2017考研英语阅读精选：飞行汽车明年上市

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　　Flying car companies aim for takeoff in 2017

　　告别堵车：飞行汽车明年上市

　　Finally, the long-awaited flying car is almost here.

　　终于，人们期待已久的飞行汽车就要面世了。

　　AeroMobil, a Slovakian company, plans to start selling its creation, the AeroMobil 3.0, in 2017.

　　斯洛伐克公司“AeroMobil”计划在2017年开售创意新品AeroMobil 3.0。

　　The company claims on its site that the vehicle "transforms in seconds from an automobile to an airplane" by using "existing infrastructure created for automobiles and planes."

　　AeroMobil在官网上发文称，这款飞行汽车“能利用现有的汽车和飞机基础配置”，“在几秒内从汽车变成飞机”。

　　The vehicle is gas-powered and has wings that fold, which allows it to be parked like a car, though it is nearly 20 feet long.

　　AeroMobil 3.0是汽油动力车，两翼可折叠，折起后可以像正常车辆一样停靠，不过，该车车身长近20英尺(约6米)。

　　The company’s web site features a video where the AeroMobil 3.0 drives out of a hangar and goes down a highway, sharing the road with regular cars until it arrives at an airstrip. The car then unfolds its wings and takes off from a stretch of grass, rather than a paved tarmac, and flies through the air like any other small airplane.

　　AeroMobi在官网公布了介绍视频。视频中，AeroMobil 3.0从飞机库中驶向高速路，和普通汽车一起行驶。进入飞机跑道后，它张开双翼，没有从平坦的柏油路面起飞，而是在草场上升空，像其他任何小型飞机一样在空中翱翔。

　　AeroMobil spokesman Stefan Vadocz said his company hasn’t nailed down an exact price because it’s not ready yet.

　　AeroMobil的发言人史蒂芬.瓦多茨表示，公司目前还未对此款飞行汽车进行具体定价，因为产品尚未完全成型。

　　"The prototype is a work in progress," he said in an email. But he said to expect the price to be several hundreds of thousands of euros, somewhere in between a sports car and a light sports aircraft.

　　他在邮件中写道：“原型机仍在制造中。”价格预计会在数十万欧元，介于跑车和轻型运动类飞机之间。

　　The vehicle seats two people -- the pilot and a passenger - and its single propeller is located to the rear of the plane.

　　AeroMobil 3.0可容纳两人：一名驾驶员和一名乘客。其单螺旋桨位于飞机尾部。

　　The company said the car’s top speed on the road is at least 99 mph and while flying is at least 124 mph. It can fly for 435 miles before running out of gas.

　　AeroMobil公司说，AeroMobil 3.0飞行汽车在地面的最高时速至少99英里(约159千米)，空中的最高时速至少达124英里(约199千米)。一满箱油可以支持435英里(约700千米)的飞行。

　　It has a steel framework and carbon coating and is powered by a Rotax 912, a four-cylinder aircraft engine from BRP of Austria.

　　这款车内部有钢架结构，外部是碳涂层，奥地利BRP公司制造的四缸“Rotax 912”航空引擎为其提供动力。

　　Flying cars aren’t exactly new. The concept has been around since long before "The Jetsons" popularized the idea in the 1960s. It’s been a regular topic in Popular Science ever since World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker wrote about it in 1924.

　　飞行汽车这个概念并不新鲜。虽然这个概念随着动画片《杰森一家》的播出流行于上世纪60年代，但其实在那之前，它已经存在很久了。1924年，第一次世界大战的王牌飞行员艾迪·里肯巴克写下了这个构想，之后，飞行汽车的概念就时常成为《大众科学》杂志上的话题。

　　But getting a practical, reliable flying car off the ground has been a serious challenge.

　　不过，想要造出实用又安全的飞行汽车一直是个严峻的挑战。

　　Glenn Curtiss, a rival of the Wright Brothers, discovered this in 1918 when he developed the Curtiss Autoplane. It turned out to be more of a hopper than a flyer, so it failed to take off with the public.

　　格伦.柯蒂斯是莱特兄弟的竞争对手。1918年，他在研制柯蒂斯自动控制飞机时就发现了设计飞行汽车的困难之处。最终造出来的与其说是会“飞”的汽车，倒不如说是能“跳”的汽车，所以未能成功面世。

　　The AeroMobil 3.0 has at least one competitor, the Terrafugia Transition, which also runs on gas and has folding wings. Terrafugia has said in the past that it plans to release the Transition into the market this year.

　　AeroMobil 3.0已经至少有一个竞争对手了——同样为汽油动力、拥有折叠机翼的“特拉弗吉亚变形者”。美国特拉弗吉亚公司曾表示将于今年开始销售这款飞车。

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