WEBVTT

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Michael Browning: engineer,

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innovator --

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inventor, really --

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and inspiring father.

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He had a passion for flight,
as you can kind of sense

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from that rather dubious
1970s office-leaving present.

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And some 40 years after that was created,

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a small group of us got together

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to have a go,

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a run at the whole challenge of flight
that inspired people for years,

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and do it in a very different kind of way.

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And that's the journey I'd like
to share with you now.

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The starting hypothesis was one
of the human mind and body,

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which, as you've seen
for the last few days here,

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is an amazing construct.

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What if you augmented
that wonderful machine

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with just the right technology?

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If you approach flight
in that kind of real way,

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where could you get to?

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So my training partner here
back in London, Denton,

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is doing a much better job
of that kind of stuff than me.

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Guess what? It's London.

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The idea was that you augment that.

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And so, how do you augment that?

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Well, we bought one of these.

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This is a micro gas turbine.

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This was ground zero,

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so that little piece of kit
proved really quite impressive,

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so we got two in a field.

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The real hero here, by the way,
is, right in the background,

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there's a lady tending some vegetables,

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who does a brilliant job
of trying to ignore us for a while --

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(Laughter)

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I think the only thing
less happy is the grass,

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that we did probably damage quite badly.

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You get an idea of the thrust here,

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when I try to hold them horizontally
and somewhat fail.

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That's around 50 kilos of thrust there.

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We were quite impressed with that.

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We thought we were getting somewhere.

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So there's only one sensible way
to go from there:

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you get four.

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(Laughter)

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I have to say, I still like
watching these back.

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So then we thought well, let's try
and spread the load a bit.

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The legs are designed to take the load,

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so why don't we spread it out a bit?

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That bit was good.

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The harness --

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a nice idea but it didn't really work,

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as you'll see now.

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This whole journey was very much
about trying things --

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(Laughter)

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Yeah, it really didn't work, did it?

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Trying things and learning
by failing at them most of the time.

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And that included failing by falling over.

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If you notice, we've got
five engines here --

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not to be put off by the fact
one was in maintenance,

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still had a go.

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(Laughter)

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And then I pinched a fuel line.

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So again, good learning.
We learned not to do that again.

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This was a blind alley.

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(Laughter)

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This was three on each arm --

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that was ridiculous.

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That was 70 kilos on each arm.

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Again, struck that one off.

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(Laughter)

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But we were starting to make
some really quite convincing progress,

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just enough to make you
believe that maybe --

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maybe we could get there.

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You can see, look -- tantalizing.

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The model of one on each leg
and two on each arm,

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on paper, that was enough thrust.

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And then we did what
I'm about to show you now,

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and I still love watching this one.

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This was our first six-second,
reasonably coherent flight.

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(Applause)

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That was the point where
this endeavor went from:

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"I'm really not sure
this is going to work,"

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to: "Oh my god, it does work!"

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From there on we then refined it,

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but we carried on falling over a lot.

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Falling over, like I say, is definitely
the best way to learn.

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After a while, we starting
really refining the layout of all of this.

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And you'll see,
that's stability and control --

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there's no wires there or anything --

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that's a combination of us
refining the technology,

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including with a Tupperware box
on the back for the electronics

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and actually learning
the balance and control.

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I'm now going to save your ears
for the next short piece

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and talk over it.

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After a while, the jet engine
noise is a bit annoying.

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This is only a few weeks ago.

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You can see the stability and control
is really quite nice,

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and I'd like to think this somewhat
validates that starting hypothesis,

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that the human mind and body,
if properly augmented in that way,

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can achieve some pretty cool stuff.

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I mean, like I said:

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I'm not thinking about where
I'm moving my arms at that stage.

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I'm looking at the objective
of where I want to get to,

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and a bit like riding a bike,

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my arms are just doing their thing.

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It's a very strange experience.

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So where is all this headed?

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I'll talk over this landing --

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I think I land in this one.

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Well, I don't think anybody's going
to go down to Walmart

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or take the kids to school
in any of this stuff for a while,

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but the team at Gravity are building
some awesome technology

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that's going to make
this look like child's play.

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We're working on some things

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that will seek to bring
this unusual experience of flight

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to a wider audience, beyond the events
and displays we're doing.

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We're even starting to look
for pilots two and three,

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if there's any volunteers.

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I've got this vision.

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It sounds audacious,
but let's just stick it out there,

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that one day maybe we can
rise up above a beach,

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fly up and down the coastline
of it, rise up a bit higher,

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with some of the safety kit
we're working on to make this achievable.

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Then over the horizon comes
a Hercules with the ramp down.

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As it comes past,
you start picking up speed

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and see if we can intercept --

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from the rear, not the front,
that would be a mistake --

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and then try and land in the back.

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And as I say, that's a little
way off at the moment.

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But this is also, if I take
a big step back from this,

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this is also a very
personal journey for me.

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Back to that lovely photo,

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or photo in a picture.

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Sadly, my father took
his own life when I was 15,

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and left an awful lot
of unfulfilled ambition.

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He was a wonderful inventor,

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a maverick creator.

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And I'd just like to think,
if it was possible,

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if he was looking down,

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he would be --

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he'd certainly be smiling at some
of the things we've done here,

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I think.

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So, it's a tribute to him.

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)

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(Voice-over) Richard Browning:
I'm probably more nervous

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about doing the demo after this.

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I've got a lot of things
to get done today.

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Worst-case scenario,
we don't get a clean start.

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Or we get an unplanned failure
while I'm actually flying around.

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This is why we keep it very low,

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so the worst is I just look like an idiot
and fall on my rear, as I said.

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So you can all enjoy that if that happens.

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(Music)

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(Jet engine accelerates)

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(Cheers)