experienced
aviator to fly it
locals from Menzies landing a tiny
settlement nearby were hired as Porter's
Kiana the only english-speaking country
in South America has a small population
of approximately 700,000 British
colonial rule brought Indians from India
and Africans from the Caribbean the
native Amerindian population has shrunk
to a mere 3% many of these men here are
Rastafarians this rough-and-tumble lot
normally works is diamonds - just like
Rambo we set up camp in the clearing
that provided protection from high winds
from the very first day where him during
who would struggle with a mess of engine
parts tools and wires in attempting to
unravel the mess this luck would be
elusive up until the very end responding
this is a switch unit that then there's
central just above my head and this
central switch will control the tail
motor and the side switches will control
how we go up and down very important we
did not know then that this particular
switch would cause a huge problem later
and then on the end will be electric
motor
let's get that motor out box here this
is actually interesting Motors is
designed by sundry cooter Lynch in
England he never went to university and
doesn't know any mathematics and stuff
like that but he taught himself
electrical engineering and it turns out
the motor he's made he's one of the
world's leading motors in terms of power
and mass and he's developed his own kind
of
sort of algebra to do that but no other
person no academic can understand what
he's doing but he seems to know more
than many academics in electrical
engineering departments because this
motors very very good performance the
best I could find most the time we'll
just be drifting with all the motors off
at least I'm hoping you'll be lovely
just to be above the canopy with
complete silence and I just think that
these is today if you not noticed that
there's so many aircraft think that
everything isn't so noisy and when you
get a bit of peace and quiet just just
quiet then you have a chance to think
quietly floating about the forest in
those mists
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of course in a way there's always going
to be this at the same time in this
lightness in this kind of ethereal
theory feeling of floating and in this
mist
that'll be beautiful but the same time
my mind will always had this heaviness
in it it's not just the danger it's the
it's that feeling of a danger but the
thing could go wrong but it's still the
past and I'm hoping that this project
will finally I don't know at least
proved that what we did way back in
Sumatra was right and that but DITA
blogs vision was justified in my life
I've only met a few men who impressed me
and and DITA was one of them he was a
man that I don't have much respect for
many people but DITA when you met him he
was such a solid man and so generous and
he was such a bloody good
cinematographer he had made so many good
wildlife films and when he died in in
1993 April 3rd it just seemed totally
unjust because he was just the start of
a major project when you make a wildlife
film one of the most important things is
of course to know about your subject but
as I am NOT a scientist in the way of
having detailed studies or have studied
in detail animals or their behavior I
have to refer to experts who know one of
the most extraordinary characters I've
ever met was AD&D Shriver the Adrian
took us into the forest confronted us
was the gorillas and we got charged and
charged and charged again and I think
and I'm sure if I would have even
flinched once and would have dropped the
camera would have run or turned around
Adrian would have said well this is
obviously not the right man to make this
film
aidan to shriver had this orphaned baby
gorilla and one day he decided to
introduce it into the forest to let it
know the sights and the sounds and
suddenly we sensed the gorillas were
right close and Adrian stood there was
the baby girl on his arm and suddenly
the gorilla called in a way it had never
called before it was really although
there was a strange feeling it was all
quiet and suddenly we saw the leaves
move and it was Hannibal first who
looked at us and I sensed there was
something going to happen which which
really we shall never forget Hannibal
suddenly called and Casimir answered
from the background and Adrian isn't
very very nervous and we all realize
this is a situation which really can end
up in something terrible Casimir came
and screamed and and just charged Adrian
Adrian literally had no other chance and
to drop the baby gorilla because if he
would have kept it we all convinced that
Casimir would have killed him although
he knew him very well for many years why
don't i filming can be very dangerous I
think when one gets into a situation
which is created by humans in Sri Lanka
we had a situation where there were
elephants isolated in small pockets of
forest in amongst plantations they were
shot at by people every day and so they
were very very dangerous indeed so we
went in there and we got into a very
dangerous situation in fact the elephant
ran right over me and I was very lucky
to say that the camera was planned for
my hands and it still kept on running
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for 11 years I felt the weight of guilt
about that accident it was a stupid
meaningless accident and I went over it
many many times in details trying to
find exactly what went wrong all the
technical facts chasing around like a
vicious circle over and over again
sometimes twice a day every day more
than that never finding an answer
he knew the risks he accepted his
responsibility and he trusts me in my
judgment and in fact shows show great
respect to me
and
I know I'm not responsible for the
detail of the accident but but but if I
hadn't had the dream in the first place
if I hadn't had the idea of doing this
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then it would never have happened
I mean he would probably be alive and
and filming today
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it's nine point seven meters in diameter
life couldn't be better
he couldn't be dead ah that's your
problem in there well we've got their
bowel tangled up with electrical wires
everything in our life is not ropes
never untangle themselves they tangle up
they become complex with time these
human beings wanting to be untangled
maybe that's our mistake to try and
impose okay
that just discovered when you go in
there there's two electrical connections
ever a male and a female connection and
I'm I made a mistake and put two female
connectors together so I've got to
change the connector so got to go back
in there and do it again
yeah but should take about ten minutes
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so he's gonna fill up with the 480 cubic
meters of dingy Liam that's quality
that's quite small by airship standards
in fact this will be one of the smallest
airships ever built in the world most -
it's about 2,000 cubic metre so it's
relatively small but for me this is a
big day
the gondola attaches in six places just
to make sure we got all the lines
everyone staying on their line it's all
about confronting chaos in finding chaos
is very real in a moment with a storm
coming in from the northwest I'm a
little bit worried it's too high off the
ground and not properly secured not
filled with helium so they're getting a
bit nervous here
whereas you can see we got a bit of a
strong there just like there's a big one
coming into town it's very flat out
there so the next hour we're gonna find
out where this airship can take the full
force to this storm only a 50/50 chance
quite nice actually it's quite cooling
quite relaxing know that all your work
is we want you for several years to
destroy it in a few minutes but that's
nothing that's nice
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easy break any second now
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the night's rainstorm luckily did not
cause any damage and removed on after
installing a camera
we checked the airship for buoyancy
against its full payload the ship is so
balanced that spilling less in a bottle
of water makes it lift off the ground
during this test the airship remained
strictly on tethers while we were doing
this test one of the local men drew our
attention that is a beautiful view it
has the sunset and there is the balloon
just floating around aimlessly yeah it's
beautiful
it's just fantastic I'm so fortunate
enough to witness something of a gem I'm
a my number of mostly and this is like a
diamond
nice big diamond I love this this is
cool
this is real good there is this big
white diamond just floating around in
the sunrise it's cool dedicated to my
mom somewhere in Spain unlike I think
this yeah this is beautiful
mrs. Enid ever good morning
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just think about it for seconds to think
about the fact you've got seven thousand
nine hundred miles of rock below you
right now wherever you're sitting on the
planet you've got seven thousand nine
hundred miles of Rock try to imagine
that huge amount of rock jump gravity is
a force that pulls me down you can't
escape it unless you have something like
a helium balloon or wings like those
Swift's those Swiss have got a lovely
