考研英语外刊《经济学人》泛读：无人驾驶飞机-【经济学人

1、【经济学人】无人驾驶飞机 呼叫这里是你的地面飞行员science and technology科学技术pilotless aircraft无人驾驶飞机this is your ground pilot speaking呼叫，这里是你的地面飞行员autonomous civil aircraft could be flying before cars go driverless民用飞机会先于汽车实现无人驾驶wtthtn the next few weeks a twin-engined jetstream wil1 take off from warton aerodrome in lancas

2、hire, england, and head north towards scotland在接下來的儿周里，一架双引擎e机喷流将会从英格兰兰开夏郡的沃顿机场起向北e往苏格兰。like any other fl ight, the smal 1 commuter airl iner wi 11 respond to instructions from air-traffic controllers, navigate a path and take care to avoid other aircraft与其他班机一样，这架小型通勤客机将会根据空中交通管制员的指示，沿看-条航路e行，注懑避开其

3、他 飞机。but the pilot flying the aircraft will not be in the cockpit: he wi 11 have his feet firmly on the ground in a control room back at warton.但是驾驶这架e机的e行员却没在驾驶舱里：他在沃顿机场的一个控制室里驾驶若e机，双脚仍然稳稳地 踩在地面上。pi lotless aircraft are now widely used by the armed forces, but those drones fly only in restricted ai

4、rspace and confict zones无人机现在已广泛应川于军队之中，但这些无人机仅川于在禁e区及冲突地区。the jetstream mission is part of a project to develop the technologies and procedures that will al low large commercial aircraft to operate rout in ely and safely without pi lots in the same skies as manned civilian flights而喷流的任务是某个技术及程序开发项目

5、的一部分，该项目的目的在于能让大塑商用e机在没有e行员的 情况下安全的进行常规飞行，与有人驾驶的民航班机在同一片天空中飞行。fasten your seat belts系紧您的安全带to reassure those of a nervous disposition, the test flights do not carry passengers and pilots remain in the cockpit just in case things go wrong为了让那些神经质的人安心，测试的飞机不会冇乘客，驾驶舱屮仍然冇驾驶员以防万，in that way they are simi

6、lar to google s trials of driverless cars, which have drivers in side them to take over if necessary while on public roads这冇点类似于谷歌无人驾驶汽车的实验，在公路上行驶时，如冇必要，车中的驾驶员可以控制汽车。yet unmanned conunorcial aircraft arc likely to enter service before people can buy autonomous cars 但是无人驾驶的商用飞机很可能在人们可以买到无人驾驶汽车前便能投入使用

7、。moder n ai rcraft are al ready perfectly capable of automatically taki ng off, flying to a dest in at ion and landing 现代的e机已经完全仃能力进行自动起飞，自动e往目的地，自动着陆。these tests are trying to establish whether they can do those things safely without a pilot in the cockpit and at the same time comply with the rules

8、 of the air.而耍进行的测试是想确认在驾驶舱没有飞行员的情况下，e机能否在遵守飞行规则的同时，还能安全的完 成以上三件事情。progress is being made, a conference in london heard this week.笔者本周从在伦敦召开的一次会议上获悉，事情止在取得进展。it was orgtinised by the auto nomous systems tech no loy related airb orne evalucitio n and assessme nt, the group staging the british test fl

9、ights本次会议是由机载无人系统技术评审组织举办的，就是该组织在英国进行了无人机测试。this 62m programme, backed by the british government, involvcs seven european aerospace companies: 该项目获得了英国政府的支持，投资达六千两百万英镑，共冇七家欧洲的航空工业公司参与其中：aos, bae systems, cassidian, cobham, qinetiqt rolls-royce and thales机载观测系统公司，英国宇航系统公可，凯西典公司，科巴姆公司，奎奈蒂克公司，劳特莱斯公司及泰雷

