波音研发超音速客机：2小时从纽约飞到伦敦不是梦

　　Earlier this year, a Norwegian Air flight said one of its crews set a record time for the fastest transatlantic flight by a subsonic passenger aircraft.

　　今年早些时候，一架挪威航空公司的飞机说，其一名机组人员创造了次音速客机飞越大西洋的最快记录。

　　The time: 5 hours and 13 minutes, besting the previous record, which was three minutes longer.

　　它用时5小时13分钟，比此前的记录快了3分钟。

　　Not bad, but imagine boarding a plane in New York and arriving in London two hours later, about 1.5 hours faster than the time it took the legendary Concorde to complete the same journey on average.

　　这很不错吧，但想象一下，在纽约上飞机，两小时后抵达伦敦，比传奇的协和飞机完成同样旅程的平均用时快了1.5个小时。

　　This week, Boeing said it hopes to develop a passenger-carrying hypersonic airliner that would do exactly that, reaching speeds of Mach 5 — about 3,800 mph, or roughly five times the speed of sound.

　　本周，波音公司透露，它计划研发一种超音速客机，完成2小时从纽约到伦敦的飞行，它的速度能达到5马赫——大约3800英里每小时或者说约是音速的5倍。

　　Though still a preliminary design and without a name, Boeing said the aircraft could have military or civilian applications but won’t be in the sky for another 20 to 30 years. The company unveiled renderings of the proposed craft Tuesday at the annual American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics conference in Atlanta.

　　波音公司表示，虽然这款飞机仍是初步设计，尚无名字，可用于军事或民用，但在未来20到30年内不会出现。周二，该公司在亚特兰大举行的美国航空航天研究所年会上公布了这架计划中的飞机的效果图。

　　“We’re excited about the potential to connect the world faster than ever before,” said Naveed Hussain, Boeing’s vice president of aeromechanics. “Although technology and regulatory challenges are ahead, Boeing has been studying hypersonics for over six decades, which makes us the right company to bring this technology to market when the world is ready.”

　　波音公司航空力学副总裁韦德.侯赛因说：“我们很高兴看到这种以空前的速度连接世界的可能性。尽管未来还有技术和监管方面的挑战，不过波音公司已经研究超音速60余年，当全世界准备好时，我们将是那个能让这项技术进入市场的公司。”

　　Outside of the Concorde’s run between 1976 and 2003, supersonic travel has remained a largely elusive dream for commercial aviation, according to NBC News.

　　据NBC报道，事实上，在1976年到2003年间，除了协和式飞机(一种中程超音速客机)在运行外，超音速旅行仍然是商业航空中一个在很大程度上难以实现的梦想。

　　If achieved — and if enough people are willing to pay for the pricey tickets — the rapid speeds could revolutionize world travel, experts say.

　　专家表示，如果能够实现——且有足够多的人愿意为昂贵的机票买单——那么高速度将会给世界旅行带来革命性的变化。

　　“It’s been a dream for a while now,” Stuart Craig, an assistant professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the University of Arizona, told NBC. “We’ve been striving for this hypersonic technology for the better part of half a century, but in recent years, advances in computational technology and materials technology have made it much more in grasp.”

　　亚利桑那大学航空与机械工程助理教授斯图尔特.克雷格在接受NBC采访时说：“在半个世纪里，我们一直在为更好地研发超音速技术而奋斗。近年来，得益于计算机技术和材料技术的发展，我们更好地掌握了这项技术。”

　　Supersonic air travel was a reality until 2003, when Concordes flying for British Airways and Air France were grounded, according to the BBC.

　　英国航空公司和法国航空公司使用的中程超音速客机即协和式飞机在2003年停止运行，据BBC报道。

　　British Airways said the plane was retired because of “commercial reasons, with passenger revenue falling steadily against a backdrop of rising maintenance costs for the aircraft,” the BBC reported.

　　据BBC报道，英国航空公司表示，这架飞机退役的原因是“商业原因：客运收入持续下降，而飞机维护成本上升。”

　　Seven years earlier, a Concorde made the trip between New York and London in two hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds, setting a record that remains, according to Reuters’ news archives.

　　根据路透社的消息，7年前，协和式飞机曾以2小时52分59秒的速度完成纽约和伦敦之间的旅程，创下纪录并保持至今。