Latin name Aaron ortus hasn't that a
beautiful name the way they dive down in
their free flight becoming weightless
before they dip into those Falls isn't
that beautiful
out of curiosity our physician on
location an expert mountain climber
decided to have a look for himself he
wanted to see the mysterious nesting
place of the Swift's from the bottom of
the falls the gigantic cave is
accessible and has resisted all attempts
by explorers
we lower the camera to him hoping to
gaze into the unknown
later we decided not to show his footage
we will show only the image from the
spinning camera as we pulled it back up
on a rope
okay loss knowledge banks have a master
schedule fun
yeah we have a loss guide a month on one
time to prune for diva home here in him
spots
listen that spam another hint ago
in secretive Elster yesterday there was
a casino the awful eyes tomatoes lettuce
listen was exclusive even though that is
calen Matsuda zone and ridiculous to
copepod impossible
shortly after how much Imus experience
we asked an Amerindian former tribal
leader how he views the cave if I had
wings one the first thing I would like
to know what behind the earth because
there's a home of the roof where the
roof and nobody knows what was behind
what lies what story what what really is
behind you never had wings one of my
first dream is to go behind you to see
what flies do we have stories like this
the legend goes that behind there have
huge big snakes live in deer that that
protect sort of treasures like a diamond
goal whatever thank you
I mean that's a legend let's say that
one of our climbers went down on a rope
and looked into it with a camera
he saw what's in there I don't think
they should they ever publish it I mean
what you see is yours
I mean you keep it to yourself but I
don't think it should be published as a
wall say okay this is behind you it
would last it's the whole essence about
our culture what tends to we die away
with rooted
but what we can reveal is a legend of
how cater waterfowl got its name
probably before the discovery of the new
world savage tribes of cannibals swept
through this region the native people
have found themselves on the brink of
extinction kaya
their leader took his canoe and plunged
himself into the abyss he sacrificed
himself in order to save his people
since then
the waterfall bears his name Kyah - Kyah
is formed
it is believed that his face can be seen
carved in the rock by the edge of the
fall back in our camp in anticipation of
our first flight be closely monitored
the weather a big problem is gonna be
wind so we're measuring the wind speed
and checking doesn't go above 2 meters
per second
you've got a mother yeah
she's living in Spain Malaga her name is
you want her to see this yeah hey mr.
and miss can you explain about your
family or my family has migrated to
Europe early stage maybe in six isn't it
I've missed them really my hope is that
they do see them and they will feel so
happy to get in contact with the missing
brother the missing son the lonely guy
we have the Indiana would you like to
use this craft to fly to them wow I
would like to use this craft of life to
them yeah even if it takes a whole year
months I would love to have this graph
to fly to them maybe land on the rooftop
gives them a surprise yeah it will be
beautiful for me to be in aircraft or in
the morning there is Marty up at their
doorstep that same morning I had an
argument with Graham Torrington over the
accident of 10 years past we touched on
issues of responsibility and principles
I had to confront him myself
now there's another point
I cannot ask cinematographer to men this
airship together with you and lesser
being only to myself oh I know I'm just
saying I need to test it first just
don't do that you just don't do that and
there's an employer you cannot ask
anyone and of course I have to take
existing that but I think it should be
tested first by me alone and because we
have a low buoyancy situation there's a
lot of technical reasons to go along and
there's such a thing as as Follies yes
except that no it is not a funny but it
would be stupid stupid about what I'm
proposing it would be stupid to accept
that you are flying without a camera on
board and I don't think it's just a
plain stupidity they're dignified
stupidities and their heroic stupidities
and there's such a thing as stupid
stupidities and that would be a stupid
stupidity not to have a camera on board
mystic is my saying you just have one
flight no I'm not saying that every
single chance we have we have to take
advantage of well I don't know do I
do I have any options
okay pre-flight now if you just browsin
even again waxing yeah the coolness you
can see the consistence leaving the
fryer
yeah alright okay our songs come and go
stag in the house tagging of signing
some kind of a bitch were they each were
the inside to swallow said the commander
Keith Mouse my thinking at that time not
expressed to touring and was that if we
had a mishap for example developed a
gash in the skin of the airship which we
could not repair that this could be our
one and only flight this is why I
insisted upon having a camera on board
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radios check times recorder temps switch
off batteries there blah blah blah yeah
I think we're ready to go
our liftoff was smooth we kept the
airship antennas
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as it seemed to be going so well we
decided on a free flight the holding
ropes were severed but then quickly the
airship got into trouble I smelled smell
and saw that one of the engines had
burned out and shortly after that pieces
of metal and plastic flew around my ears
as the propeller next to me had slammed
into its protective rim
we decided to drop a line and make a
quick rather graceless landing
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no Ford power look at the anemometer you
see it nothing it's not spinning not
spinning so there's no indication
for me this is nightmare flight every
single technical problem that could go
wrong has gone wrong we had about seven
independent failures the motors are
overheating and they didn't do that in
the prior two tests
we're underpowered don't have enough
power to push cords the server most the
back wasn't working and we flew me the
reverse rudder pedal so that made life
even even more but there was a point
that I had all engines running and we're
running backwards and that is not a very
comfortable situation to be in
yeah this was not the right procedure
you know you know what I now mean from
my side this is not good airmanship and
this is not the right testing procedures
when when you fly aircrafts never flown
before and these conditions okay I did
that five or seven times you won't do
that again
when I'm here what we did not realize at
that time was that a main switch had
malfunctioned and reversed the thrust of
the tail engine studying our film days
later we noticed a strong turbulence at
the tail section while all engines
pushed forwards the most powerful one at
the tail end was pulling backwards
even though it was not so much a
question of pure airmanship for touring
and it was still a devastating blow but
if you give up now and be it would be
stupid I think it'd be very stupid not
to get the ocean flowing properly sister
just a question of what do you like to
fly sure that'd be great more Cantonese
enthusiasm please projects only thing
that one of the few people it's been
positive everyone else has been pretty
negative if you think about it past like
Mark Antony has grown up here 18 years
and he's had no formal education but
he's got a lot of wisdom and he knows so
much and we come in here like I'm coming
here with a lot of Technology misplaced
this guy's knowledge is worth more than
what was education in a sense the fact
he knows about little plants which which
which antiseptic qualities for eyes
could could be could be could be a
fantastic thing did the prospecting
element of this project the potential is
there to go can it be prospecting all
this golden silver mine is a waste of
time gold silver useless to us but they
could be they could be pharmaceuticals
curing pharmaceuticals in the canopy
many biologists believe that the canopy
is one of the most rich biodiverse areas
of this planet and yet it remains
unexplored this futile flights day and
my stupid technical efforts which of
which were also not following procedures
and making mistakes okay I accept all
that but it's just a stepping stone
is this a stepping stone to much greater
potential we became curious about Marc
Anthony's medicine and followed him on a
foraging field trip not far from the
waterfall I come to these dark places
for this medicine or the herbs it's good
for the eyes any any irritation or so
this here it's good for arthritis I use
this also for like swelling and things
and I have a bar that I normally use on
rooms this is covered but this one has
not been stitched it's the bar that
either this this one here so it's very
handy
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[Applause]
I love to come to this place here I have
few Falls right now it is solved
and sometimes when it rains I love to
look at it through this little bottle
this little problem
magnificently I look to their there's
