Video built the aero star

His latest, on how Russia stopped the Nazis’ blitzkrieg during the Second World War, was watched 700,000 times in 24 hours. Having amassed nearly 18m views and 500,000 subscribers in 18 months, Real Engineering has become one of the most popular science broadcasts in the world.

Not everybody shared his initial vision, however. “The day I told my friends that I was quitting to set up a YouTube channel they said I was a f****** idiot,” McManus admits.

“I’d been working in Kuala Lumpur for three years and was head of the research and development (R&D) division for a big oil company. I was flying to Dubai regularly and lived in Norway for a while, but there’s a lot of unhappy, rich men in those jobs and I just didn’t want to go down that path. ”

McManus left his career in the oil industry to answer questions about technology on his YouTube channel Real Engineering

He may have been giving up a lucrative career to launch a “vlog” (online video log) dependent on subscribers, but McManus took a methodical approach to building his brand, only uploading videos when they were polished and professional. “I approached it in a very business-like manner,” he says. “Most YouTubers start it as a hobby, but I went full-time straight away and gave myself six months to make it a success.

“When things went crazy, I tried not to get carried away, but saw it as confirmation that I was on track.”

Having a passion for big machinery is one thing; being able to communicate such complicated subjects in an entertaining manner without bamboozling your audience is something else. With a degree in biomedical engineering from the National University of Ireland Galway and a master’s in aeronautical engineering from the University of Limerick, McManus evidently knows his stuff, but he can also explain it in an engaging way.

Subjects involving complex mathematics, physics and computing are broken down into easily digestible, bite-sized pieces (many of the videos last less than five minutes, though some are a more in-depth 10-15 minutes long), but Real Engineering’s trademark is its blueprint-style animations which, predictably, McManus learnt to make by watching videos on YouTube.

“A lot of people would kill for the kind of growth I’ve had, but I’ve had a few duds,” he says. “I did a video on the history of iron and steel that didn’t get a big response, even though it’s one of those I’m proudest of. Videos about planes get huge views because people think they are magical. I still get the big, stupid grin on my face every time I get in one.”

McManus has joined a select club of full-time Irish vloggers, including green-haired video games commentator Sean McLoughlin, aka JackSepticEye. He attempts to entertain — albeit in a less energetic way than McLoughlin — but is more interested in informing than being a personality.

“My audience is 18 to 34-year-olds, so they don’t want to see me jumping around like Jack,” he says. “Animations are the best way of conveying information quickly, so I tend not to go front-of-camera. I got a lot of hate for my west-coast pronunciation of ‘car’, with people saying I sounded like a pirate, but it’s a global audience and just 1% is from Ireland.”

McManus’ YouTube channel includes a film examining the construction of wind turbines

McManus lists Elon Musk, the Tesla Motors tycoon and inventor, as one of his heroes, but his inspirations are mostly fellow “content creators” such as Casey Neistat and Smarter Every Day’s Destin Sandlin — none of whom would have achieved their success without a leg up from YouTube’s algorithm, which is responsible for calculating the order of the video results when viewers use its search function, and what shows up in the “trending” and “suggested” tabs.

“Things blew up for me when I did a video on how plane winglets work last May,” says McManus. “For whatever reason, the algorithm started recommending my videos on YouTube’s front page and it was exponential growth from there.

“It’s hard to understand how many people are watching. If I’m at a concert with 20,000 people, I try to rationalise how many watch my stuff.

“At conventions, the first thing people ask is how many views you have. There are some king-sized egos, but I try to focus on the work. A million views on your first video isn’t that great: you have to keep uploading consistently or you will dip. It becomes a treadmill and it’s exhausting to keep up.”

Having worked his way up the rankings, McManus now has an agent in New York and employs a freelance animator for his fortnightly videos, which lets him focus on research. For someone whose videos attract more views than RTE’s Late Late Toy Show, are his wages near those of Ryan Tubridy?

“Ah, Jesus, no. Not that rich,” he says. “I’m doing fine. I’m earning more than in my old job, but I’m always going to be working. I’m staying with my dad in Renmore at the moment. I can afford to move out, but rent is mad in Dublin and I’m half looking at moving to New York and developing a proper media company.”

While the recession limited opportunities for young Irish engineers, McManus’s move to vlogging gave him a new way to use his knowledge: “I would have been happy working as an R&D head in aerospace or biomedical, but the jobs were just not there in Ireland. I like what I’m doing now as I get to learn something every week.”

And the internet is the best way to share that information. “People have always been fascinated by technology and progress, but only recently have we had the platform to highlight it. If I did a show like this on RTE you wouldn’t find an audience; with YouTube I can reach the world.”