10、 兹公司。it is potentially a huge new market这是一个潜在的巨大新兴市场。america" s aviation regulators have been asked by congress to integrate unmanned aircraft inlo the air-traffic control system as early as 2015美国国会已要求该国的航空协调员要在2015年将无人驾驶飞机加入空中交通管制系统。some small drones are already used in commercial applicatio

11、ns, such as aerial photography, but in most countries they arc confined to flying within sight of their ground pilot, much like radio-controlled model aircraft冇些小型无人机己经应用于航拉等商业用途，但在大多数国家，小型无人机的飞行范围被限制在其地面飞 行员的视野以内，很像无线电遥控的模型飞机。bigger aircraft would be capable of flying farther and doing a lot more t

12、hings 再大一点的无人机能够飞的更远一些，可以做更多的事情。pi lotless aircraft could carry out many jobs at a lower cost than manned aircraft and hel icopters tasks such as traffic monitoring, border patrols, police surveillancc and checking power lines 无人驾驶e机可以完成很多工作，并h比仃人驾驶的e机和直升机成木更低，比如说交通监测，边境巡逻, 警务监视及电缆检査等任务。they could a

13、lso operate in conditions that are dangerous for pilots, including monitoring forest fires or nuclear-power accidents 无人机还可以在对飞行员冇危险的环境下工作，包括监视森林火灾或核电事故。and they could fly extended missions for search and rescue, environmental monitoring or even provide temporary airborne wi-fi and mobile-phone serv

14、ices.而h无人机还可以执行更多的任务，如搜索救援，环境监测，甚至提供临时的机载无线网络和移动电话服 务。some analysts think the global civil ian market for unmanned aircraft and services could be worth more than $50 bi 11 ion by 2020.有分析师认为，到2020年，无人驾驶e机及其服务的全球民用市场的价值可超过500亿美元。whatever happens, pilots will still have a role in aviation, although no

15、t necessarily in the cockpi 匕无论发生什么，飞行员仍会在航空业占有i席z地，虽然不一定是在驾驶舱里。as far as the eye can see there will always be a pilot in comma nd of an aircraft, says lambert dopping-hepenstal, the director of astraea在可以预见的未來，飞机一吉都会由飞行员掌控，astraea的主任lambert dopping-hepenstal说，but that pilot may be on the ground and

16、 he may bo looking after more than one unmanned aircraft at the same time但飞行员或许会留在地面上，冇可能同时照看好几架无人机。commercial flights carrying freight and express parcels might one day also lose their on-board pilots运送货物和快递包裹的商用e机某天也可能会失去其随机的e行员。but would even the most penny-pinching cut-price airlir)e be able to

17、sei 1 tickets to passengers on flights that have an empty cockpit?但就算廉价航空公司再怎么粘打细算，它能把没有e行员的e机的机票卖出去吗？more realistically, those flights might have just one pilot in the future. 更现实点说，未來的商用飞机可能只冇一名飞行员。technology has already relieved the flight deck of a number of jobs 飞行班组的许多职位已经被技术取代了。many early lar

18、ge aircraft had a crew of five: two pilots, a flight engineer, a navigator and a radio opcrator许多早期的大型飞机上有五名机组成员：两名飞行员，一名飞行机师，一名领航员及一名无线电话务员。first the radio operator went, then the navigator, and by the time the jet era was wel 1 under way in the 1970s flight engineers began to disappear too.最先是无线电话

19、务员消失了，然后是领航员，等到了 20世纪70年代，进入喷气机时代后，e行机师也消 失了。next it could be the co-pilot, replaced by the autonomous flight systems now being developed 下一个消失的会是副驾驶，被现在e在开发中的自主飞行系统取代。the flight over scotiand will test how well air-traffic controllers can conununicate with the ground pilot through the aircraft在那架飞往