the wall
they're kids
Marc Anthony do you see a whole universe
in this one single drop of water
I cannot hear what you see but it's
under
after a week of repairs and improvements
the airship flew again this day we kept
it strictly on tethers
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as days went by and things improved
there was one dangerous dream lingering
to fly the airship over the falls
prudence demanded a test
we're just using these balloons to test
the turbulence levels above the area of
the Falls we're thinking whether it's
fun to fly the airship over there when
I'm worried it gets sucked down by the
downdraft and we've also filled these
last with champagne make them Lukey boy
it's an offering offerings the
waterfalls and film the monster and the
waterfall this is Jason he works in the
kitchen and he loves to dance
the second test showed the power of the
downdraft even more graphically the
breeze blew the balloons a griever
but then the suction pulled them back
for a while they seemed to hold their
own but we knew there and then that any
attempt to fly the airship over this
would inevitably prove fatal
eleven years ago Gertz dieter plugger
died in sumatra in an accident in a
project when I was working with him
we're using a a one-man airship the
small airship to film the forest canopy
I flew the airship first a few times and
then he flew it and it was going very
well the project on the day of his
accident we woke up in the atmosphere
was very somber I think it's possible
that his wife and him had a very big
argument tonight and there's a tension
maybe she had a premonition about what
was going to happen we took off he took
off in the morning a little bit late
there were lots of delays he decided to
mount the camera on the front of the
airship looking back at him took off a
little bit late and there was a slight
wind not much it was very calm yes it
flew up a river just like this calmly
disappeared over the canopy it circled
we could see it in the distance going
across the canopy while he was filming
but he started getting a little bit
higher than I expected and there seemed
to be a problem
then we radioed him and the first
problem we had was that radios didn't
work they hadn't been charged properly
the airship descended some way away over
the canopy and one member of the team
took bearings just to see what would
come down he stood on a big cliff ledge
he watched where it came down and then
very calmly very professionally we
arranged a team to go out and meet the
airship but I could see the airship up
on a tree perched on a tree with DITA
was up there sitting in the seat quite
calmly reflect I watched him sitting
near some Birds passed above and he
managed to lift the nose but the camera
that he put the start was was caught in
a branch and it wouldn't loosen and he
couldn't reach it
I saw him unbuckled his seat but he
wasn't wearing
harness and he tried to reach out to the
camera we waited again and I saw this
big bangs now it's getting close close
and close it was it was a light blue sky
like we have now but this cloud was big
gray Blanc coming in and I could see
that the rustling of the treetops and
then it just moved in very rapidly and I
could see that the the frame of the
airship on the tree rocking like a
Bronco and I could see DITA holding on
and then something I didn't quite
believe I saw it rock really hard and it
broke the frame of the airship and I saw
him learnt four words and fall out the
tree was most maybe 50 or 70 meters high
and I knew that if somebody fell from
that they would be killed once worth I
realized but I just didn't believe it
and so I ran back into the forest it was
very dark in there when you looked up it
was pitch black it's just little vague
lights from the light coming through but
he hadn't fallen and I was thought well
I must have been mistaken it must have
dreamt it I waited a period of about
five minutes and the others waited and
freedom was when they just told me to be
quiet
we heard some cracking of branches and
what has happened another member of the
team Marcus had climbed very cleverly to
it buff another tree that tree he was on
was dead and breaking anyway but Marcus
had climbed another dream got within two
meters I found out later of data and the
airship was lodged with DITA holding on
to the part of the airship were part of
a branch and he very calmly said to
Marcus pull me over the Marcus pulled
the rope towards him and this must have
dislodged the airship from where it was
and then DITA did fall I was standing at
the base of the canopy and then I saw
something I'll never forget
I saw this man coming down holding his
head lying on his side falling through
the air past me it was like in slow
motion I can still see that even though
it happened very rapidly I could still
see it falling and then I hear heard him
hit the ground with a thud
the terrible thing is it was like meat
in a butcher shop slamming down on the
ground the ground was soft and Petey and
he we thought he was dead at first he
was half buried in this peat he'd lost
an eye and so he looked a bit of a mess
and on the guys Rob was really fantastic
people come into their own in this
situation and I was just lost right the
first thing I said was just Jesus Christ
when I was just lost because I didn't
believe what has happened but Robley he
was like a brilliant nurse and he went
over this guy and he and I and and we
assumed his dead and as I look down at
the detail I realized his lie alive
because his other eye opened and their
freedom is brilliant because he just in
lightning speed to put dirty other
stretcher we took our shirts that tied
the stretch and very carefully lifted
him onto the stretcher
we've got him across the river with two
Indian episode Indonesian Porter's and
there was a mud Trek on the far side of
the bank
we got him there but when I got into the
sort of far side it was clear his
breathing was getting worse he had this
sort of moaning sound but then he
started sounding karma and I said to him
the last thing I said to him listen
something's face I did I did I just said
you're looking better DITA which of
course it wasn't and we lifted him up on
this mud puff it's very narrow ledge and
there was a terrible moment at that
point where we actually thought we're
gonna slip down the bank and his body
would fall into the river and and four
of us were concentrating hard on doing
this and just as we reached the canopy
height we heard him stop breathing
we couldn't I couldn't look back because
I was at the front and he got to the top
of the road and I looked at him and I've
never seen a dead body before in my life
and I looked at his body and now
realised he was dead
I washed I washed his blood in the river
from the cloth my shirt and I watched
the blood go down in the river it was
you
the last lostalready saw with him
after some more and very encouraging
tests we felt safe enough to fly the
airship completely free it carried
safety devices such as long ropes to
bail out with a radio and a GPS
positioning device in case it got blown
far out into the jungle our ultra light
kept circling closeby finally the ship
could do the work it was designed for
that morning it even ventured out to the
tiny settlement of Menzies landing
everyone was still sleeping good morning
sir Evan look what's flying there just
have a look just ever look what's flying
there wait
it even dipped into the potaro river
upstream from the waterfall
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I
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[Applause]
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[Laughter]
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and then we halt the airship in
[Music]
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you dream about this kind of floating
you really do after you play dreaming
about flying around is the same
[Music]
I don't know does anyone want describe
that it was
today was hipomenes distill day
[Music]
[Applause]
I could stick I can still feel myself
flying around out there you know like
you've done anything you still have like
you'll need you run round you spin round
do you feel like you're still spinning I
still look feel like I'm floating my
body is just lifting off the ground now
[Music]
honestly speaking one hell of a relief
[Music]
hmm I think you know the feeling you get
[Music]
these are plugger he knew what was
happened today
we felt the right thing now would be to
leave dying alone and have a complete
change of setting a few miles downriver
from the waterfall Brazilians operated I
Amand mine we were searching for a real
white diamonds
and why then
I want some more of it
[Music]
as a gift
during off at mark-anthony a chance to
fly he seemed to be somber all this
Pleasant morning I'm about to fly and
surely I would like to take my ruse to
get me three somewhere wrong I would
like to take him on this flight why your
rooster
oh my rooster means so much to me or in
the morning the faster it grows then
crows came in when there's some change
to get a pattern in such a lovely guy I
will start like taking me on the spoils
[Music]
of course Mark Anthony did not expect to
fly to Europe to meet his family
something else was on his mind I should
have had my rooster here with me for the
