What happens if you chuck sand into a jet engine? This video takes you on a whirlwind tour of how a jet engine actually works—starting with the compressor, moving through the turbine, and diving deep into the Rolls-Royce factory where single-crystal nickel superalloy blades are precision-cast. You’ll see animations of grain boundaries, learn about the “gamma prime” strengthening that keeps blades from melting at 2,000 °F, and hear from experts at Cambridge and Ruhr University about materials science at its finest.
Once you’ve got the basics, the real fun begins: sand ingestion. As gritty particles slam into spinning blades, they cause erosion and reduce component life, but thanks to clever metallurgy and cooling channels, modern engines shrug off a surprising amount of abuse without catastrophic failure. It’s a visually rich, expert-packed deep dive into why jet engines keep running—even when you throw sand at them.
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