外刊双语：未来城市飞行的士有哪些优势？（Part 2）

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

[Paragraph 7]
To get airborne quickly, most putative operators are therefore starting with piloted versions of their offerings.
为了尽快实现空中飞行，大多数公认的运营商开始推出有飞行员版本的飞行的士。
 
Volocopter appears to be in the lead.
Volocopter公司似乎处于领先地位。
 
Its craft, VoloCity, has room for just a single passenger.
虽然它的飞行出租车“VoloCity”只能容纳一名乘客。
 
Hot on its heels are Joby, which is flight-testing a five-seater, and AutoFlight, a company based in Shanghai, which is flying a four-seater.

紧随其后的是美国乔比航空公司和上海的锋飞航空公司，他们分别在测试5座和4座的飞行的士。

 
Airbus, Europe’s biggest aircraft-maker, is also developing a four-seat flying taxi that will, initially, be piloted.
欧洲最大的飞机制造商空中客车也在开发一种四座飞行出租车，不过刚开始都带有飞行员。
 

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Two exceptions to the general rule are Boeing, America’s biggest aircraft-maker, which has teamed up with Wisk Aero, a Californian firm, to produce a four-seater, and a two-seater being tested by Ehang, another Chinese firm.
美国最大的飞机制造商波音公司与加州的Wisk Aero公司合作生产一种4座飞行出租车，波音与中国亿航公司合作测试一种双座飞行出租车。

 
Both of these projects aim for autonomy from the beginning.
这两个项目一开始就致力于研发自动飞行的士。

 
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Getting an airworthiness certificate is, however, only part of the process needed to begin commercial services.
然而，获得适航证书仅是开始商业服务的一小步。
 
An airline-style operator’s licence is also needed.
还需要航线的营业执照。
 
The idea is that the first vertiports will help with this by demonstrating that flights are reliable, safe and can be integrated into existing air-traffic-control systems.
首个垂直机场将通过证明飞行可靠性、安全性，整合到现有的空中交通管制系统中来帮助实现这一目标。
 
[Paragraph 10]
Prêt à transporter
飞行准备
 
In theory, eVTOLs should show a good level of safety, for they have high levels of what engineers call redundancy—that is, duplication of critical systems.
理论上，电动垂直起降飞行器（eVTOLs）安全性能非常高，它们具备工程师们所说的高水平重复装置，尤其是在关键系统上的重复装置。
 
This comes about principally from their multiple rotors, which allow a craft to continue flying if one or more of its motors fails.
这主要表现在它们有着多个旋翼，允许飞行器在一个或多个发动机失灵的情况下继续飞行。
 
A rotor failure in a helicopter means the pilot has to make an emergency landing by gliding to the ground using a technique called autorotation.
直升机的旋翼出现故障意味着飞行员必须使用一种“自动旋转”技术，通过滑翔到地面来紧急着陆。
 
If one of the 18 rotors on a VoloCity failed it would, by contrast, hardly be noticed, says Paul Stone, Volocopter’s test pilot.
Volocopter的试飞员保罗·斯通说，如果VoloCity飞的18个旋翼中有一个出故障了，飞行员也很难注意到。 
[Paragraph 11]
Mr Stone, who has flown more than 200 types of aircraft, including vertical-take-off jets, also observes that the computerised flight controls on a VoloCity make it “much simpler to fly, and therefore easier to learn”.
斯通曾驾驶过200多种飞机，甚至包括垂直起飞飞机。他指出，VoloCity飞的上的电脑控制系统让飞行变得更简单易学。

At first, the pilots will be people with backgrounds flying either fixed-wing aircraft or helicopters, who will be trained to handle eVTOLs, too.
首先，飞行员需要有驾驶固定翼飞机或直升机的经验，还要接受驾驶eVTOLs的训练。
 
Eventually, though, he expects a separate eVTOL licence will be created, letting people learn to fly them from scratch.
不过，他预计最终会产生一种单独的eVTOL驾照，人们也将从零开始学习驾驶它。
 
And even when autonomy arrives, piloting jobs will still be available.
即使到了自动飞行的时代，飞行员的工作仍然是有用的。
 
The plan is that qualified individuals sitting in control centres on the ground will monitor several flights each, as already happens with military drones, and will thus be available to take manual command in an emergency.
用处体现在，具备资质的飞行员们在地面控制中心工作，每人分别监控几个飞行器，就像军用无人机那样，在紧急情况下也可以进行手动指挥。
 
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As technologies improve, eVTOLs’ capabilities will grow.
随着技术的进步，eVTOL的功能也会与时俱进。
 
Much of that progress will come from developments in battery technology for electric cars, says Dirk Hoke, who recently took over as Volocopter’s chief executive, having previously run Airbus’s defence and space division.
最近接任Volocopter首席执行官的德克•霍克表示，大部分eVTOL的发展取决于电动汽车电池技术的发展。霍克此前曾是空中客车的国防和航天部门的负责人。
 
A bigger, faster version of VoloCity, using a new type of battery, is already on the way, he adds.
他补充说，已经在研发新版本的VoloCity飞行器，它的电池体积更大、速度更快。 
But he would not go into details.
但并未透露细节。
 
By the end of the decade, though, it is not only Paris’s notorious traffic that could be bypassed from above with the convenience of using a ride-hailing app, but the jammed roads of several other cities, too.
然而，到本世纪末，人们通过使用便捷的打的软件就可以从城市上空绕过，届时不仅巴黎拥堵的交通将得到改善，其他几个城市的交通也不再拥挤。 
（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量500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）
Volocopter是德国较著名的 eVTOL 公司之一。早在2020年末，该公司宣布将提供世界上第一个电动空中航班预订。将在 Volocopter 研发的第一款 VoloCity 双人座飞机进行首飞。一旦清除了监管方面的障碍，Volocopter 便会升空并飞行。该公司相信，一切顺利，到2023年，这项 VoloCity 空中出租车服务将在新加坡投入运营。Volocopter 推出新的 4 人座 eVTOL，将郊区连接到城市，即 VoloConnect。这种新飞机与现有产品的不同之处在于，它旨在将郊区连接到城市，而不是在城市内提供运输。
 
机械的重复性（redundancy)，这样的设计能够在发电机故障时，还能用剩余的发电机或APU的发电机供应所有的电力。
 
【重点句子】（3 个）
To get airborne quickly, most putative operators are therefore starting with piloted versions of their offerings.
为了尽快实现空中飞行，大多数公认的运营商开始推出有飞行员版本的飞行的士。
 
And even when autonomy arrives, piloting jobs will still be available.
即使到了自动飞行的时代，飞行员的工作仍然是有用的。
 
As technologies improve, eVTOLs’ capabilities will grow.
随着技术的进步，eVTOL的功能也会与时俱进。