world to see his name is red he has five
wives five him so I get five eggs every
morning I was having heard such wondrous
things about Marc Anthony's friend we
were curious to meet his splendid
rooster
[Music]
there he goes he's often as well five
hands I love the red is very much from
the time he was little chicken he was
born here on mendes landon hats its
father the other elder Brewster kind of
like arm controls the other hand and
when he was growing up his father used
to kind of beat him up to be off the
hands and after he had became one year
two months he started to resist his
father now he's a Spanish his father
from the land so he's the king of the
land right now this red wisdom
you know Mark Antony
had this strange feeling when I landed
in the village but the little a Meridian
children couldn't see the airship
expected to be all excited and jubilant
but they're very Placid and very sort of
quiet and they just it's like the
airship didn't exist they looked
straight through it like it's invisible
I was surprised by their actions
everything because Amerindians here in
the hall and said yeah
and I was thinking is about perception I
was thinking about James Cook it's
reported that when James could arriving
a shipment in New Zealand the Mary's
just couldn't see it they couldn't see
it right in front of his outside their
world of ideas
it didn't exist for them they think they
couldn't comprehend it and for me it was
like this little children they just they
just haven't seen ink like this before
and they just ignored the airship they
could see me but they couldn't see the
airship
I was sure of it was just too outside
their worlds I think that's what I heard
the feeling
exceptionally strange thing
are strange when we think
I think you'd be Swift they they live
five times faster than us
you know they match means they perceive
things five times the rate because they
move save so much faster than us five or
ten times faster you must be like cold
status' then slow-moving numberous
creatures and they're moving so
gracefully there's over a million twists
living at these waterfalls so let me
true
it's like a big concert they just like
shoals of fish suddenly they smooth so I
have down altogether and move backwards
and forwards like a music controlling me
you know they roll around and then
suddenly build quite come
[Music]
[Applause]
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you got no idea what literally you got
no idea what we're double yeah you gotta
know the Moriya uh wait I will wait we
are my little yeah come on Connie on one
with a we um got mu gamma leo wha with I
am got more got more leo
well away I'm well we are mom well no we
only are we I'm gamma leo
Wow with a we go gamma leo
well away Emma well we are ma Willa we
um go by William oh yeah Wow where we um
got no only a while with a we're gonna
come only a wha
well that way Emma well I wear my will
we got a family a wah wah lui up gumgum
only a while
we go got one yeah Wow
my
[Music]
well of
[Music]
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[Music]
the age-old dream of flying was realized
for the first time in the late 18th
century and like a fever dream of the
ensuing mechanical age engineer's
devised all manner of motorized
contraptions some of them imitated the
flight of birds that did not go anywhere
but bold aviators had more practical
dreams they would fly machines that
today are known as aeroplanes
some of them resembled belts with wings
there were fragile and often things went
wrong
[Music]
Aviation had its erly disappointments
and groundings but that did not deter
Alice from pursuing the great purpose
[Music]
but what to do with passengers where
these planes powerful enough to carry
people and if so where to tuck them away
[Music]
not much later stronger engines allowed
for greater payload in planes were built
like taxis
but that was not enough in order to
carry a significant number of passengers
massive clumsy planes had to be built
which required an array of high-powered
engines
but these behemoths could hardly get off
the ground
[Music]
the real future of aviation was thought
to be the airship like the highways now
filled with automobiles the skies were
teem with airships
[Music]
as the crowning achievement the German
engineer Graf Zeppelin built airships of
gigantic proportions they could carry a
multitude of passengers on
intercontinental voyages Zeppelin's
began regular flights from Europe to
India to Brazil to the United States
[Music]
the cabin was so spacious that during
flight passengers enjoyed luxuries on a
par with a much slower ocean liners
dining rooms grand pianos even a dancing
hall
and then it all ended with a catastrophe
of the Hindenburg
[Music]
[Music]
the promise of the Zeppelin was never
completely discarded but it took until
the end of the 20th century for the idea
to be revived today applying non
flammable gases and with different
applications in mind a new breed of
high-tech engineers has emerged
I teach aerospace engineering here Queen
Mary University of London and this is my
laboratory here we've got aircraft and
what we're doing here is we're checking
the safety of the structure we're
bending it with a ton of load check
these panels don't buckle we've got
strain gauges on it and then we'll
measure the deflections in there to
check we don't have any distortions but
the most of the work we do in here is
aerodynamics and this yellow thing is a
big window the flow comes from this the
back of the room here is coming through
here goes around onto the floor and gets
up to about 100 miles per hour in there
so we could test things subsonically
less than the speed of sound and give us
useful information about the forces and
measure the forces on bodies like this
thing this isn't a model of an airship
or an airship body we can measure the
forces on the balance
but also we set up a little test here
with a smoke filament coming over the
top round the nose of the airship you
can see the flow there coming over the
top but come with me come right round
here this is a smoke tunnel this is used
for visualization you can see these comb
of smoke filaments coming down through
the smoke tunnel it's coming around this
model which is a model of the airship
it's round spherical with a code
underneath like a raindrop
the reason it's fat and round like this
is so it can be maneuverable now
Zeppelin's the big German Zeppelin's
were long shapes like cigars and they
could barely maneuver when they turn
they were fast but they could could
barely turn so this airship can turn
quite quickly and that's the little
breakthrough just just reducing the drag
by a factor of two the test here isn't
exactly representative because there's a
thin layer there we call the boundary
layer just a millimeter above the
surface
and that layer of air dictates the
entire flow around the airship but on
the big airship it will be a turbulent
little Eddie's in that boundary layer
and that will make the flow more
turbulent close the body and the
separation region it'll be closer it
should be even lower drag so I'm hopeful
this airship will be maneuvering from
these tests I'm quite confident we'll be
able to maneuver close the trees round
near them and that's the important thing
I want to get done in this test and from
what I've seen today what we've seen
here and the testing I've done the wind
times I'm confident we'll have a good
airship doctor Dori
you won't happen to your left hand gonna
be showy well when I was a small boy I
had an accident I was always interested
in spaceflight wanting to get to orbit
and things like that and I was building
a rocket town it's about 14 years old
and I was holding the rocket in this
hand and very I didn't understand
propellants if the chemistry teacher
just taught me the year before but I was
only 14 and the lesson I need it was a
year later about oxidation reactions and
I had a spontaneous explosion but
holding the rocket but luckily I live it
but at that time it was a 50% chance he
could have gone this way and looking on
alive today
so I recommend any any small children or
teenagers home be careful there you mess
around with rockets because I can't be
an astronaut now
for a long time I've had a dream of just
floating or flying zooming through the
air dreams during the night as well just
flying through cities and through
valleys and under bridges and flying
everywhere just floating above the
surface seeing life
we need something very maneuverable and
a balloon isn't ideal something like
this would be much better if it could be
quiet as well that's the important it's
gonna be really quiet you can see here
what I've got on the back is a small jet
engine just enough to lift my weight we
can realize our dreams this that's the
thing that I've learned in this whole
project is that you start from a concept
you do the design and you can actually
see your ideas being made and you can
realize dreams it's just a simple step
and it just requires a little bit of
determination but you can do it you can
do it whenever you want you just have to
have that dream just and then just zoom
up that's the thing we should let's go
boy let's go fly
[Music]
[Music]
carving north of London in these
gigantic hangars most of Great Britain's
glorious airships were built here dr.
