Virgin Atlantic: Up In The Air - three things we learned from ITV's new series

Documentary goes behind the scenes of Richard Branson’s airline
Flying high: behind the scenes at Virgin Atlantic (Image: ITV)
ITV
Ben Travis7 July 2015

Recent documentaries such as Channel 4’s look at Domino’s Pizza and the BBC’s exploration into KFC prove that we can’t resist a behind-the-scenes look at the world’s biggest brands.

Combine that style with the addictive nature of airport TV, and you get ITV’s new series Virgin Atlantic: Up In The Air.

Across three episodes, the documentary follows a variety of Virgin staff – from the cabin crew, to designers, and safety engineers.

Here’s what we learned in Episode 1.

1) Cabin crew school looks like a lot of fun

After opening their application process for less than 48 hours, Virgin received around 2000 applications to join the cabin crew. If you manage to make it through that, the extensive training process actually looks pretty fun. OK, so there’s a lot to learn and plenty of computer-based tests, but the trainees also get to have a go on the huge inflatable plane slides that the rest of us only get to try if we’re plummeting to potential doom. They also stagger through a turbulence simulator, and hold hands in a circle in a swimming pool, which looks far more exciting than the majority of office-based team bonding exercises.

2) 'Crashworthiness' tests are like a scene from a horror film

If you’re building an aeroplane you obviously need to know that it’s safe – which means testing for ‘crashworthiness’. As Episode 1 follows the creation of a new ‘upper class’ seat, we see one of these safety tests in action, and it’s pretty intense. With a dummy strapped into the luxury seat, it’s hooked up to a machine which exerts a 16G force, illuminated in a warehouse by a series of floodlights. Suddenly, the seat is yanked back into the darkness like a scene from some kind of aviation-based horror.

3) Building a swanky plane takes a long, long time

The latest range of Virgin aeroplanes are the Boeing 787 ‘Dreamliners’, and through the episode we get a glimpse at the myriad decisions to be made in putting one together – particularly the miniscule decision making that goes into creating a luxury environment. Well, when you’re spending £130,000 on creating a single seat, you want your customers to be happy with them at the end.

Gogglebox: The families

1/13

ITV, 9pm

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