Flying boats to be phased Out!

 With recent crashes?

The flying boat may be seeing its last days as a viable machine, that is because some of the older types are facing problems with fatigue and just cannot perform as they once did!

But this is also an illusion, since there remains many new German, Canadian and Russian types that are essential in civilian roles across the world, for fire fighting as in Greece, Californian, U.S.A and Canada?

The Canadian Canadair CL-415 super scooper the Beriev A40 and civilian Be-200 remain some of the most successful fire-fighting boats around the world and are far superior than aircraft of helicopters!

So we cant just say, 'their time is up when it may be developed into something far better?

Happy Christmas East and West and a peaceful New Year!

South-Wales Super Tram!

 Cardiff is to be the hub for new valleys Expansion?

The vision of the road rail tram is nothing new, but all the Welsh valleys are to be connected to the capital and then as a city wide tram service, breaking with the dependence of rail stock that is much of the time out of date and not reliable?

Now that the coal industry is gone and that there is a demand for a cleaner environment in the valleys and Cardiff city this new system will be much cleaner and serve more communities and new builds all over S/SE-Wales, with the potential to keep expanding it, if needs be!

Bulk Carrier.

Large Cargo Vessels.

As long as humans can go to sea and there will be trade between nations, there will always be a need for large cargo vessels. Super tankers for crude oil and gas, bulk carriers for all dried goods.

These are the best means of moving 70-80,000 tonnes of coal, mineral ores, wheat, other grains and man made goods. Ships seem to be getting bigger and crews to service them lower, yet more vessels are being built every year. South-Korea and Japan seem to be the places to get the latest vessels, with their state of the art computer control systems.

Super Tankers.

Today the world needs energy and when it cannot be piped, it has to be shipped. So how big can we get with those ships? 

I suppose what limits size is the ability to be able to pass through, the Suez (Egypt) and Panama (Panama) canals. 

But the deep oceans still have many possibilities for ship sizes. Other factors to the size of ships are docking,and manoeuvrability.  

While all shipping is vulnerable to disasters through human failure or computer error. Spilt crude oil is not nice as was experienced in Alaska, U.S.A. The Shetland islands, N-Scotland, UK and off S-Wales. (UK).

Trams.

Are they worth their claims of improving metro systems or would buses just be good at doing the same job? 

Nearly every city and major town in the UK has a tram network of some kind. The question, should we have more of them or less? Is there the possibility of London having them again in the city center and what about trolley-buses and other forms of super metro/rail?

Cracks...

A380 Wing Cracks.

It is now reported that all 29 European Airbus A380's have been grounded, after hairline cracks were found in their wings. 

We have been reassured that its not serious. But I think it is very serious, because it is usually those small things that lead to big disasters. 

Does the problem lie in the design or the workforce at the Flintshire factory in Wales? 

Another question is do we today still need such giant passenger aircraft, such as the A380 and the Boeing 747-8?