doreen who plans to test his new
prototype
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
so that was the first time it's flown
and I think I think it on the whole I'm
quite confident again prides not quite
the right feeling to be honest with you
throughout this whole project until now
I feel quite a lot of heaviness which is
quite the difference to the levity show
you know I really want to have you know
the airships about levity being light
but I feel a little bit heavy about the
situation still but I'm getting back
some confidence because of what's doing
it fast because the past I mean it's
it's it's for me it's a little bit
difficult getting in an airship again
it's always brings back memories and you
asked me only about safety it brings
back all these memories and it was ten
years ago but I still think about that
constantly and it's nice to get back in
the air you know if you've had an accent
little bicycle anyone knows it it's the
best thing you can do is get back on a
bicycle what darling miss referring to
is a catastrophe which befell him with
an early airship he built
that's why evacuation measures in this
test top priority
during his plan is to fly this airship
over the jungle canopy and use it as a
platform for studying and filming the
largely unexplored treetops
we chose the area of kaieteur falls deep
in the rain forests of Guiana in South
America here untouched landscape in
diversity of flora and fauna found in
perfect unity
the other waterfall is an airstrip where
a few in the components of the airship a
large quantity of compressed helium gas
and supplies
for backup safety we also brought in an
ultralight aircraft and an experienced
aviator to fly it
locals from Menzies landing a tiny
settlement nearby were hired as Porter's
Kiana the only english-speaking country
in South America has a small population
of approximately 700,000 British
colonial rule brought Indians from India
and Africans from the Caribbean the
native Amerindian population has shrunk
to a mere 3% many of these men here are
Rastafarians this rough-and-tumble lot
normally works is diamonds - just like
Rambo we set up camp in the clearing
that provided protection from high winds
from the very first day where him during
who would struggle with a mess of engine
parts tools and wires in attempting to
unravel the mess this luck would be
elusive up until the very end responding
this is a switch unit that then there's
central just above my head and this
central switch will control the tail
motor and the side switches will control
how we go up and down very important we
did not know then that this particular
switch would cause a huge problem later
and then on the end will be electric
motor
let's get that motor out box here this
is actually interesting Motors is
designed by sundry cooter Lynch in
England he never went to university and
doesn't know any mathematics and stuff
like that but he taught himself
electrical engineering and it turns out
the motor he's made he's one of the
world's leading motors in terms of power
and mass and he's developed his own kind
of
sort of algebra to do that but no other
person no academic can understand what
he's doing but he seems to know more
than many academics in electrical
engineering departments because this
motors very very good performance the
best I could find most the time we'll
just be drifting with all the motors off
at least I'm hoping you'll be lovely
just to be above the canopy with
complete silence and I just think that
these is today if you not noticed that
there's so many aircraft think that
everything isn't so noisy and when you
get a bit of peace and quiet just just
quiet then you have a chance to think
quietly floating about the forest in
those mists
[Music]
of course in a way there's always going
to be this at the same time in this
lightness in this kind of ethereal
theory feeling of floating and in this
mist
that'll be beautiful but the same time
my mind will always had this heaviness
in it it's not just the danger it's the
it's that feeling of a danger but the
thing could go wrong but it's still the
past and I'm hoping that this project
will finally I don't know at least
proved that what we did way back in
Sumatra was right and that but DITA
blogs vision was justified in my life
I've only met a few men who impressed me
and and DITA was one of them he was a
man that I don't have much respect for
many people but DITA when you met him he
was such a solid man and so generous and
he was such a bloody good
cinematographer he had made so many good
wildlife films and when he died in in
1993 April 3rd it just seemed totally
unjust because he was just the start of
a major project when you make a wildlife
film one of the most important things is
of course to know about your subject but
as I am NOT a scientist in the way of
having detailed studies or have studied
in detail animals or their behavior I
have to refer to experts who know one of
the most extraordinary characters I've
ever met was AD&D Shriver the Adrian
took us into the forest confronted us
was the gorillas and we got charged and
charged and charged again and I think
and I'm sure if I would have even
flinched once and would have dropped the
camera would have run or turned around
Adrian would have said well this is
obviously not the right man to make this
film
aidan to shriver had this orphaned baby
gorilla and one day he decided to
introduce it into the forest to let it
know the sights and the sounds and
suddenly we sensed the gorillas were
right close and Adrian stood there was
the baby girl on his arm and suddenly
the gorilla called in a way it had never
called before it was really although
there was a strange feeling it was all
quiet and suddenly we saw the leaves
move and it was Hannibal first who
looked at us and I sensed there was
something going to happen which which
really we shall never forget Hannibal
suddenly called and Casimir answered
from the background and Adrian isn't
very very nervous and we all realize
this is a situation which really can end
up in something terrible Casimir came
and screamed and and just charged Adrian
Adrian literally had no other chance and
to drop the baby gorilla because if he
would have kept it we all convinced that
Casimir would have killed him although
he knew him very well for many years why
don't i filming can be very dangerous I
think when one gets into a situation
which is created by humans in Sri Lanka
we had a situation where there were
elephants isolated in small pockets of
forest in amongst plantations they were
shot at by people every day and so they
were very very dangerous indeed so we
went in there and we got into a very
dangerous situation in fact the elephant
