學習專看文學書，也是不好的。先前的文學青年，往往厭惡數學、理化、史地、生物學，以爲這些都無足輕重，後來變成連常識也沒有。以下是小編爲大家搜索整理的‘飛行汽車’不再是遙不可及的夢【雙語閱讀】，希望能給大家帶來幫助!更多精彩內容請及時關注我們應屆畢業生考試網!
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — On a recent afternoon, anaerospace engineer working for a small Silicon Valleycompany called Kitty Hawk piloted a flying car abovea scenic lake about 100 miles north of San Francisco.
加利福尼亞州克利爾湖——前不久的一個下午，硅谷一家名叫“基蒂霍克”(Kitty Hawk)的小公司的航空工程師駕駛飛行汽車，在舊金山以北約100英里外一座風景秀麗的湖泊上飛翔。
Kitty Hawk’s flying car, if you insisted on calling it a“car,” looked like something Luke Skywalker wouldhave built out of spare parts. It was an open-seated, 220-pound contraption with room for one person, powered by eight battery-poweredpropellers that howled as loudly as a speedboat.
基蒂霍克的飛行汽車——如果你堅持稱之爲“汽車”的話——看上去就像天行者盧克用零部件組裝起來的。這是一個有開放式座椅的新奇裝置，220磅重，可供一人乘坐，由八個以電池爲動力的螺旋槳驅動，發出像快艇一樣巨大的咆哮聲。
The tech industry, as we are often told, is fond of disrupting things, and lately the automakershave been a big target. Cars that use artificial intelligence to drive themselves, for example,have been in development for a few years and can be spotted on roads in a number of now, coming onto the radar screen, are flying machines that do not exactly look like yourfather’s Buick with wings.
正如我們經常被告知的那樣，科技行業喜歡顛覆，最近汽車製造商成了他們的大目標。比如說，經過了幾年的開發，許多城市的道路上已經可以看到使用人工智能自動駕駛的汽車。現在，飛行的機器又來到雷達顯示屏上，它們並不完全像是給老爸的別克轎車加上一對翅膀。
More than a dozen start-ups backed by deep-pocketed industry figures like Larry Page, aGoogle founder — along with big aerospace firms like Airbus, the ride-hailing company Uber andeven the government of Dubai — are taking on the dream of the flying car.
在谷歌創始人之一拉里·佩奇(Larry Page)等富有的業內人士、空中客車公司(Airbus)等大型航空公司、叫車公司優步(Uber)甚至是迪拜政府等各方面支持下，十幾家初創企業都在追求飛行汽車這個夢想。
The approaches by the different companies vary and the realization of their competing visionsseems far in the future, but they have one thing in common: a belief that one day regularpeople should be able to fly their own vehicles around town.
不同公司採取的方法也各不相同，而且他們的各種願景似乎要到遙遠的未來才能實現，但是他們有一個共同點：相信總有一天，普通人應該可以開着車，在城裏四處飛翔。
There are challenges, no doubt, with both the technology and government regulations. Perhapsthe biggest hurdle will be convincing the public that the whole idea isn’t crazy.
毫無疑問，他們在技術和政府法規方面都面臨挑戰。也許最大的障礙是說服公衆，整個想法並不瘋狂。
“I love the idea of being able to go out into my backyard and hop into my flying car,” said BradTempleton, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who has served as a consultant on Google’s self-driving project. “I hate the idea of my next-door neighbor having one.”
“我走進後院，跳進自己的飛行汽車——我喜歡這個想法，”硅谷企業家布拉德·鄧普頓(Brad Templeton)曾擔任谷歌自動駕駛項目的顧問，他說。“但是想到鄰居有這麼一輛車我會不爽。”
Kitty Hawk, the company backed by Mr. Page, is trying to be one of the first out of the gate andplans to start selling its vehicle by the end of the year.
得到佩奇投資的基蒂霍克公司正試圖成爲先行者，計劃在年底之前開始銷售它的載具。
The company has attracted intense interest because of Mr. Page and its chief executive,Sebastian Thrun, an influential technologist and self-driving car pioneer who is the foundingdirector of Google’s X lab.
