The London Eye: Comparisons

In 2000, when the London Eye was first built, it was the tallest Ferris wheel in the world. Since then, it has been out done by two other Ferris wheels.
Pictured above, in the Star of Nanchang, which is a 160-metre (525 ft) Ferris wheel located in the eastern Chinese city of Nanchang. The Star of Nanchang has 61 enclosed climate-controlled gondolas, each carrying up to 8 people, the maximum capacity of the Star of Nanchang is 480 passengers.
Like the London Eye a single rotation of the wheel takes around 30 minutes, the slow rotation speed allows passengers to embark and disembark from the gondolas without any need for the rotation to be stopped.

Unlike the London Eye the Star of Nanchang doesn't use exo-capsules attached to the outside of its wheel.
Pictured above is the Singapore Flyer, it is currently the tallest Ferris wheel in the world.

The Singapore Flyer is 42 stories high, and has a total height of 165 m (541 ft), and is 5 m (16 ft) taller than the Star of Nanchang and 30 m (98 ft) taller than the London Eye.
Located in Singapore, on the southeast tip of the Marina Centre, it has a 150 m (492 ft) diameter wheel, built over a three-story terminal building which houses shops, bars and restaurants, and offers an outstanding view of the city centre as well as the surrounding landscape out to around
28 miles.

The wheel started rotating on February 11, 2008. It officially opened to the public on March 1, 2008. The Singapore Flyer only has 28 capsules, which, like those of the London Eye, are exo-capsules attached to the outside of the wheel structure, these offer the advantage of a continuously unobstructed view when the capsule is at the peak.

Although the Singapore Flyer is very popular, it has its fair share of problems and breakdowns, such as, on the 4th December 2008, the wheel was stuck for over four hours due to bad weather conditions which meant that the 70 people on board were stranded with no means of escape.
December wasn't a very good month for the Singapore Flyer, as only 19 days after the previous problem the wheel stopped moving and trapped 173 passengers for about six hours.

The breakdown was caused by a short circuit and fire in the Flyer's wheel control room, which cut off the air-conditioning in the wheel.
Eleven passengers were evacuated via a sling-like device from a few of the capsules, and those stranded were given food and drink.

The wheel restarted nearly seven hours after it had stopped and two people were hospitalized. The Flier was closed indefinitely. The wheel re-opened on 26 January 2009 after the final safety certification report from the Comformity Assessment Board was received.