20、苏格兰的飞机上将会测试空屮交通管制员通过飞机与其地面飞行员通话的质量。the project is also exploring ways to make the radio and satellite links secure and reliable. 该项目还在探寻使无线电及卫星连接安全可靠的方法。but eng in eers still have to prepare for the eventual ity that the 1 ink breaks; the aircraft the n has to have eno ugh aut onomy to operate safel

21、y until comm un icati ons are restored or i t can land using its own guidance systems但是工程师仍必须为连接中断的可能性做好准备；然后飞机必须要仃足够的自主权來保证飞行安全，直至 通讯恢复正常，或者能够使用自己的导航系统着陆。unmanned aircraft will, therefore, need a sense and avoid capability.因此无人驾驶e机需耍感应并规避的能力。this can be provided by transponders that bleep the aircr

22、afts presence to other aeroplanes and air-traffic controllers界频雷达收发机便貝备这一功能，它会发出哗哗声來提示其它飞机及空中交通管制员本飞机的存在。but not all manned aircraft have such kit但并菲所冇的冇人驾驶飞机都冇该功能。some 1ight aircraft and gliders operating at low altitudes in clear weather are not required to have even radios, let alone transponders

23、 or radar一些在晴朗天气下进行低空e行的轻型e机和滑翔机共至不需要无线电，更别提界频宙达收发机或宙达了。which is why pilots keep their eyes peeled when such traffic might be about.这也是为什么在可能发生这种悄况时，e行员要时刻保持警惕。astraea' s jetstream, therefore, also uses video cameras to allow the ground pilot to look around outside the cockpit因此astraea的捷流号还使用了摄像

24、头以便使地面飞行员可以杳看驾驶舱外的情况。image-recognition software can warn of other aircraft影像识别软件可以在出现其它飞机时发出警告，this is being tested against different backgrounds, such as a cluttered landscape or a hazy sky.目前正在不同的环境下对该功能进行测试，如地形复杂或天空雾蒙蒙的环境。tn other trials, different aircraft are being flown in the vicinity of the

25、jetstream, and some of them will be flown deliberately towards it on a potential col 1isi on course, to see if these intruding aircraft can be recognised by the automated systems and the appropriate avoiding action taken.在其它的试验中，不同的飞机飞至捷流附近，其中几架故意以可能与z相撞的航线飞向捷流，以测试自动 系统能否识別这些入侵的飞机并采取适当的规避措诞。these fl

26、ights arc taking place in an area cleared of other aircraft over the irish sea 以上飞行测试是在爱尔兰海上空一片没仃其它飞机经过的空域进行的。the results to date suggest you can do sense-and-avoid as wel 1 as a human, says mr dopp i n g-llepenstal 迄今为止的测试结果表明系统的感应并规避的能力能做到和人一样，dopping-hcpcnsta说。a pilotless plane must also be able

27、to act autonomously in an emergency. 在发生紧急状况时，无人机必须能够自行采取行动。in the event of an engine failure, for instance, it could use its navigational map to locate a suitable area to put down比如，如果一台引擎发生故障，无人机需要使用其航行图來找到介适地点降落。but what if this was an open field that happened to be in use for, say, a fair?但如果其选择

28、的空地恰好被占用了，比如说成了集市，怎么办？a forward-looking video camera might show a ground pilot that此时前视摄像头会将此影像传给地面飞行员。but if communications were lost the aircraft would rely on image-recognition software and an infra-red ccimera to detect the heat given off by people end machines and so decide to try to land elsew

29、here但如果通讯屮断，飞机将依靠影像识别软件及红外摄像头來感知人或机器发出的热島 以此來决定去其它地点降落。the astraea researchers are carrying out a lot of their work using flight simulators and ai r-traffic-control dataastraea的研究人员的许多工作都是通过飞行模拟装置及空中交通管制数据來完成的。but eventually they will still heive to prove that their systems can work in the real world even during emergency iandings但最终他们还是要证明他们的系统要能应用在现实的世界里，其至在紧急迫降时也能使用。in order to satisfy risk-averse avialion r