[THEME MUSIC]
COY WIRE: Hello, everyone.
Wonder-full Wednesday to you.
I know we're just halfway through the week.
But we're going to keep grinding and shining
because that's just what we do.
I'm Coy.
This is "CNN 10," and we've got a rendezvous with the news.
We're going to start with news on a vegetable
shortage in the United Kingdom.
Certain fruits and veggies are having to be rationed
at most major supermarkets.
And four of the biggest supermarkets in the United
Kingdom say they're putting purchase
limits on some staple items, like tomatoes,
peppers, and cucumbers.
Experts say this could go on for months.
Some farmers are saying that they're not harvesting
any tomatoes, peppers, or eggplants when they usually
do at this time of year.
A number of factors, like bad weather conditions
in Spain and Morocco, high energy costs over the winter,
and even the impact of Brexit and the labor shortages,
are causing the lack of production.
Here's CNN anchor and correspondent
Isa Soares in London, who's been speaking with local shoppers.
ISA SOARES: Row upon row of empty baskets, empty shelves.
A supply gap in fruit and veg has hit UK supermarkets.
The shortages affecting shoppers nationwide.
- I went for lunch, and I couldn't find, like,
tomatoes, cucumber, or lettuce.
- It's quite annoying when you want
to try to get your five a day in,
and you can't actually get it.
- The fruit I want, they are gone.
Nothing there.
ISA SOARES: To deal with the shortages,
major British supermarkets are imposing
limits on items like tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers.
The UK's minister for the Environment, Food, and Rural
Affairs said the disruption should only last a few weeks,
and meanwhile, encouraged people to eat more seasonally.
"Let them eat turnips," she said.
THERESE COFFEY: I'm conscious that consumers want year-round
choice, and that is what our supermarkets
and food and growers--
food producers and growers around the world
try to satisfy.
ISA SOARES: Supermarkets are blaming
the recent shortages on poor weather conditions
in key growing regions.
Britain produces a fraction of the food it consumes, relying
instead on overseas imports.
And key supplies in Southern Europe and North Africa,
in particular Spain and Morocco, have seen harvests hit
by extreme weather conditions.
But while climate change plays a significant role in warmer
than average temperatures, the government faces
another inconvenient truth--
Brexit, the cause of widespread supply chain disruption.
LIZ WEBSTER: Because of the interruption with trade
in Europe, who kind of underpin our food supply,
it means that there's less food coming in from Europe.
We're producing less food.
So basically, our food security is in real trouble.
ISA SOARES: Labor shortages due to a lack of migrant workers
and soaring energy prices following Russia's invasion
of Ukraine have pushed the gap even wider,
as farmers struggle with front-end costs.
And those costs are passed on to the consumer.
Consumers are already grappling with record-high grocery
prices and the worst cost of living crisis in decades.
COY WIRE: 10 Second Trivia.
Where would you find the world's oldest airport--
Paris, France; Hamburg, Germany; Maryland, USA;
or North Carolina, USA?
[BEEPING]
Flights began at Maryland's College Park Airport in 1909,
when Wilbur Wright trained two military pilots.
And up next, we're continuing with part two of our feature
from yesterday on the future of travel.
New technology in the years to come
will likely change travel as we know it forever.
The planes, trains, and automobiles we use today
may someday be as antiquated as the horse and buggy.
Thought leaders in the travel industry
are formulating plans that might make travel faster,
cheaper, and safer, from hyperloops to air
taxis to supersonic jets.
Here's CNN's Rahel Solomon with more on the next frontier.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
RAHEL SOLOMON: From highways to railways, flight paths to bike
lanes, we have plenty of mobility options on the ground
and in the air.
But could the next frontier in transit take place over water?
One seafaring startup is looking to turn
coastlines into corridors.
BILLY THALHEIMER: Water transportation
is super important because 40% of the world
lives within coastal communities.
I'm Billy Thalheimer, co-founder and CEO at Regent.
MIKE KLINKER: I'm Mike Klinker, one of the co-founders
and CTO at Regent.
BILLY THALHEIMER: The next frontier
is better transportation.
And when I say better, I mean efficient and sustainable.
It's faster.
It's easy and affordable and accessible.
