33.无需执照(2047)

Passage Thirty-Three

No licence necessary

无需执照

【1】Electrically powered vertical-take-off-and-landing (eVTOL) aircraft—flying cars, to the layman—are an idea whose time has not quite yet come, but is fast approaching(nearing). Many firms are jostling with each other, offering designs that range from scaled-up multirotor drones, via things which resemble rigid(hard) spiders’ webs, to fixed-wing/helicopter hybrids.

电动垂直起降(eVTOL)飞行器俗称飞行汽车，这个概念虽尚不成熟，但飞行汽车的时代的确在快步朝我们走来。许多公司正争相推出各种设计，从类似刚性蜘蛛网材料构造的放大版多旋翼无人机，到固定翼/直升机混合动力飞行器。

【2】None of these, however, will be Jetson-like family saloons with dad (or even mum) at the controls. Those flying them will require a pilot’s licence. Most will probably be used initially(originally) as sky-going taxis.

但是，这些飞行器都不像《杰森一家》动画片里的家庭款飞车那样，可以由父亲（甚至母亲）直接控制。这些飞行器的驾驶员将需要获得飞行员执照。在初期阶段，大多数可能会被用作天空中的出租车。

【3】One company has, by contrast, stuck to its guns and carried through its original project to create something which people can purchase(buy) and pilot themselves. Helix is a single-seat vehicle, so “flying motorbike” might be a more accurate(exact) appellation(title).

相比之下，有一家公司坚持初心，落实了它最初的项目，造出的飞行汽车可以供人们购买并自行驾驶。Helix是一款单座交通工具，称之为“飞行摩托车”或许更为准确。

【4】It has, however, been carefully crafted by its maker, Pivotal, based in Silicon Valley, to be within America’s rules for microlight aircraft. That means anyone, pilot’s licence or not, can fly it over non-built-up areas. As a result, from next year those with $190,000 stuffed down the back of the sofa will be able to order one for personal use—though they will not be able to take delivery until June.

然而，这款飞行摩托车由硅谷的制造商Pivotal公司精心设计，以符合美国对超轻型飞行器的规定。这就意味着，不论有没有飞行员执照，所有人都可以在非建设区驾驶飞行。因此，从明年起，那些钱多到能在沙发后背塞19万美金的富人就可以订购一款供个人使用的Helix了。不过，交付日期倒要等到六月。

【5】It has been a hairy ride. Pivotal, known as Opener until October 5th, the day Helix was announced, was founded by Marcus Leng, a Canadian. Mr Leng is a mechanical engineer. In 2011, having built up and sold a manufacturing company, he found himself at a loose end.

这一路走来可谓一波三折。在10月5号Helix正式发布之前，Pivotal还叫Opener，由加拿大人马库斯·冷创立。马库斯·冷是一位机械工程师。2011年，他创立而后出售了一家制造公司，最后发现自己闲来无事可做。

【6】He had, he says, always been interested in flight, and some back-of-the-envelope calculations(counts) he made suggested that electric lift-off of a human-carrying craft, using motors powered by the lithium-ion batteries that were then becoming fashionable(popular), ought to work.

他说自己此前一直对飞行非常感兴趣，曾进行的粗略计算也表明，使用现在流行的锂离子电池来驱动载人飞行器应该可以实现电动垂直起飞。

【7】He thus built a prototype and flew it in the garden of his house in Warkworth, Ontario. He called it BlackFly. It was (and still is, for it is preserved(kept) in the company’s museum) almost literally a thing of sealing-wax and string.

为此，他制造了一架原型机，并在位于安大略省瓦克沃斯的自家花园里试飞。他称这架原型机为黑蝇。这架机器当时几乎就是用蜜蜡和绳子造成的（现在依旧是这样，因为还在公司博物馆里保存着）。

【8】The airframe consisted of carbon-fibre struts held together in at least one place by a chopstick. The propellers were wooden. It rose into the air but once. That flight was, though, the first ever made by a human being in an eVTOL craft.

机身由碳纤维支柱组成，而且不只一处用筷子固定在一起。螺旋桨是木制的。这架原型机只成功升空了一次，但却创下了人类首次在电动垂直起降飞行器中飞行的历史记录。

【9】Twelve years later, after much tinkering, the firm thinks it has something marketable. On the way, besides changing its location, its name, and the name and livery of its putative product (Helix is largely(mainly) white, with a red go-faster stripe), it has also changed boss. Mr Leng handed over the reins in 2022, to Ken Karklin, who had previously worked for AeroVironment, a maker of military drones.

十二年后，经过多次改进，该公司认为做出的产品可以商业化了。在这一过程中，除了公司地点、公司姓名及其产品的名称和涂装（Helix机身以白色为主，带有红色的加速条纹）变动了之外，老板也换了。2022年，马库斯·冷将公司交给了肯·卡克林，后者曾在军用无人机制造商AeroVironment工作过。

【10】The rebaptised aircraft has, nevertheless, changed little in its fundamentals over the years. The struts which held the original together have been replaced by a monocoque body. The chopstick is gone. But it still sports two pairs of wings, one fore and one aft, and eight propellers (two on each wing), meaning it vaguely resembles a squashed “H” when seen in the sky from below. And there is no undercarriage. Instead, its belly is curved in a way reminiscent of a humpback whale’s, so it rocks to stability after landing.

尽管如此，这些年以来，经过改造的飞机在基础原理方面没什么改变。曾经支撑原飞机的支柱已经替换为整体式机身。之前的筷子也没了。但它仍然有两对机翼（前后各一对）和八个螺旋桨（每个机翼上两个）。从下往上看，飞在天上的飞机隐约像是一个被压扁的“H”。这架飞机也没有起落架，而是腹部带有弧度，让人联想到座头鲸的腹部，因此可以在降落后摆动以保持稳定。

【11】Pilot’s licence or not, buyers will still need to undertake(accept) at least some training to fly a Helix. Pivotal insists on this—not least because it worries that an early accident would be catastrophic for sales. For the same reason, the craft’s software will stop the pilot doing anything that does not fit inside its aerodynamic-safety envelope.

虽然有没有飞行员执照都行，但购买者仍至少需要接受一些培训才能驾驶Helix。Pivotal 公司坚持这样做，主要是因为担心早期就发生事故会给销量造成灾难性冲击。同样的，飞行器内部的软件将阻止飞行员执行任何不符合其空气动力学安全范围的操作。

【12】And if, despite this, something does go wrong, it is fitted(equipped) with a parachute. Pull the appropriate(relevant) knob hard and an explosive charge will blast this clear of the fuselage, allowing its canopy to open and carry the aircraft to terra firma.

但尽管如此，如果真的出了什么问题，飞行器还配备了降落伞。用力拉动相应的把手，一股爆破冲力就会将降落伞抛出机身，使其舱盖打开，将飞机安全降落到陆地上。

【13】The Helix’s top speed is a respectable 100kph, but its range is only 30km. And refuelling it is a bit of a pain. Filling up from the mains takes 4½ hours, though a special high-power system similar to those employed for electric cars can bring that down to 75 minutes. Not yet quite the Jetsons, then. But a possible step on—or perhaps above—the road.

Helix的最高时速可以达到100千米，令人叹为观止，但续航里程只有30千米。而且给Helix补充电能也是一个痛点。从电网里充满电需要四个半小时，不过使用类似电动汽车充电的高功率系统可以将充电时间缩短至75分钟。虽然这还是比不上《杰森一家》里的飞行汽车，但这很可能是前进的一步，或者说“上升”更为合适。