ran right over me and I was very lucky
to say that the camera was planned for
my hands and it still kept on running
[Applause]
[Music]
for 11 years I felt the weight of guilt
about that accident it was a stupid
meaningless accident and I went over it
many many times in details trying to
find exactly what went wrong all the
technical facts chasing around like a
vicious circle over and over again
sometimes twice a day every day more
than that never finding an answer
he knew the risks he accepted his
responsibility and he trusts me in my
judgment and in fact shows show great
respect to me
and
I know I'm not responsible for the
detail of the accident but but but if I
hadn't had the dream in the first place
if I hadn't had the idea of doing this
[Music]
then it would never have happened
I mean he would probably be alive and
and filming today
[Applause]
it's nine point seven meters in diameter
life couldn't be better
he couldn't be dead ah that's your
problem in there well we've got their
bowel tangled up with electrical wires
everything in our life is not ropes
never untangle themselves they tangle up
they become complex with time these
human beings wanting to be untangled
maybe that's our mistake to try and
impose okay
that just discovered when you go in
there there's two electrical connections
ever a male and a female connection and
I'm I made a mistake and put two female
connectors together so I've got to
change the connector so got to go back
in there and do it again
yeah but should take about ten minutes
[Applause]
[Music]
so he's gonna fill up with the 480 cubic
meters of dingy Liam that's quality
that's quite small by airship standards
in fact this will be one of the smallest
airships ever built in the world most -
it's about 2,000 cubic metre so it's
relatively small but for me this is a
big day
the gondola attaches in six places just
to make sure we got all the lines
everyone staying on their line it's all
about confronting chaos in finding chaos
is very real in a moment with a storm
coming in from the northwest I'm a
little bit worried it's too high off the
ground and not properly secured not
filled with helium so they're getting a
bit nervous here
whereas you can see we got a bit of a
strong there just like there's a big one
coming into town it's very flat out
there so the next hour we're gonna find
out where this airship can take the full
force to this storm only a 50/50 chance
quite nice actually it's quite cooling
quite relaxing know that all your work
is we want you for several years to
destroy it in a few minutes but that's
nothing that's nice
[Applause]
easy break any second now
[Applause]
[Music]
the night's rainstorm luckily did not
cause any damage and removed on after
installing a camera
we checked the airship for buoyancy
against its full payload the ship is so
balanced that spilling less in a bottle
of water makes it lift off the ground
during this test the airship remained
strictly on tethers while we were doing
this test one of the local men drew our
attention that is a beautiful view it
has the sunset and there is the balloon
just floating around aimlessly yeah it's
beautiful
it's just fantastic I'm so fortunate
enough to witness something of a gem I'm
a my number of mostly and this is like a
diamond
nice big diamond I love this this is
cool
this is real good there is this big
white diamond just floating around in
the sunrise it's cool dedicated to my
mom somewhere in Spain unlike I think
this yeah this is beautiful
mrs. Enid ever good morning
[Music]
just think about it for seconds to think
about the fact you've got seven thousand
nine hundred miles of rock below you
right now wherever you're sitting on the
planet you've got seven thousand nine
hundred miles of Rock try to imagine
that huge amount of rock jump gravity is
a force that pulls me down you can't
escape it unless you have something like
a helium balloon or wings like those
Swift's those Swiss have got a lovely
Latin name Aaron ortus hasn't that a
beautiful name the way they dive down in
their free flight becoming weightless
before they dip into those Falls isn't
that beautiful
out of curiosity our physician on
location an expert mountain climber
decided to have a look for himself he
wanted to see the mysterious nesting
place of the Swift's from the bottom of
the falls the gigantic cave is
accessible and has resisted all attempts
by explorers
we lower the camera to him hoping to
gaze into the unknown
later we decided not to show his footage
we will show only the image from the
spinning camera as we pulled it back up
on a rope
okay loss knowledge banks have a master
schedule fun
yeah we have a loss guide a month on one
time to prune for diva home here in him
spots
listen that spam another hint ago
in secretive Elster yesterday there was
a casino the awful eyes tomatoes lettuce
listen was exclusive even though that is
calen Matsuda zone and ridiculous to
copepod impossible
shortly after how much Imus experience
we asked an Amerindian former tribal
leader how he views the cave if I had
wings one the first thing I would like
to know what behind the earth because
there's a home of the roof where the
roof and nobody knows what was behind
what lies what story what what really is
behind you never had wings one of my
first dream is to go behind you to see
what flies do we have stories like this
the legend goes that behind there have
huge big snakes live in deer that that
protect sort of treasures like a diamond
goal whatever thank you
I mean that's a legend let's say that
one of our climbers went down on a rope
and looked into it with a camera
he saw what's in there I don't think
they should they ever publish it I mean
what you see is yours
I mean you keep it to yourself but I
don't think it should be published as a
wall say okay this is behind you it
would last it's the whole essence about
our culture what tends to we die away
with rooted
but what we can reveal is a legend of
how cater waterfowl got its name
probably before the discovery of the new
world savage tribes of cannibals swept
through this region the native people
have found themselves on the brink of
extinction kaya
their leader took his canoe and plunged
himself into the abyss he sacrificed
himself in order to save his people
since then
the waterfall bears his name Kyah - Kyah
is formed
it is believed that his face can be seen
carved in the rock by the edge of the
fall back in our camp in anticipation of
our first flight be closely monitored
the weather a big problem is gonna be
wind so we're measuring the wind speed
and checking doesn't go above 2 meters
per second
you've got a mother yeah
she's living in Spain Malaga her name is
you want her to see this yeah hey mr.
