Smash Lab

Can the team use the latest aviation break through to prevent a car or bus crossing the meridian and smashing into oncoming traffic? The team tries to re-purpose an amazing technology called an aerated concrete arrestor bed. Watch what happens ...

Designers and engineers face an almost impossible challenge -- to use truck bed liner paint, normally used to protect vehicles from scratches and knocks, to protect an entire building from a massive explosion.

The Smash Lab teams tests a special type of carbon fiber used to reinforce tunnels to see if it can protect a home from destructive hurricanes.

The team takes on its biggest challenge yet; to repurpose a new material called Blastwrap. Blastwrap is designed to absorb the energy from a bomb placed inside a public trashcan. Could it work to protect a Boeing 747 from an explosion?

Inside of the hold of an aircraft there is a system used to move aircraft cargo with almost zero friction. Could technology be used to isolate a house from the shaking of the ground? The team tests this theory by building an artificial earthquake machine.

There are nearly 3000 railway crossing accidents each year. With more extreme experimentation, the Smash Lab team tests an idea to use giant airbags on the front of a train to push cars safely out of the way.

The Smash Lab team has an idea to reduce the number of fire-related deaths. Their sky safety idea uses magnetic roller coaster brakes devices which have incredible stopping power. A stunt man slides down a hundred foot tower to prove the system.

Forest fires endanger lives and property every year. Smash Lab sets out to see if Nanogel, a cutting edge insulating material, can protect a house from nature's mightiest infernos.

People travel towing boats, mobile homes, motocross trailers; but unlike a semi, there's no backup system to stop in an emergency. The Smash Lab crew has an idea; can retro firing rockets bring a safe, controlled stop? Watch firing rockets ignite!

Fluidized sand is used to clean high tech tools. By blowing air through a bed of sand it turns into instant quicksand and becomes a crime deterrent. Could it be used as a defensive road barrier and stop a getaway truck?

Stranded at sea, sailors wait for a passing ship to be rescued. Top secret torpedo technology is used to develop mid ocean rescue. The idea is to design a coast guard life-boat that can be dropped out of a long range plane to help in a matter of hours.

The team uses CO2 fire extinguishers to stop the bad guy in a high-speed car chase. The system has to work fast, but car engines are hard to kill. They must find a way of targeting the cool gas each and every time, and then find ways of deploying it.

The team takes to the water in this episode -- with parachutes! They will try to engineer a system that not only deploys fast enough to eject someone from an out of control boat - but also slows them down enough to safely hit the water.