外刊双语：未来城市飞行的士有哪些优势？（Part 1）
原文标题：
Aviation
Welcome to the vertiport
A new type of air terminal opens for flying taxis
航空
欢迎来到垂直机场
一种新型空中候机楼为飞行的士开放
Urban air-travel takes a step closer
离城市空中旅行更进一步
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AS THE MORNING mist slowly clears over Pontoise-Cormeilles, a regional airport 40km north-west of central Paris, it is time to check in at the vertiport.
晨雾缓缓消散在巴黎市中心西北40公里处的庞图瓦兹-科梅耶地区机场，是时候在这个垂直机场办理登机了。
This is the name the aviation industry has adopted to describe a new type of air terminal.Vertiports will be used by eVTOLs, or flying taxis as they are sometimes called.
垂直机场是航空业用来描述一种新型航站楼的名称，它将为飞行的士服务。
As the name indicates, these aircraft take off and land vertically, like helicopters.
顾名思义，这些飞机可以和直升机一样垂直起飞和降落。
But instead of being powered by jet turbines they rely on sets of electrically driven rotors, much like hovering drones.
但它们不是由喷气涡轮机提供动力，而是依靠电力驱动的旋翼，很像盘旋的无人机。
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Pontoise-Cormeilles’ vertiport, which opened on November 10th, so far serves only as a prototype—for, being the first of its kind in Europe, it has no matching facility to act as a destination.
庞图瓦兹-科梅尔的垂直机场于11月10日开放，到目前为止还只是一个原型。作为欧洲第一个这样的机场，它没有相应的设施来充当目的地。
But Groupe ADP, which manages Paris’s airports, including Pontoise-Cormeilles, hopes that will soon change.
巴黎机场集团（ADP）希望改变现状。ADP负责管理巴黎的机场，其中包括蓬图瓦兹-科梅耶地区机场。
The Paris Olympics open in July 2024. By then the firm plans for at least two routes to be operating in the region, with a total of ten air taxis, each flying two or three trips an hour.
巴黎奥运会将于2024年7月开幕。届时，该集团计划在该地区至少运营两条航线，总共有10辆飞行的士，每小时飞行2-3趟。
These would link the Olympic Village with conventional airports and also with the Paris heliport at Issy-les-Moulineaux, on the southern side of the city near an emergency medical centre.
这些设施将把奥运村与传统机场连接起来，并与巴黎南部靠近紧急医疗中心的伊斯-勒斯-穆利诺的直升机场连接起来。
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Quick exit
快速出口
The terminal building itself is compact—about as big as a medium-sized apartment.
候机楼本身很袖珍，约一个中型公寓大小。
The idea is that, having bought a ticket using a mobile-phone app, a passenger can check in rapidly and paperlessly.
其理念是，乘客使用手机应用程序购买了机票，就可以快速、无纸化地办理登机手续。
A facial-recognition scan confirms identity and a floor sensor measures weight.
面部识别扫描确认乘客身份，地板传感器测量重量。
This lets the craft, sitting on a pad just outside, calculate its load so that it knows how much power will be needed for the journey, and thus when its batteries will require topping up.
这使得飞行出租车可以停在外面的垫子上，以计算它的负载，从而知道整个旅程需要多少电力，从而知道它的电池何时需要充电。
There should be barely enough time to grab a cup of coffee before the less-than-20-minute hop downtown, avoiding the snarling rush-hour traffic below.
市中心上空飞行避开了地面的交通高峰期，全程不足20分钟，应该是没有时间让你喝杯咖啡消磨一下了。
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If a passenger spends more than ten or 15 minutes in the terminal then something has gone wrong, says Duncan Walker, boss of Skyports, the British firm that built the facility.
Skyports是一家建造该设施的英国公司，它的老板邓肯·沃克表示，如果乘客在航站楼停留的时间超过10或15分钟，那么一定是哪个环节就出了问题。
The eVTOL flying around outside it is made by Volocopter, a German company.
德国沃洛科普特公司制造电动垂直起降飞行器（eVTOL）。
Skyports has opened a similar vertiport in Marina, California, which is being used by Joby Aviation, an American outfit that is also developing a flying taxi, and is planning others in places that include London and Singapore.
“天空港”已经在加州的玛丽娜建造了一个类似的垂直机场，也计划在伦敦和新加坡等地建机场。美国的“乔比”航空公司正在研发一种飞行出租车，它也在使用加州的垂直机场。
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In a dense urban environment, a vertiport needs to take up as little space as possible, which is why people will not be encouraged to linger.
在人口密集的市区，一个垂直机场需尽可能地少占用空间，这也是为什么不鼓励人们在机场逗留。
And there is another difference from either a conventional airport or a heliport: silence.
此外，与传统机场和直升机机场的另一个区别是：安静。
As the eVTOL flies overhead it is strikingly quieter than a helicopter that landed near the main airport building a little earlier.
刚刚有一架直升机在机场主楼附近降落，头顶飞行的飞行出租车比那直升机的噪音要小得多。
“That’s your licence to operate in city centres,” says Mr Walker.
沃克表示:“这一点很适合市中心。”
Not only are flying taxis less noisy than helicopters, but if recharged from a renewable source of electricity they are greener and, being mechanically simpler, a lot cheaper to run.
飞行出租车不仅比直升机噪音小，而且如果用可再生能源充电，它们更环保，而且由于它们机械结构更简单，运行成本更低。
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Operating costs should fall even further, for eVTOLs are readily adaptable to autonomous flight.
飞行出租车更容易适应自动飞行，运营成本也会下降。
That frees up the pilot’s seat for an extra passenger.
这样一来，飞行员的座位就空出来了，可以多坐一名乘客。
At first, however, regulators are expected to grant airworthiness certificates only to flying taxis with pilots on board.
不过，预计监管机构最初只会向有飞行员的飞行出租车颁发适航证书。
This will allow experience to be gained and the reliability of the craft to be tested before they are permitted to do without the pilot.
在无人驾驶被批准前，对飞行器的可靠性进行测试和逐渐积累经验是我们所需要的。
（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量520左右）
原文出自：2022年11月19日《The Economist》Science & technology版块。
精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路
本文翻译整理: Maree
本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。
【补充资料】（来自于网络）
巴黎机场集团(Groupe ADP)，原名巴黎机场(法语:Aéroports de Paris)法国的一家机场建设管理公司。
eVTOL，是 Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing的缩写，电动垂直起降飞行器。目前国内将eVTOL飞行器称为飞行汽车，主要用于城市空中交通，是目前热门的投资领域。近年来，eVTOL飞行器开发吸引了包括航空航天企业、汽车行业、运输行业、政府、军方以及学术界的广泛关注。eVTOL未来潜在应用涉及城市客运（UAM）、区域客运（RAM）、货运、个人飞行器、紧急医疗服务等多种场景模式。
【重点句子】（3 个）
As the name indicates, these aircraft take off and land vertically, like helicopters.
顾名思义，这些飞机可以和直升机一样垂直起飞和降落。
Not only are flying taxis less noisy than helicopters, but if recharged from a renewable source of electricity they are greener and, being mechanically simpler, a lot cheaper to run.
飞行出租车不仅比直升机噪音小，而且如果用可再生能源充电，它们更环保，而且由于它们机械结构更简单，运行成本也更低。
This will allow experience to be gained and the reliability of the craft to be tested before they are permitted to do without the pilot.
在无人驾驶被批准前，对飞行器的可靠性进行测试和逐渐积累经验是我们所需要的。
