Brian Cox Reaches the Edge of Earth's Atmosphere | Wonders Of The Solar System | BBC Earth Science

Professor Brian Cox travels vertically to over 18 km in an English Electric Lightning jet, witnessing the mesmerising phenomena of the visual atmospheric edge between Earth and Space - the Thin Blue Line.

#briancox #atmosphere

Wonders Of The Solar System
In this spellbinding series Professor Brian Cox visits the most extreme locations on Earth to explain how the laws of physics carved natural wonders across the solar system.

[nishant]

The combination of the music, Professor Brian's voice, and the feels from 3:00 to the end of the video are just amazing. I wish it was an hour long.

[phmwu]

This was in the summer of 2009 as British Physicist Brian Cox flew onboard a two-seater version English Electric Lightning (aka "The Frightening") at Thunder City - South Africa, for the BBC series "Wonders of the Solar System". Thunder City was a private venture flying vintage jet aircraft such as the Lightning, Buccaneer and two-seater Hawker Hunter. In November 2009, after an accident leaving the Overberg airshow, one of their Lightning jets crashed and the group stopped flying. RIP pilot Dave Stock...

[thomasbell]

I have been an aviation writer for the past 30 years, and the one great perk of the job was the exotic flight time I had the privilege of amassing. Everything from the F-104D Starfighter to the F/A-18B and D. I think my favorite, though, was the F-15D. There is no experience to compare, I don't think. I miss it.

[TheAlexisaacify]

That would blow me away just experiencing that for 1 time. For 20mins or so. Wow..lucky man Brian Cox. Love what you bring and do. 👍👌✨️

[mariadaluzmoutinho]

Incrível!! A linha azul ténue que nos protege ...O esplendor a bordo de um engenho fantástico!! Que experiência tão fora de série...quem não gostava de a ter?!!

[expbot]

This jet (ZU-BEX/XS451 2:00) crashed one month after this was filmed. Brian Cox is lucky to be alive

[johndavid]

"Lovely thank you for sharing. ❤️ ✌️

[TrainLikeAProDaily]

There was a time, not long ago, when there were so many very interesting science shows. It seems to be such a void right now. I am so glad I've recently discovered this BBC mini series as there isn't much out there to stimulate the mind and awaken the creativity power.

[randy]

Amazing Professor Brian Cox. You’re Amazing!

[timw]

He was touching that beautiful aircraft in what seems complete disbelief like a young lads biggest dream and he got to live it, and he's very correct. It was the very best of British along with the V force bombers when England lead the world 🌎.

[friendlypiranha]

I had the pleasure of seeing these Lightnings (there were two of them) at several air shows in Cape Town in the early 2000s. One even went supersonic once.

[DVlicious]

Amazing how they do it with normal flight suits. When NASA sends people up in the U2, there's a whole lot more preparation and they're made to wear what are effectively space suits.

[chris_ackroyd]

Really jealous- remember this plane could catch the X71 blackbird and go supersonic vertically (zoom climb) 😎👏👏👏

[kenstevens]

They don't appear to be wearing a partial pressure vest or E type helmet which would give a couple of minutes to get to lower altitudes if the cockpit pressure failed at high altitude.

[peterthomas]

So jealous! I grew up in a time when the Lightning was the absolute king of interceptors and it's still, almost 60 years later, an incredible machine.
And the king of the Lightnings was XR-749 "Big Mother"...it hit 88, 000 feet intercepting a U2 and overtook Concorde in a drag race.

[beagle]

Concordes used to go up to 55 to 60 thousand every day of the week with 100 passengers. How high it went was temperature dependant.

[AraCarrano]

Yet James May gets a Lift on the NASA version of the U-2.

[niehlsbohr]

Much preferred over the other things blue line

[tremsls]

The level extended plane that is earth.

[Emdee]

18 km or 24 km (80, 000 ft) up is hardly the edge of space. According to international agreement it's (a bit arbitrary, true) 100 km altitude. Nasa is using 85 km I think.