Sea and river Barges?

 Once known as Coasters!

Moving around Europe will small but essential loads is the work of the Sea barges that can work the the English Channel, the River Rhine and the Humber and many other rivers to to the Black sea and beyond into the Ukraine and Russia! 

They need certain conditions at sea, but on rivers they remain in their own league and so far there is no replacement for them?

But the coaster has seen its demise, with better Port facilities and ferries taking vehicle loads to and from islands and remote places along the coasts of the U.K. and Europe, despite being smaller that General cargo, they were bigger than a sea barge, but were limited to deep rivers and not canals?

Solar Powered Flight.

Not the first to Try.

This solar powered aircraft that is attempting a world flight record is far from the first, in fact there have been longer distance flights made between A and B/Z in the past. These aircraft failed to attract the publicity that this one has got, for various reasons that are not worth going into.

Some commercial airlines have added solar power cells to the roofs of aircraft to charge batteries with some success, but nothing more has happened since. Now that Australia has fashioned the first commercial possibility of a car for mass production I suppose an aircraft is the next target.

Japan was for a time the leader in solar powered said technology on general shipping and perhaps this stop over has really some connection with that factor?