The engine parts that 'fight the laws of the universe'
Investment has surged into the making of jet turbine blades - an extremely difficult component to make.
Hidden from view inside the sleek outer nacelle are hundreds of little turbine blades that can shrug off enormous mechanical stresses and temperatures exceeding 1,500C.
It is a true engineering marvel. And these hardy blades are not sculpted or cut from their material – they are grown.
During the 1960s, engineers worked out how to take a molten metal alloy, cast it into the shape of a turbine blade, and then cool it very carefully from one end to the other over a matter of hours. A single crystal or grain of metal alloy forms during this process of gradual, delicate solidification.
The pigtail is a small spiral at one end of the blade. Fifoot says that, at the beginning of the cooling process, this spiral "chokes" the flow of solidifying crystals so that just one takes over. A bit like a hairpin corner in an F1 race right before the finish line – one driver can take the lead here and go on to win.