RAHEL SOLOMON: Rhode Island-based company Regent
is aiming to enhance the way we travel between seaboard cities
and islands with a new mode of transportation, the sea glider.
MIKE KLINKER: The sea glider is really
a mix between a boat and airplane,
if you took the two, smashed them together.
BILLY THALHEIMER: They combine the affordability
and accessibility and convenience
of a boat of ferry transportation
with the high speed and long ranges of an aircraft.
RAHEL SOLOMON: The all-electric maritime vehicle
is designed to float, foil, and fly along dock to dock routes.
MIKE KLINKER: The sea glider has three modes of operation.
It can be floating.
So like a normal boat would, floating
on the surface of the water, driving around
in the inner harbor areas.
It has a hydrofoiling mode, where you're
up above the surface of the water on these stilts
so that the passengers and the vehicle
is insulated from any waves.
The last mode is the fly mode.
RAHEL SOLOMON: The sea glider takes
advantage of a few water and air efficiencies to operate.
Underwater wings, called hydrofoils,
help lift the sea glider, reduce drag,
and allow for a smooth ride above the waves.
When it's time to take off, the hydrofoils retract and the sea
glider will fly within a wingspan of the water's
surface, benefiting from an aerodynamic principle
called ground effect to glide along a cushion of air.
MIKE KLINKER: The sea gliders are powered by 12,
about 100 horsepower electric motors
and propellers on the leading edge of the wing.
Those are all fueled by battery technologies,
the same batteries that go into electric cars today.
RAHEL SOLOMON: The first sea glider, called Viceroy,
will carry 12 passengers, two crew,
and serve as short hauls up to 290 kilometers at speeds just
under 300 kilometers per hour.
Regent is still in the prototype phase.
But Thalheimer says they've already
proven the technology works.
BILLY THALHEIMER: Regent just hit our two-year anniversary.
We built the first sea glider prototype
and actually proved that this mode of transportation
is possible.
This is how we typically test our quarter-scale prototype sea
glider.
So we're really experimenting all operations--
floating, foiling.
When you get out of this tight area
like this out into the open water, that's when we take off
and we become that wing and ground effect, that high
speed flying vehicle.
RAHEL SOLOMON: And inside, they're
developing the avionics, which will be operated by a captain.
MIKE KLINKER: There's really two ways
that you control the sea glider.
You have a power lever and a side stick joystick.
So think of it like you can turn left/right with the joystick,
and you can go-- tell the vehicle to go fast or go slow.
It's very intuitive, much like driving a car
or driving a boat.
RAHEL SOLOMON: While Regent seems to be moving along
rather quickly, the co-founders say it
hasn't all been smooth sailing.
MIKE KLINKER: One of the biggest challenges
for building a sea glider is that we are really
pushing physics to the max.
So it's really the combination of all these different really
advanced technologies that allows
us to do this full mission.
But it's really a physics challenge for us.
BILLY THALHEIMER: I think the other challenge we had was just
the fact that this is so new.
This has not existed before.
So as we've gone out to customers,
there's a lot of education we need to do.
You know, what is it?
How does it work?
How is it crewed?
How is it certified?
RAHEL SOLOMON: Thalheimer says they have a $7 billion
backlog in pre-orders across the airline and ferry industries.
As for next steps, Regent is currently
building a full-scale prototype and has
ambitions for passenger test flights by the end of 2024.
And by 2050, they hope to have large capacity
sea gliders in operation with ranges up to 800 kilometers.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
COY WIRE: For today's story getting a 10 out of 10,
sticking with our aviation theme,
a record-breaking paper airplane.
A team of young Boeing engineers put themselves on the map
when they set a new Guinness World Record by folding,
then flying a paper airplane that went 290 feet.
Holy origami!
That's darn near the length of a football field, y'all!
It took them 20 minutes to fold the plane just right,
making sure to craft it with as much weight as possible,
helping them create the greatest amount of momentum
after the toss.
Speaking of map, dad joke alert.
I got an email the other day explaining
how to read "maps" backwards.
It was "spam."
Shoutout to Stevens Middle School in Pasco, Washington.
We see you.
And I'll see all of you tomorrow.
I'm Coy Wire, and we are "CNN 10."
[MUSIC PLAYING]