The RAM Air Turbine. How Planes Continue to Fly Without Fuel

As an airline pilot, I applaud your very accurate description of what happened on this aircraft. Proper analysis, proper terminology, and simple enough for a non-engineer to understand. The big bonus here is the opportunity to teach physics, chemistry and engineering with the story as a background. Well done!

Off on a Tangent: A person I worked with for years was on that flight. There was of course a class action suit launched by the passengers after this. They reached a settlement nearing $ 50 million Cdn. Out of that, the legal team received nearly half. While that sounds outrageous, these kinds of suits demand huge time in research, and payment of expert witnesses. The rest of the money was divided in terms of more money going to passengers who were injured using the emergency slides. A broken ankle on an elderly person, for example, can lead to substantial loss of quality of life. My co-worker friend suffered no injuries, and was stoic enough not to mention the nightmares and such. At the end of everything, he realized $ 8000.00 Cdn. Basically made whole on his expenses, and not much else. So when you hear of these big settlements, don't assume that the plaintiffs are making out like bandits.

Largely correct but one point of note, even if you don't have "fly by wire" flight controls you still need a RAT. The 767, CRJ, and E145 I've flown all have RAT's and are not fly by wire. Reason being at a speed of .84 mach there's not enough mechanical force from both pilots put together to be able to move any of the primary flight controls. Simply too much air resistance. RAT's can either be an additional electrical generator or a hydraulic pump directly powering the PCU (power control unit) that the cables hook to that move the flight controls. Hope this cleared something up, overall excellent video!

I love how you so much love the technology you talk about, I can see in your face how much passion you have, I've been an electrical fitter for almost 50 years, I build control panels from scratch and after all these years I still love my job, great videos

Amazing and passionate storytelling. Great dad! Inspirational engineer. So many badges of honor that you wear. Thank you!

Your best video. Great story telling + clear explanation. Great work! Thank you.

Amazing story and amazing job explaining it to a noob like me. As someone who occasionally flies for work, when you described the cabin lights going out and the second engine shutting down (and the ensuing silence) I literally felt sick. I could imagine how tense and worried I’d be. Great video.

This is such an interesting story! We need more engineering stories like this!

Jeremy following you in Rwanda, well done your lectures are helpful to us, in developing our minds on those complicated issue due to unperfect explanation we did got in past

An EXCELLENT video, Jeremy! I spent a lot of years doing or supporting aircraft maintenance, both in the military and for a major airline, so I was already familiar with what a ram-air-turbine (RAT) is and it's importance. What I particularly like is your engineering and physics based approach to the discussion. I hope you are inspiring lots of young people to pursue the STEM topics. Another interesting topic may be the "Gimli Glider" incident in Canada, several decades ago. A large passenger aircraft on a trans- continental flight ran out of fuel about halfway across. The complicating factor here is that Canada was in the middle of transitioning from the British Imperial measurement system to the Metric system, revenant documents were not updated, and more. One of the pilots knew the area, because he had served at a (closed) RCAF base nearby. That knowledge, and the RAT, resulted in a successful landing. I believe the aircraft was repaired and put back into service. At this point I would normally rant about the idiocy of the USA not making metric mandatory instead of just the current status of "legal". (The other two countries are each smaller than most US States.) But maybe that can be another video.

As usual you managed again to explain an issue in a simple way but to the core. Like my late father who was a pilot, instructor and examiner for technicians told me, "Its not hard to explain things in a complex way, but to explain things in a simple way you must really understand and know what you are talking about."

as an engineer myself I fully understand the conservation of energy you demonstrated. sometimes when you instinctively understand things you tend to gloss over important details parts when explaining them to others. I commend you Jeremy, for putting together a vary concise, complete and understandable demonstration. well done!

This video is such an incredible lesson by using an emotionally engaging story to mentally step through the engineering process of designing a well balanced and practical machine with just enough emergency gear! ❤

Props to the pilots and flight attendants! Amazingly skilled pilots! You saved lives

Love your work Jeremy. You are a great communicator.

I really enjoy your videos, your delivery style etc. Your parasitic energy loss explanation was really well put. Thanks.

This is one of my favourite air "disasters". Your explanation of conservation of energy reminded me of a few months I bought my 2000 Honda Insight. Was filling up and a guy at the fuel station told me I should put a windmill on the front of the car attached to a generator to charge the batteries. That way, it would recharge as I drove and I'd never have to buy fuel again! I tried to explain that "in this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics" but his suggestion was to just use a large windmill! Finally after going around in circles a few times I told him that he was a genius with a world changing idea so he should invent himself and make billions. I always wonder if that guy went home and started playing with oscillating fans in his garage.

As usual, a great video. You present the content in a straightforward way without clickbait-y titles.

A fantastic story with tons of education mixed in! I hope you make more like this one.

I just watched this video. It's the first one I've ever seen of yours. Excellent job. I'll be tuning in in the future.