(本文选自《经济学人》20210403期)
背景介绍：
飞行汽车一直是仅存于科幻小说和科幻电影的一种充满未来科技感的事物。早在20世纪40年代，当汽车、航空技术有了相当大的发展之后，福特汽车的创办人亨利·福特大胆地发出“飞行汽车迟早会出现”的科学预言。那么，随着越来越多的资本涌入了飞行汽车行业，我们离“打个飞的"的梦想究竟还有多远？
Fasten your seat belts
系好安全带
Flying taxis are about to take off at last
飞的终于要起飞了
The history of the flying car is almost as old as that of powered flight itself. It started with the Curtiss Autoplane of 1917, an awkward-looking contraption with detachable wings. It never left the ground. Later machines made it into the skies but failed to take off commercially.
飞行汽车的历史几乎和动力飞行技术本身一样久远。这还要从1917年的柯蒂斯飞行汽车说起，它虽然外观笨拙，但设计精巧，带有可拆卸机翼。柯蒂斯飞行飞机从未飞离地面，而后来的飞行汽车飞上了天空，但尚未实现商业化。
Money is now pouring into flying taxis. On March 30th Lilium, a German company that develops them, announced a reverse merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that values it at $3.3bn—a sign that investors think the business will fly.
如今，大量资本正在涌入飞的行业。3月30日，致力于研发飞行汽车的德国公司 Lilium 宣布通过特殊目的收购公司（SPAC）借壳上市，其估值已达33亿美元——这表明投资者相信飞的行业将会日渐兴盛。
Thanks to better batteries and lightweight materials the vehicles, some of them ten years in the making, are ready to carry passengers. Up to 300 firms are working on short-range battery-powered craft that take off and land vertically, estimates Natasha Santha of LEK, a consultancy.
得益于更好的电池和更轻的材料，这些飞行汽车（其中一些研发时间甚至达10年之久）已经做好了搭载乘客的准备。据咨询公司LEK的娜塔莎·桑塔估计，目前有超过300家公司正在研发可垂直起降的短程电池动力飞行器。
Carmakers, aerospace firms, tech companies and others are ploughing money into the field. Morgan Stanley, an investment bank, reckons the market for aerial hops could be worth $674bn by 2040. Regulators are offering a glide path to certification.
汽车制造商、航空航天公司、科技公司以及其他各类公司都在向该行业投入资金。投资银行摩根士丹利估计，到2040年，飞的的市场价值或达6740亿美元。监管机构正在设计一套行业认证方案。
America’s Federal Aviation Administration is engaged in the process with around 30 firms, Ms Santha says. Others besides Lilium are heading for the stockmarket, after mergers with SPACs. One of them, Joby Aviation, has been valued at nearly $7bn. Another, Archer, is worth almost $4bn.
桑塔称，美国联邦航空管理局将与大约30家公司一同参与了这一过程。除 Lilium 外，其他一些公司也在通过特殊目的收购公司借壳上市，从而进军股市。其中之一的乔比航空市值已达近70亿美元。另一家名为阿切尔的公司估值已达近40亿美元。
Midway between a cab and a helicopter, flying taxis have distinct advantages over both. Quiet electric motors allow them to operate frequent services. They require only a patch of concrete to land, unlike noisy choppers, which face severe operating restrictions in most cities. They can fly four or five times faster than a cab can drive and do not get stuck intraffic. Prices can be kept low by ride-sharing.
飞的介于出租车和直升机之间，但相比两者都具有显著优势。安静的电动机使飞的能够频繁地运行。它们只需要一小块平地就能降落，而噪音巨大的直升机在大多数城市都面临着严格的操作限制。飞的的速度是出租车的四倍至五倍，并且不用担心堵车的问题。人们可以通过拼机的方式来降低价格。
Joby, based in California, says its five-seater machine will enter commercial service in 2024. The firm calculates the initial cost of around $4 per person per mile may soon fall by 25%.
总部位于加州的乔比公司称，他们公司研发的五座飞的将于2024年投入商业服务。该公司估计，最初每人每英里4美元左右的成本或将很快下降25%。
A trip from Manhattan to JFK airport would then cost $30-40 per passenger. It counts Toyota, a Japanese car giant, among its backers and in December it acquired the flying-car business of Uber, a ride-hailing titan.
乘坐飞的从曼哈顿到肯尼迪机场，每位乘客只需花费30-40美元。作为该公司投资者之一的日本汽车巨头丰田于去年12月收购了网约车巨头优步的飞行汽车业务。
As it announced its listing via a SPAC in February, Archer unveiled a $1bn deal to supply United Airlines and a partner airline with 200 five-seater craft. It promises flying-taxi networks in Los Angeles and Miami by 2024.
在今年2月宣布通过特殊目的收购公司上市时，阿切尔公司披露了一项向美国联合航空公司及一家合作伙伴航空公司提供200架五座飞机的价值10亿美元的交易。阿切尔公司承诺，到2024年，将在洛杉矶和迈阿密建立一个飞的网络。
Some companies are even closer to lift-off. One, eHang, is close to certification in China, its home market. In Europe Volocopter, a German firm backed by two car companies, Daimler and Geely, as well as Intel, a chipmaker, and DB Schenker, a logistics giant, hopes to be allowed to fly in 2023.
一些公司甚至非常接近成功了。其中之一便是亿航，该公司在其本土市场中国几乎快要得到认证了。在欧洲，由戴姆勒和吉利两家汽车公司以及芯片制造商英特尔和物流巨头德铁信可支持的德国公司 Volocopter 希望能在2023年获准飞行。
It plans to start service soon afterwards. Other startups such as Vertical Aerospace, a British company, as well as familiar names in carmaking (Hyundai of South Korea) and planemaking (Airbus in Europe) are not far behind.
该公司计划不久后开始提供服务。其他一些初创公司也紧随其后，例如英国的 Vertical Aerospace 公司以及一些知名的汽车制造商（韩国的现代公司）和飞机制造商(欧洲的空客公司)。
The real revolution will come when full autonomy takes out the cost of a pilot. Archer hopes to run such aircraft by 2028. They face fewer obstacles in the air than earth-bound cars do on the road; airliners mostly fly on autopilot as it is. Still, as one industry insider puts it, it is probably best to accustom passengers and regulators to airborne taxis before ejecting the driver.
随着完全自动驾驶省去了飞行员的成本时，真正的变革将会到来。阿切尔公司希望在2028年之前能将此类飞机投入使用。相比地上行驶的汽车，飞的在空中遇到的障碍物要少一些；如今的飞机大都是自动驾驶的。不过，正如一位业内人士所言，在将司机赶下车之前，最好让乘客和监管者习惯于乘坐飞的。
(红色标注词为重难点词汇)
重难点词汇：
contraption [kənˈtræpʃn] n. 奇妙的装置；精巧的设计
detachable [dɪˈtætʃəbl] adj. 可拆卸的；可分开的
get stuck in陷入了…；加紧进行
obstacle [ˈɑːbstəkl] n. 干扰；障碍物
来源：每日双语经济学人
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