這家公司引起了人們的高度關注，既是因爲佩奇，也是因爲它的首席執行官塞巴斯蒂安·特龍(SebastianThrun)是谷歌X實驗室創始負責人，他是一位很有影響力的技術專家，也是自動駕駛汽車領域的先驅。
In 2013, Zee Aero, a Kitty Hawk division, became the object of Silicon Valley rumors whenreports of a small air taxilike vehicle first surfaced.
2013年，關於小型空中出租車式交通工具的報道開始出現，基蒂霍克的分公司Zee Aero也成爲硅谷傳言的話題。
Mr. Page declined a request for an interview but said in a statement: “We’ve all had dreamsof flying effortlessly. I’m excited that one day very soon I’ll be able to climb onto my Kitty HawkFlyer for a quick and easy personal flight.”
佩奇拒絕了採訪請求，並在一份聲明中說：“我們都有毫不費力地在空中飛行的夢想。不久後的一天，我就能夠登上自己的基蒂霍克飛行器(Kitty Hawk Flyer)，輕鬆快速地進行個人飛行，這令我興奮不已。”
During his recent test flight, Cameron Robertson, the aerospace engineer, used two joysticklikecontrols to swing the vehicle back and forth above Clear Lake, sliding on the air as a FormulaOne car might shimmy through a racecourse. The flight, just 15 feet above the water, circledover the lake about 20 or 30 yards from shore, and after about five minutes Mr. Robertsonsteered back to a floating landing pad at the end of a dock.
最近一次試飛時，航空工程師卡梅隆·羅伯遜(Cameron Robertson)使用兩個遊戲操縱桿般的控制器，駕駛着飛行器在克利爾湖上空來回搖擺，在空中滑翔而過，就像一級方程式賽車優雅地在賽道上行駛一樣。飛行器距離水面15英尺，在距離湖岸約20或30碼的地方繞湖飛行，大約五分鐘後，羅伯遜掉頭轉向一座碼頭末端的浮動着陸墊。
The Kitty Hawk Flyer is one of several prototypes the start-up, based in Mountain View, Calif., isdesigning. The company hopes to create an audience of enthusiasts and hobbyists, who laterthis year will be able to pay $100 to sign up for a $2,000 discount on the retail price of a Flyerto “gain exclusive access to Kitty Hawk experiences and demonstrations where a select few willget the chance to ride the Flyer.”
這家初創公司位於加利福尼亞州山景城，基蒂霍克飛行器是公司正在設計的幾個原型機之一。該公司希望打造一個由狂熱愛好者和業餘愛好者組成的受衆羣，這些人在今年晚些時候可以支付100美元註冊，今後購買基蒂霍克飛行器時可獲得2000美元的折扣，並“獲得獨家基蒂霍克體驗和演示，被選中的少數人將有機會駕駛飛行器。”
It is an unusual offer, since the company has not yet set a price for the vehicle, and n’s and Mr. Page’s involvement can be taken as evidence that the company is aiming farbeyond hobbyists. Still, Kitty Hawk is clearly targeting a new kind of transportation — air flightthat can be performed safely by most people and hopefully with government approval.
這個條件很不尋常，因爲公司還沒有爲飛行器設定價格，而特龍和佩奇的參與可以證明公司的目標遠遠超出業餘愛好者的.範疇。畢竟，基蒂霍克的目標顯然是開發一種新型交通工具，實現可由大多數人安全操作的空中飛行，並且希望得到政府的批准。
“We hope that this is more of an exciting concept than what most people have had in theirminds about flying cars,” Mr. Robertson said. “This is not yet that product in terms of what wewill say and what it can do, but I think it demonstrates a vision of the future.”
“我們希望這更像一種令人興奮的概念，而不僅僅是大多數人頭腦中想象的那種會飛的汽車，”羅伯遜說。“關於這種產品，我們還不能說太多，也不能說它可以用來做什麼，但我認爲它表明了未來的願景。”
Kitty Hawk could face stiff competition, not just from about a half dozen start-ups, but fromthe giant Airbus, headquartered in Blagnac, France. The aerospace firm has announced twodifferent vertical takeoff and landing, or VTOL, concepts and is reported to be planning aninitial test flight before the end of the year.
