The Ridiculous Engineering Of Jet Engines
Why Hacker News recommends it
Commenters send it to people asking how engines survive such temperatures, and call it fascinating and worth watching.
What it is
Veritasium explains how jet engines run hotter than their components' melting points, using cooling air and single-crystal superalloy turbine blades. It covers how the blades are grown as aligned crystals.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2025 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec beambot · 2026-07 · on “World-First 'Super Alloy' Could Transform the Way Metals Are Made”
The Veritasium video on how jet engine turbine blades are "grown" in an aligned crystalline structure for enhanced material properties (e.g. thermal performance) is absolutely fascinating & well worth a watch: [this video]
Recommends hnuser123456 · 2025-11 · on “NTSB Preliminary Report – UPS Boeing MD-11F Crash [pdf]”
I know Veritasium gets posted here a lot, but a few days ago he posted a deep-dive into the the engineering of jet engine turbine blades. Turns out they're made from a single crystal of a superalloy that entangles itself at a molecular level such that it actually gains strength as it's heated, only losing strength above 1200 degrees C / 2200 degrees F. Below that temperature, as long as the strain on the part is below the plastic deformation threshold, it's not really losing any strength at all over time. [this video]
Cites alberth · 2025-12 · on “A supersonic engine core makes the perfect power turbine”
> Power generation turbines are designed to work at ambient sea level conditions. They don't rely on ambient air being especially cold for cooling, they can keep cool thanks to the large mass flow rate What could be contributing to this is recently Vertasium did a whole video on how jet engines operate at temperatures above their components melting point. And how the cold air at altitude is what keeps it from melting. [this video]
Cites mmaunder · 2025-12 · on “A supersonic engine core makes the perfect power turbine”
I want these guys to succeed because they're a mile from my hangar at KAPA, but I guess key questions and points are: Industry is already using single crystal blades and superalloys, so the diagram labeling those is eye candy. No hot-day derate is great, but buyers still care about fuel burn so what does that look like? Power markets care about availability, maintenance cost and TBO in long duration operation. e.g. TBO for a King Air turboprop engine is around 3600 hours. (Sorry I happen to know that space better than others) That's 150 days of continuous operation. Overhaul cost for a P&W engine is around $850K, so a supersonic? I'm thinking a million per engine? And then there's the supply
Cites mmaunder · 2025-12 · on “A supersonic engine core makes the perfect power turbine”
It's exactly what existing manufacturers are doing. What they're calling "legacy". Here, watch this which goes into detail on existing superalloy tech used in todays engines: [this video] and And here's how single crystal blades are already being used in today's engines: [this video]
Cites dylan604 · 2026-05 · on “World's biggest RC A380 [video]”
Just yesterday, someone posted a link to a Veritasium video[0] explaining how a jet engine internal temps of 1500°C work when the components have a melting point of 1250°C. I couldn't imagine doing that at a small scale by hobbyists. [0] [this video]