“飛行汽車”不再是遙不可及的夢

CLEARLAKE, Calif. — On a recent afternoon, an aerospace engineer working for a small Silicon Valley company called Kitty Hawk piloted a flying car above a 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(gè)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(fēng)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 would have built out of spare parts. It was an open-seated, 220-pound contraption with room for one person, powered by eight battery-powered propellers that howled as loudly as a speedboat.

基蒂霍克的飛行汽車——如果你堅(jiān)持稱之為“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(gè)有開放式座椅的新奇裝置，220磅重，可供一人乘坐，由八個(gè)以電池為動力的螺旋槳驅(qū)動，發(fā)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 automakers have 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 cities. And now, coming onto the radar screen, are flying machines that do not exactly look like your father’s Buick with wings.

正如我們經(jīng)常被告知的那樣，科技行業(yè)喜歡顛覆，最近汽車制造商成了他們的大目標(biāo)。比如說，經(jīng)過了幾年的開發(fā)，許多城市的道路上已經(jīng)可以看到使用人工智能自動駕駛的汽車?，F(xiàn)在，飛行的機(jī)器又來到雷達(dá)顯示屏上，它們并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, a Google founder — along with big aerospace firms like Airbus, the ride-hailing company Uber and even the government of Dubai — are taking on the dream of the flying car.

在谷歌創(chuàng)始人之一拉里·佩奇(Larry Page)等富有的業(yè)內(nèi)人士、空中客車公司(Airbus)等大型航空公司、叫車公司優(yōu)步(Uber)甚至是迪拜政府等各方面支持下，十幾家初創(chuàng)企業(yè)都在追求飛行汽車這個(gè)夢想。

The approaches by the different companies vary and the realization of their competing visions seems far in the future, but they have one thing in common: a belief that one day regular people should be able to fly their own vehicles around town.

不同公司采取的方法也各不相同，而且他們的各種愿景似乎要到遙遠(yuǎn)的未來才能實(shí)現(xiàn)，但是他們有一個(gè)共同點(diǎn)：相信總有一天，普通人應(yīng)該可以開著車，在城里四處飛翔。

There are challenges, no doubt, with both the technology and government regulations. Perhaps the biggest hurdle will be convincing the public that the whole idea isn’t crazy.

毫無疑問，他們在技術(shù)和政府法規(guī)方面都面臨挑戰(zhàn)。也許最大的障礙是說服公眾，整個(gè)想法并不瘋狂。

“I love the idea of being able to go out into my backyard and hop into my flying car,” said Brad Templeton, 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(jìn)后院，跳進(jìn)自己的飛行汽車——我喜歡這個(gè)想法，”硅谷企業(yè)家布拉德·鄧普頓(Brad Templeton)曾擔(dān)任谷歌自動駕駛項(xiàng)目的顧問，他說。“但是想到鄰居有這么一輛車我會不爽。”

Kitty Hawk, the company backed by Mr. Page, is trying to be one of the first out of the gate and plans 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為先行者，計(jì)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 founding director of Google’s X lab.

這家公司引起了人們的高度關(guān)注，既是因?yàn)榕迤妫彩且驗(yàn)樗氖紫瘓?zhí)行官塞巴斯蒂安·特龍(Sebastian Thrun)是谷歌X實(shí)驗(yàn)室創(chuàng)始負(fù)責(zé)人，他是一位很有影響力的技術(shù)專家，也是自動駕駛汽車領(lǐng)域的先驅(qū)。

In 2013, Zee Aero, a Kitty Hawk division, became the object of Silicon Valley rumors when reports of a small air taxilike vehicle first surfaced.

2013年，關(guān)于小型空中出租車式交通工具的報(bào)道開始出現(xiàn)，基蒂霍克的分公司Zee Aero也成為硅谷傳言的話題。

Mr. Page declined a request for an interview but said in a statement: “We’ve all had dreams of flying effortlessly. I’m excited that one day very soon I’ll be able to climb onto my Kitty Hawk Flyer for a quick and easy personal flight.”

佩奇拒絕了采訪請求，并在一份聲明中說：“我們都有毫不費(fèi)力地在空中飛行的夢想。不久后的一天，我就能夠登上自己的基蒂霍克飛行器(Kitty Hawk Flyer)，輕松快速地進(jìn)行個(gè)人飛行，這令我興奮不已。”

During his recent test flight, Cameron Robertson, the aerospace engineer, used two joysticklike controls to swing the vehicle back and forth above Clear Lake, sliding on the air as a Formula One car might shimmy through a racecourse. The flight, just 15 feet above the water, circled over the lake about 20 or 30 yards from shore, and after about five minutes Mr. Robertson steered back to a floating landing pad at the end of a dock.

最近一次試飛時(shí)，航空工程師卡梅隆·羅伯遜(Cameron Robertson)使用兩個(gè)游戲操縱桿般的控制器，駕駛著飛行器在克利爾湖上空來回?fù)u擺，在空中滑翔而過，就像一級方程式賽車優(yōu)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，大約五分鐘后，羅伯遜掉頭轉(zhuǎn)向一座碼頭末端的浮動著陸墊。

The Kitty Hawk Flyer is one of several prototypes the start-up, based in Mountain View, Calif., is designing. The company hopes to create an audience of enthusiasts and hobbyists, who later this year will be able to pay $100 to sign up for a $2,000 discount on the retail price of a Flyer to “gain exclusive access to Kitty Hawk experiences and demonstrations where a select few will get the chance to ride the Flyer.”