and miss can you explain about your
family or my family has migrated to
Europe early stage maybe in six isn't it
I've missed them really my hope is that
they do see them and they will feel so
happy to get in contact with the missing
brother the missing son the lonely guy
we have the Indiana would you like to
use this craft to fly to them wow I
would like to use this craft of life to
them yeah even if it takes a whole year
months I would love to have this graph
to fly to them maybe land on the rooftop
gives them a surprise yeah it will be
beautiful for me to be in aircraft or in
the morning there is Marty up at their
doorstep that same morning I had an
argument with Graham Torrington over the
accident of 10 years past we touched on
issues of responsibility and principles
I had to confront him myself
now there's another point
I cannot ask cinematographer to men this
airship together with you and lesser
being only to myself oh I know I'm just
saying I need to test it first just
don't do that you just don't do that and
there's an employer you cannot ask
anyone and of course I have to take
existing that but I think it should be
tested first by me alone and because we
have a low buoyancy situation there's a
lot of technical reasons to go along and
there's such a thing as as Follies yes
except that no it is not a funny but it
would be stupid stupid about what I'm
proposing it would be stupid to accept
that you are flying without a camera on
board and I don't think it's just a
plain stupidity they're dignified
stupidities and their heroic stupidities
and there's such a thing as stupid
stupidities and that would be a stupid
stupidity not to have a camera on board
mystic is my saying you just have one
flight no I'm not saying that every
single chance we have we have to take
advantage of well I don't know do I
do I have any options
okay pre-flight now if you just browsin
even again waxing yeah the coolness you
can see the consistence leaving the
fryer
yeah alright okay our songs come and go
stag in the house tagging of signing
some kind of a bitch were they each were
the inside to swallow said the commander
Keith Mouse my thinking at that time not
expressed to touring and was that if we
had a mishap for example developed a
gash in the skin of the airship which we
could not repair that this could be our
one and only flight this is why I
insisted upon having a camera on board
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radios check times recorder temps switch
off batteries there blah blah blah yeah
I think we're ready to go
our liftoff was smooth we kept the
airship antennas
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as it seemed to be going so well we
decided on a free flight the holding
ropes were severed but then quickly the
airship got into trouble I smelled smell
and saw that one of the engines had
burned out and shortly after that pieces
of metal and plastic flew around my ears
as the propeller next to me had slammed
into its protective rim
we decided to drop a line and make a
quick rather graceless landing
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no Ford power look at the anemometer you
see it nothing it's not spinning not
spinning so there's no indication
for me this is nightmare flight every
single technical problem that could go
wrong has gone wrong we had about seven
independent failures the motors are
overheating and they didn't do that in
the prior two tests
we're underpowered don't have enough
power to push cords the server most the
back wasn't working and we flew me the
reverse rudder pedal so that made life
even even more but there was a point
that I had all engines running and we're
running backwards and that is not a very
comfortable situation to be in
yeah this was not the right procedure
you know you know what I now mean from
my side this is not good airmanship and
this is not the right testing procedures
when when you fly aircrafts never flown
before and these conditions okay I did
that five or seven times you won't do
that again
when I'm here what we did not realize at
that time was that a main switch had
malfunctioned and reversed the thrust of
the tail engine studying our film days
later we noticed a strong turbulence at
the tail section while all engines
pushed forwards the most powerful one at
the tail end was pulling backwards
even though it was not so much a
question of pure airmanship for touring
and it was still a devastating blow but
if you give up now and be it would be
stupid I think it'd be very stupid not
to get the ocean flowing properly sister
just a question of what do you like to
fly sure that'd be great more Cantonese
enthusiasm please projects only thing
that one of the few people it's been
positive everyone else has been pretty
negative if you think about it past like
Mark Antony has grown up here 18 years
and he's had no formal education but
he's got a lot of wisdom and he knows so
much and we come in here like I'm coming
here with a lot of Technology misplaced
this guy's knowledge is worth more than
what was education in a sense the fact
he knows about little plants which which
which antiseptic qualities for eyes
could could be could be could be a
fantastic thing did the prospecting
element of this project the potential is
there to go can it be prospecting all
this golden silver mine is a waste of
time gold silver useless to us but they
could be they could be pharmaceuticals
curing pharmaceuticals in the canopy
many biologists believe that the canopy
is one of the most rich biodiverse areas
of this planet and yet it remains
unexplored this futile flights day and
my stupid technical efforts which of
which were also not following procedures
and making mistakes okay I accept all
that but it's just a stepping stone
is this a stepping stone to much greater
potential we became curious about Marc
Anthony's medicine and followed him on a
foraging field trip not far from the
waterfall I come to these dark places
for this medicine or the herbs it's good
for the eyes any any irritation or so
this here it's good for arthritis I use
this also for like swelling and things
and I have a bar that I normally use on
rooms this is covered but this one has
not been stitched it's the bar that
either this this one here so it's very
handy
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I love to come to this place here I have
few Falls right now it is solved
and sometimes when it rains I love to
look at it through this little bottle
this little problem
magnificently I look to their there's
the wall
they're kids
Marc Anthony do you see a whole universe
in this one single drop of water
I cannot hear what you see but it's
under
after a week of repairs and improvements
the airship flew again this day we kept
it strictly on tethers
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as days went by and things improved
there was one dangerous dream lingering
to fly the airship over the falls
prudence demanded a test
we're just using these balloons to test
the turbulence levels above the area of
the Falls we're thinking whether it's
fun to fly the airship over there when
I'm worried it gets sucked down by the
downdraft and we've also filled these
last with champagne make them Lukey boy
it's an offering offerings the
waterfalls and film the monster and the
waterfall this is Jason he works in the
kitchen and he loves to dance
the second test showed the power of the
downdraft even more graphically the
breeze blew the balloons a griever
but then the suction pulled them back
for a while they seemed to hold their
own but we knew there and then that any
attempt to fly the airship over this
would inevitably prove fatal
eleven years ago Gertz dieter plugger
died in sumatra in an accident in a
project when I was working with him
we're using a a one-man airship the
small airship to film the forest canopy
I flew the airship first a few times and
then he flew it and it was going very
well the project on the day of his
accident we woke up in the atmosphere
was very somber I think it's possible
that his wife and him had a very big
argument tonight and there's a tension
maybe she had a premonition about what
was going to happen we took off he took
off in the morning a little bit late
there were lots of delays he decided to
mount the camera on the front of the
airship looking back at him took off a
little bit late and there was a slight
wind not much it was very calm yes it
flew up a river just like this calmly
disappeared over the canopy it circled
we could see it in the distance going
across the canopy while he was filming
but he started getting a little bit
higher than I expected and there seemed
to be a problem
then we radioed him and the first
problem we had was that radios didn't
work they hadn't been charged properly
the airship descended some way away over
the canopy and one member of the team
took bearings just to see what would
come down he stood on a big cliff ledge
he watched where it came down and then
very calmly very professionally we
arranged a team to go out and meet the
airship but I could see the airship up
on a tree perched on a tree with DITA
was up there sitting in the seat quite
calmly reflect I watched him sitting
near some Birds passed above and he
managed to lift the nose but the camera
that he put the start was was caught in
a branch and it wouldn't loosen and he
couldn't reach it
I saw him unbuckled his seat but he
wasn't wearing
harness and he tried to reach out to the
camera we waited again and I saw this
big bangs now it's getting close close