基蒂霍克可能面臨激烈的競爭，不僅僅是來自其他大約六家左右的初創公司，還有總部位於法國布拉尼亞克的巨頭空中客車公司。這家航空公司已經宣佈了兩種不同的垂直起降(簡稱VTOL)概念飛行器，據報道，公司有計劃在年底之前進行初次試飛。
At the Geneva International Motor Show last month, Airbus proposed an autonomous vehiclenamed that would operate on both the ground and in the air. And this year, thegovernment of Dubai, in partnership with a Chinese firm, EHang, said it planned to beginoperating an autonomous flying taxi by this July. Also, Uber is expected on Tuesday to detail its“vision for the future of Urban Air Mobility” at a conference in Dallas.
在上個月的日內瓦國際汽車展上，空中客車公司帶來了一款名爲“”的自動車，可以在地面和空中運作。今年，迪拜政府與中國公司億航(EHang)合作，表示計劃在今年7月開始運營飛行的自動駕駛出租車。此外，優步預計於週二在達拉斯的一個會議上詳細闡明該公司的“城市便捷空中出行的未來願景”。
There is no shortage of skeptics happy to point out the roadblocks for these vehicles. There isalready significant resistance to the idea of unmanned drones flying over urban areas, andflying cars could face substantial opposition, even if they can be quieted to automotive noiselevels.
有不少懷疑者樂於指出這種交通工具的障礙。在城區上空飛行的無人機已經遭遇激烈抵制，飛行汽車也可能遭到很多人反對，即便它們的噪音可以降至汽車水平。
For these personal air vehicles to become a reality in the United States, the country would needa whole new air traffic control system.
這種個人空中載具在美國要想成爲現實，國家需要建立一個全新的空中交通管制系統。
Two years ago, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration began development of an airtraffic control system meant for managing all sorts of flying vehicles, including drones. OneNASA developer described it as an air traffic control system, “for a sky dark with drones.”Researchers hope testing can begin by 2019.
兩年前，NASA開始開發一個用於管理各種飛行器的空中交通管制系統，包括無人機。NASA的一名開發人員稱它是爲“滿是無人機的天空”設計的系統。研究人員希望能在2019年開始進行測試。
Batteries are also an issue. While electric propeller-driven motors seem promising, today’sbattery technology cannot support flights of a reasonable distance, say a 30- or 50-milecommute.
電池也是一個問題。雖然電動螺旋槳驅動的發動機似乎很有前途，但當前的電池技術尚不能支持合理距離的飛行，比如30或50英里的通勤距離。
“How is this going to work? I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer, but we can’t even take ourcellphones on airplanes today because of fears about battery fires,” said Missy Cummings, thedirector of the Humans and Autonomy Laboratory at Duke University, who is researchingpersonal air transport for NASA.
“這怎麼能行得通呢?我不想當掃興的黛比·唐納(Debbie Downer)，但是因爲害怕電池着火，我們甚至不能把手機帶上飛機，”杜克大學(Duke University)人類與自動化實驗室(Humans and Autonomy Laboratory)的主任米茜·卡明斯(Missy Cummings)說。她正在爲NASA進行個人空中交通方面的研究。
And don’t forget that flying cars will not be able to pull to the side of the road in an emergency,said John Leonard, a mechanical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’sComputer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
麻省理工學院(Massachusetts Institute of Technology)計算機科學與人工智能實驗室(ComputerScience and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory)的機械工程師約翰·倫納德(John Leonard)表示，不要忘了飛行汽車不能在緊急情況下在路邊停靠。
“Silicon Valley is full of very smart people, but they don’t always get the laws of physics,” hesaid. “Gravity is a formidable adversary.”
“硅谷充滿了非常聰明的人，但他們並不總是理解物理規律，”他說，“地心引力是一個強大的對手。”