這家初創(chuàng)公司位于加利福尼亞州山景城，基蒂霍克飛行器是公司正在設(shè)計(jì)的幾個(gè)原型機(jī)之一。該公司希望打造一個(gè)由狂熱愛好者和業(yè)余愛好者組成的受眾群，這些人在今年晚些時(shí)候可以支付100美元注冊，今后購買基蒂霍克飛行器時(shí)可獲得2000美元的折扣，并“獲得獨(dú)家基蒂霍克體驗(yàn)和演示，被選中的少數(shù)人將有機(jī)會駕駛飛行器。”

It is an unusual offer, since the company has not yet set a price for the vehicle, and Mr. Thrun’s and Mr. Page’s involvement can be taken as evidence that the company is aiming far beyond hobbyists. Still, Kitty Hawk is clearly targeting a new kind of transportation — air flight that can be performed safely by most people and hopefully with government approval.

這個(gè)條件很不尋常，因?yàn)楣具€沒有為飛行器設(shè)定價(jià)格，而特龍和佩奇的參與可以證明公司的目標(biāo)遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超出業(yè)余愛好者的范疇。畢竟，基蒂霍克的目標(biāo)顯然是開發(fā)一種新型交通工具，實(shí)現(xiàn)可由大多數(shù)人安全操作的空中飛行，并且希望得到政府的批準(zhǔn)。

“We hope that this is more of an exciting concept than what most people have had in their minds about flying cars,” Mr. Robertson said. “This is not yet that product in terms of what we will 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(shù)人頭腦中想象的那種會飛的汽車，”羅伯遜說。“關(guān)于這種產(chǎn)品，我們還不能說太多，也不能說它可以用來做什么，但我認(rèn)為它表明了未來的愿景。”

Kitty Hawk could face stiff competition, not just from about a half dozen start-ups, but from the giant Airbus, headquartered in Blagnac, France. The aerospace firm has announced two different vertical takeoff and landing, or VTOL, concepts and is reported to be planning an initial 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(chuàng)公司，還有總部位于法國布拉尼亞克的巨頭空中客車公司。這家航空公司已經(jīng)宣布了兩種不同的垂直起降(簡稱VTOL)概念飛行器，據(jù)報(bào)道，公司有計(jì)劃在年底之前進(jìn)行初次試飛。

At the Geneva International Motor Show last month, Airbus proposed an autonomous vehicle named Pop.Up that would operate on both the ground and in the air. And this year, the government of Dubai, in partnership with a Chinese firm, EHang, said it planned to begin operating 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(gè)月的日內(nèi)瓦國際汽車展上，空中客車公司帶來了一款名為“Pop.Up”的自動車，可以在地面和空中運(yùn)作。今年，迪拜政府與中國公司億航(EHang)合作，表示計(jì)劃在今年7月開始運(yùn)營飛行的自動駕駛出租車。此外，優(yōu)步預(yù)計(jì)于周二在達(dá)拉斯的一個(gè)會議上詳細(xì)闡明該公司的“城市便捷空中出行的未來愿景”。

There is no shortage of skeptics happy to point out the roadblocks for these vehicles. There is already significant resistance to the idea of unmanned drones flying over urban areas, and flying cars could face substantial opposition, even if they can be quieted to automotive noise levels.

有不少懷疑者樂于指出這種交通工具的障礙。在城區(qū)上空飛行的無人機(jī)已經(jīng)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 need a whole new air traffic control system.

這種個(gè)人空中載具在美國要想成為現(xiàn)實(shí)，國家需要建立一個(gè)全新的空中交通管制系統(tǒng)。

Two years ago, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration began development of an air traffic control system meant for managing all sorts of flying vehicles, including drones. One NASA 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(fā)一個(gè)用于管理各種飛行器的空中交通管制系統(tǒng)，包括無人機(jī)。NASA的一名開發(fā)人員稱它是為“滿是無人機(jī)的天空”設(shè)計(jì)的系統(tǒng)。研究人員希望能在2019年開始進(jìn)行測試。

Batteries are also an issue. While electric propeller-driven motors seem promising, today’s battery technology cannot support flights of a reasonable distance, say a 30- or 50-mile commute.

電池也是一個(gè)問題。雖然電動螺旋槳驅(qū)動的發(fā)動機(jī)似乎很有前途，但當(dāng)前的電池技術(shù)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 our cellphones on airplanes today because of fears about battery fires,” said Missy Cummings, the director of the Humans and Autonomy Laboratory at Duke University, who is researching personal air transport for NASA.

“這怎么能行得通呢?我不想當(dāng)掃興的黛比·唐納(Debbie Downer)，但是因?yàn)楹ε码姵刂穑覀兩踔敛荒馨咽謾C(jī)帶上飛機(jī)，”杜克大學(xué)(Duke University)人類與自動化實(shí)驗(yàn)室(Humans and Autonomy Laboratory)的主任米茜·卡明斯(Missy Cummings)說。她正在為NASA進(jìn)行個(gè)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’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

麻省理工學(xué)院(Massachusetts Institute of Technology)計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)與人工智能實(shí)驗(yàn)室(Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory)的機(jī)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?？俊?/p>

“Silicon Valley is full of very smart people, but they don’t always get the laws of physics,” he said. “Gravity is a formidable adversary.”

“硅谷充滿了非常聰明的人，但他們并不總是理解物理規(guī)律，”他說，“地心引力是一個(gè)強(qiáng)大的對手。”