Predator Drone | Hellfire | 2

American Innovations

Wondery

Steven Johnson, History, Kids & Family, Education For Kids, Science

4.6 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2021

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Predator proves its value as a “spy in the sky” for the U.S. military in Bosnia in the mid-90s. But it's not until the Predator is handed over to the Air Force that it reaches its full potential. Aided by a covert Air Force group, and a genius scientist known as “The Man With Two Brains,” the Predator is reborn as a lethal killing machine, with a new enemy to hunt: Osama Bin Laden.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to American Innovations,
0:03.6	Add Free on Amazon Music, download the app today.
0:08.0	Join Wondery Plus, an Apple Podcasts, or the Wondery App
0:12.0	to listen to American Innovations early and add free.
0:24.0	It's July 3rd, 1994.
0:27.0	Just after sunrise, at El Marage Airfield, on the outskirts of California's Mojave Desert,
0:34.0	an anxious group of employees from defense contractor General Thomax,
0:38.0	mill about on the tarmac.
0:40.0	They're here for the first test flight of their company's latest drone,
0:44.0	an upgraded version of their old unmanned aerial vehicle, the NAT 750.
0:49.0	In fact, it's been so overhauled that it's been given a new name, the Predator.
0:55.0	Navy Captain Alan Rutherford walks around the Predator, giving it a pre-flight inspection.
1:00.0	He's the project overseer for the Pentagon's unmanned aerial vehicle program,
1:05.0	a 22-year Navy veteran with a neatly trimmed mustache and a background in electrical engineering.
1:11.0	Well, it's not much to look at. What's the new bulge in its fuselage for?
1:16.0	That's where we put the satellite dish in video cameras.
1:19.0	It's more aerodynamic than it looks.
1:22.0	We also expanded the wingspan to 55 feet to make it more fuel efficient.
1:26.0	Like other drones before it, the Predator looks more like an oversized glider than a conventional aircraft.
1:33.0	It's narrow and lightweight, made of graphite epoxy composites.
1:37.0	Two chunky rectangular stabilizers jut down from its tail, just below a single propeller.
1:44.0	The only thing sexy about it is its name, Rutherford Shrugs.
	...

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