The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1639: Flying to the Edge of Air
Engines of Our Ingenuity

The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1639: Flying to the Edge of Air

B2Upper-intermediateOctober 9, 20263 min
  • Technology

Episode: 1639 Helios, NASA's high-flying almost-satellite. Today, let us ride Helios' golden chariot.

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Today, let us ride Helios' golden chariot.

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B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 43%A2 41%B1 13%B2 2%C1 0%
  • 98% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 163 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 27 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

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0:00

This is the Engines of Our Ingenuity, made possible by the friends of KUHF, Houston. Today, let us ride Helios' golden chariot. The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.

0:23

Helios, Greek god of the sun, rode his golden chariot east to west each day. day. By night he floated in a golden bowl back to his palace in the east. Eos, goddess of the sun and Celine, goddess of the moon were his sisters. Small wonder that the Aerovironment Company gave the name Helios to the new craft it's built for NASA. This huge pilotless

0:45

airplane is a creature of the sun. Helios wingspan is almost the length of a football field. Each of its fourteen engines drives a propeller, yet it weighs only four-fifths of a ton, less than most cars. Helios is really little more than a long flexible wing. Its top is covered with solar panels which gather all its energy from the sun. It carries no

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