A Plane You Can Drive
神奇的陆空两用飞机——安娜·姆拉塞克·迪特里希
讲座背景
想象一下你开着一辆会飞的汽车，随心所欲地驶往或飞去任何想去的地方的情景。在不久的将来，这样的情景或将随处可见。
一家名为特拉弗吉亚(Terrafugia)的公司研发了一款陆空两用车Transition。它可以作为飞机在天空飞行，而降落到地面上时，也可以收起机翼像普通汽车一样行驶。
2011年7月，参与设计陆空两用车Transition的特拉弗吉亚公司首席运营官安娜·姆拉塞克·迪特里希(Anna Mracek Dietrich)介绍了公司研发的这款陆空两用交通工具。她告诉大家，由于飞行汽车的研发受到许多限制，因此他们改变了思路，创造了这架能在路上行驶的飞机，而不是一辆会飞的汽车。
安娜·姆拉塞克·迪特里希称，研发Transition的目的是减少出门旅行的时间。而这款飞机还有望解决交通拥堵的问题，为人们提供方便。
安娜·姆拉塞克·迪特里希用幽默的语言吸引了在场的听众，她希望每个人都花一点时间想一想，怎样利用Transition来使自己的世界变得更为广阔，也让每次旅行都变得更加便捷愉快。
What is it about flying cars? Weve wanted to do this for about a hundred years.And there are historic attempts that have had some level of technical success.But we havent yet gotten to the point where on your way here this morning you see something that really,truly seamlessly integrates the twodimensional world that were comfortable in with the threedimensional sky above us—that,I dont know about you,but I really enjoy spending time in.
We looked at the historical attempts that had been out there and realized that,despite the fact that we have a lot of modern innovations to draw on today that werent available previously—we have modern composite materials,we have aircraft engines that get good fuel economy and have better powertorate ratios than have ever been available,we have glass cockpit avionics that bring the information you need to fly directly to you in the cockpit—but without fundamentally addressing the problem from a different perspective,we realized that we were going to be getting the same result that people had been getting for the last hundred years,which isnt where we want to be right now.So instead of trying to make a car that can fly,we decided to try to make a plane that could drive.
And the result is the Terrafugia Transition.Its a twoseat,singleengine airplane that works just like any other small airplane.You take off and land at a local airport.Then once youre on the ground,you fold up the wings,drive it home,park it in your garage.And it works.After two years of an innovative design and construction process,the proof of concept made its public debut in 2008.
关于飞行汽车，你了解多少？这一百多年来，我们一直想要制造它。历史上我们曾有过不少尝试，在技术上也取得了一定的进步。然而，直到现在我们仍然没有进入正题，如果我们能坐上飞行汽车，就能够感受到我们熟悉的二维世界与头顶上方的三维天空天衣无缝地融为一体——不知各位的看法如何，但我是真的喜欢花时间研究它。
我们回顾了过去已有的尝试，意识到这样一个事实：尽管今天我们有许多前所未有的现代化新生事物可以利用——我们有使用现代化复合材料制造的引擎，这种引擎与以往相比更为省油、输出功率也更大；我们有玻璃座舱电子设备，可以直接提供你所需的飞行信息，让你坐在驾驶舱里就可以掌控全局——但如果不能从不同的角度在根本上解决这个问题的话，我们会发现得到的结果与几百年来人们所得到的一模一样，而这不是我们现在想要的。因此，我们没有试图让汽车飞上天，而是决定尝试制造可以在地上行驶的飞机。
这就是特拉弗吉亚公司的陆空两用飞车Transition。这是一架两座的单引擎飞机，就像其他小型飞机一样。你可以乘着它起飞，并在目的地的机场着陆。一旦着陆后，你就可以把飞机的机翼收起，然后开着它回家，停在你的车库里。我们成功了。经过两年创新性的设计与制造过程，这一概念产品终于在2008年首次亮相了。
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