原文標(biāo)題：
Aviation
Welcome to the?vertiport
A?new?type?of?air?terminal?opens?for?flying?taxis
航空
歡迎來到垂直機場

一種新型空中候機樓為飛行的士開放

Urban air-travel takes a step closer
離城市空中旅行更進(jìn)一步

[Paragraph 7]
To get airborne quickly, most putative?operators are therefore starting with piloted versions of their offerings.
為了盡快實現(xiàn)空中飛行，大多數(shù)公認(rèn)的運營商開始推出有飛行員版本的飛行的士。
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Volocopter appears to be in the lead.
Volocopter公司似乎處于領(lǐng)先地位。
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Its craft, VoloCity, has room for just a single passenger.
雖然它的飛行出租車“VoloCity”只能容納一名乘客。
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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.

緊隨其后的是美國喬比航空公司和上海的鋒飛航空公司，他們分別在測試5座和4座的飛行的士。

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Airbus, Europe’s biggest aircraft-maker, is also developing a four-seat flying taxi that will, initially, be piloted.
歐洲最大的飛機制造商空中客車也在開發(fā)一種四座飛行出租車，不過剛開始都帶有飛行員。
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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.
美國最大的飛機制造商波音公司與加州的Wisk Aero公司合作生產(chǎn)一種4座飛行出租車，波音與中國億航公司合作測試一種雙座飛行出租車。

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Both of these projects?aim for?autonomy from the beginning.
這兩個項目一開始就致力于研發(fā)自動飛行的士。

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[Paragraph 9]
Getting an airworthiness certificate is, however, only part of the process needed to begin commercial services.
然而，獲得適航證書僅是開始商業(yè)服務(wù)的一小步。
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An airline-style operator’s licence is also needed.
還需要航線的營業(yè)執(zhí)照。
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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.
首個垂直機場將通過證明飛行可靠性、安全性，整合到現(xiàn)有的空中交通管制系統(tǒng)中來幫助實現(xiàn)這一目標(biāo)。
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[Paragraph 10]
Prêt à transporter
飛行準(zhǔn)備
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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.
理論上，電動垂直起降飛行器（eVTOLs）安全性能非常高，它們具備工程師們所說的高水平重復(fù)裝置，尤其是在關(guān)鍵系統(tǒng)上的重復(fù)裝置。
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This comes about principally?from their multiple?rotors, which allow a craft to continue flying if one or more of its motors fails.
這主要表現(xiàn)在它們有著多個旋翼，允許飛行器在一個或多個發(fā)動機失靈的情況下繼續(xù)飛行。
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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.
直升機的旋翼出現(xiàn)故障意味著飛行員必須使用一種“自動旋轉(zhuǎn)”技術(shù)，通過滑翔到地面來緊急著陸。
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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的試飛員保羅·斯通說，如果VoloCity飛的18個旋翼中有一個出故障了，飛行員也很難注意到。?
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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”.
斯通曾駕駛過200多種飛機，甚至包括垂直起飛飛機。他指出，VoloCity飛的上的電腦控制系統(tǒng)讓飛行變得更簡單易學(xué)。

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，飛行員需要有駕駛固定翼飛機或直升機的經(jīng)驗，還要接受駕駛eVTOLs的訓(xùn)練。
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Eventually, though, he expects a separate eVTOL licence will be created, letting people learn to fly them from scratch.
不過，他預(yù)計最終會產(chǎn)生一種單獨的eVTOL駕照，人們也將從零開始學(xué)習(xí)駕駛它。
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And even when autonomy arrives, piloting jobs will still be available.
即使到了自動飛行的時代，飛行員的工作仍然是有用的。
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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.
用處體現(xiàn)在，具備資質(zhì)的飛行員們在地面控制中心工作，每人分別監(jiān)控幾個飛行器，就像軍用無人機那樣，在緊急情況下也可以進(jìn)行手動指揮。
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[Paragraph 12]
As technologies improve, eVTOLs’ capabilities will grow.
隨著技術(shù)的進(jìn)步，eVTOL的功能也會與時俱進(jìn)。
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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首席執(zhí)行官的德克?霍克表示，大部分eVTOL的發(fā)展取決于電動汽車電池技術(shù)的發(fā)展?；艨舜饲霸强罩锌蛙嚨膰篮秃教觳块T的負(fù)責(zé)人。
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A bigger, faster version of VoloCity, using a new type of battery, is already on the way, he adds.
他補充說，已經(jīng)在研發(fā)新版本的VoloCity飛行器，它的電池體積更大、速度更快。?
But he would not go into details.
但并未透露細(xì)節(jié)。
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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，到本世紀(jì)末，人們通過使用便捷的打的軟件就可以從城市上空繞過，屆時不僅巴黎擁堵的交通將得到改善，其他幾個城市的交通也不再擁擠。?
（恭喜讀完，本篇英語詞匯量500左右）
原文出自：2022年11月19日《The Economist》Science & technology版塊。
精讀筆記來源于：自由英語之路

本文翻譯整理: Maree

本文編輯校對: Irene
僅供個人英語學(xué)習(xí)交流使用。

【補充資料】（來自于網(wǎng)絡(luò)）
Volocopter是德國較著名的 eVTOL 公司之一。早在2020年末，該公司宣布將提供世界上第一個電動空中航班預(yù)訂。將在 Volocopter 研發(fā)的第一款 VoloCity 雙人座飛機進(jìn)行首飛。一旦清除了監(jiān)管方面的障礙，Volocopter 便會升空并飛行。該公司相信，一切順利，到2023年，這項 VoloCity 空中出租車服務(wù)將在新加坡投入運營。Volocopter 推出新的 4 人座 eVTOL，將郊區(qū)連接到城市，即 VoloConnect。這種新飛機與現(xiàn)有產(chǎn)品的不同之處在于，它旨在將郊區(qū)連接到城市，而不是在城市內(nèi)提供運輸。
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機械的重復(fù)性（redundancy)，這樣的設(shè)計能夠在發(fā)電機故障時，還能用剩余的發(fā)電機或APU的發(fā)電機供應(yīng)所有的電力。
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【重點句子】（3?個）
To get airborne quickly, most putative operators are therefore starting with piloted versions of their offerings.
為了盡快實現(xiàn)空中飛行，大多數(shù)公認(rèn)的運營商開始推出有飛行員版本的飛行的士。
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And even when autonomy arrives, piloting jobs will still be available.
即使到了自動飛行的時代，飛行員的工作仍然是有用的。
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As technologies improve, eVTOLs’?capabilities will grow.
隨著技術(shù)的進(jìn)步，eVTOL的功能也會與時俱進(jìn)。