In this Veritasium deep dive, Derek Muller shows how jet engines crank out insanely hot exhaust without turning into a molten blob. You’ll get a whirlwind tour of compressors, combustors and turbines; see why these engines are so massive; and meet the folks at Rolls-Royce using precision casting to spin single-crystal, nickel-based superalloy blades that can handle temperatures above the metal’s melting point.
The real magic? Tiny air-cooling channels drilled into each blade and a clever crystal structure—called gamma prime—that fights deformation under stress. By the end, you’ll even watch a sand-ingestion test that proves these blades can take a beating and keep on spinning.
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