and close it was it was a light blue sky
like we have now but this cloud was big
gray Blanc coming in and I could see
that the rustling of the treetops and
then it just moved in very rapidly and I
could see that the the frame of the
airship on the tree rocking like a
Bronco and I could see DITA holding on
and then something I didn't quite
believe I saw it rock really hard and it
broke the frame of the airship and I saw
him learnt four words and fall out the
tree was most maybe 50 or 70 meters high
and I knew that if somebody fell from
that they would be killed once worth I
realized but I just didn't believe it
and so I ran back into the forest it was
very dark in there when you looked up it
was pitch black it's just little vague
lights from the light coming through but
he hadn't fallen and I was thought well
I must have been mistaken it must have
dreamt it I waited a period of about
five minutes and the others waited and
freedom was when they just told me to be
quiet
we heard some cracking of branches and
what has happened another member of the
team Marcus had climbed very cleverly to
it buff another tree that tree he was on
was dead and breaking anyway but Marcus
had climbed another dream got within two
meters I found out later of data and the
airship was lodged with DITA holding on
to the part of the airship were part of
a branch and he very calmly said to
Marcus pull me over the Marcus pulled
the rope towards him and this must have
dislodged the airship from where it was
and then DITA did fall I was standing at
the base of the canopy and then I saw
something I'll never forget
I saw this man coming down holding his
head lying on his side falling through
the air past me it was like in slow
motion I can still see that even though
it happened very rapidly I could still
see it falling and then I hear heard him
hit the ground with a thud
the terrible thing is it was like meat
in a butcher shop slamming down on the
ground the ground was soft and Petey and
he we thought he was dead at first he
was half buried in this peat he'd lost
an eye and so he looked a bit of a mess
and on the guys Rob was really fantastic
people come into their own in this
situation and I was just lost right the
first thing I said was just Jesus Christ
when I was just lost because I didn't
believe what has happened but Robley he
was like a brilliant nurse and he went
over this guy and he and I and and we
assumed his dead and as I look down at
the detail I realized his lie alive
because his other eye opened and their
freedom is brilliant because he just in
lightning speed to put dirty other
stretcher we took our shirts that tied
the stretch and very carefully lifted
him onto the stretcher
we've got him across the river with two
Indian episode Indonesian Porter's and
there was a mud Trek on the far side of
the bank
we got him there but when I got into the
sort of far side it was clear his
breathing was getting worse he had this
sort of moaning sound but then he
started sounding karma and I said to him
the last thing I said to him listen
something's face I did I did I just said
you're looking better DITA which of
course it wasn't and we lifted him up on
this mud puff it's very narrow ledge and
there was a terrible moment at that
point where we actually thought we're
gonna slip down the bank and his body
would fall into the river and and four
of us were concentrating hard on doing
this and just as we reached the canopy
height we heard him stop breathing
we couldn't I couldn't look back because
I was at the front and he got to the top
of the road and I looked at him and I've
never seen a dead body before in my life
and I looked at his body and now
realised he was dead
I washed I washed his blood in the river
from the cloth my shirt and I watched
the blood go down in the river it was
you
the last lostalready saw with him
after some more and very encouraging
tests we felt safe enough to fly the
airship completely free it carried
safety devices such as long ropes to
bail out with a radio and a GPS
positioning device in case it got blown
far out into the jungle our ultra light
kept circling closeby finally the ship
could do the work it was designed for
that morning it even ventured out to the
tiny settlement of Menzies landing
everyone was still sleeping good morning
sir Evan look what's flying there just
have a look just ever look what's flying
there wait
it even dipped into the potaro river
upstream from the waterfall
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and then we halt the airship in
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you dream about this kind of floating
you really do after you play dreaming
about flying around is the same
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I don't know does anyone want describe
that it was
today was hipomenes distill day
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I could stick I can still feel myself
flying around out there you know like
you've done anything you still have like
you'll need you run round you spin round
do you feel like you're still spinning I
still look feel like I'm floating my
body is just lifting off the ground now
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honestly speaking one hell of a relief
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hmm I think you know the feeling you get
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these are plugger he knew what was
happened today
we felt the right thing now would be to
leave dying alone and have a complete
change of setting a few miles downriver
from the waterfall Brazilians operated I
Amand mine we were searching for a real
white diamonds
and why then
I want some more of it
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as a gift
during off at mark-anthony a chance to
fly he seemed to be somber all this
Pleasant morning I'm about to fly and
surely I would like to take my ruse to
get me three somewhere wrong I would
like to take him on this flight why your
rooster
oh my rooster means so much to me or in
the morning the faster it grows then
crows came in when there's some change
to get a pattern in such a lovely guy I
will start like taking me on the spoils
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of course Mark Anthony did not expect to
fly to Europe to meet his family
something else was on his mind I should
have had my rooster here with me for the
world to see his name is red he has five
wives five him so I get five eggs every
morning I was having heard such wondrous
things about Marc Anthony's friend we
were curious to meet his splendid
rooster
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there he goes he's often as well five
hands I love the red is very much from
the time he was little chicken he was
born here on mendes landon hats its
father the other elder Brewster kind of
like arm controls the other hand and
when he was growing up his father used
to kind of beat him up to be off the
hands and after he had became one year
two months he started to resist his
father now he's a Spanish his father
from the land so he's the king of the
land right now this red wisdom
you know Mark Antony
had this strange feeling when I landed
in the village but the little a Meridian
children couldn't see the airship
expected to be all excited and jubilant
but they're very Placid and very sort of
quiet and they just it's like the
airship didn't exist they looked
straight through it like it's invisible
I was surprised by their actions
everything because Amerindians here in
the hall and said yeah
and I was thinking is about perception I
was thinking about James Cook it's
reported that when James could arriving
a shipment in New Zealand the Mary's
just couldn't see it they couldn't see
it right in front of his outside their
world of ideas
it didn't exist for them they think they
couldn't comprehend it and for me it was
like this little children they just they
just haven't seen ink like this before
and they just ignored the airship they
could see me but they couldn't see the
airship
I was sure of it was just too outside
their worlds I think that's what I heard
the feeling
exceptionally strange thing
are strange when we think
I think you'd be Swift they they live
five times faster than us
you know they match means they perceive
things five times the rate because they
move save so much faster than us five or
ten times faster you must be like cold
status' then slow-moving numberous
creatures and they're moving so
gracefully there's over a million twists
living at these waterfalls so let me
true
it's like a big concert they just like
shoals of fish suddenly they smooth so I
have down altogether and move backwards
and forwards like a music controlling me
you know they roll around and then
suddenly build quite come
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you got no idea what literally you got
no idea what we're double yeah you gotta
know the Moriya uh wait I will wait we
are my little yeah come on Connie on one
with a we um got mu gamma leo wha with I
am got more got more leo
well away I'm well we are mom well no we
only are we I'm gamma leo
Wow with a we go gamma leo
well away Emma well we are ma Willa we
um go by William oh yeah Wow where we um
got no only a while with a we're gonna
come only a wha
well that way Emma well I wear my will
we got a family a wah wah lui up gumgum
only a while
we go got one yeah Wow
my
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well of
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