经济学人下载:太阳能飞机 莱特附体?

Science and technology
科学技术

Solar-powered aircraft
太阳能飞机

The Wright stuff?
莱特附体？

An enthusiastic inventor hopes to sell sun-powered planes
一位希望出售太阳能飞机的痴狂发明家

THERE is something of the 19th century about Eric Raymond.
埃里克雷蒙和19世纪的人有点像。

Devoted to making commercial solar-powered aircraft, he would have thrived in the Victorian heyday of the private inventor.
这位致力于研发商用太阳能飞机的发明家如果身在维多利亚私人发明家辈出的年代会很有一番成就的。

Most fell by the wayside; their ideas outran their ability or their money.
当时很多发明者都半途而废；他们的想法不是超出了其能力就是缺乏资金来达成。

But the names of the successes—Morse, Dunlop, Bell, Diesel and even, to stretch the era into the early 20th century, the brothers Wright—have lived on.
但是像莫斯，邓禄普，贝尔，迪赛甚至是20世纪的莱特兄弟这些成功者的名字却为后人所铭记。

Whether Mr Raymond will join their ranks remains to be seen.
雷蒙先生是否会身在名利还不得而知。

His latest effort, known as Sunseeker Duo, was taken out of its shed in June.
其最近的成果称作追日者二人组号，于6月成形。

It has yet to fly.
但还没有进行过飞行。

He has high hopes, however, that his solar plane soon will take to the air.
这架太阳能飞机很快就能腾空而起，对此他抱有很高的期望。

Like its predecessor prototypes, Sunseeker I and Sunseeker II, Sunseeker Duo looks like what it is: a glider with a propeller and lots of solar cells to generate electricity on the upper surface of its wings.
和其前辈雏形机追日者一号和追日者二号一样，追日者二人组号的外形就是一架配备了推进器以及机翼面上装有大量太阳能发电电池的滑翔机。

The most obvious difference from the previous efforts are two seats in the cockpit.
与之前的作品相比，其最明显的差异在于驾驶舱内的双人座椅。

That should make it easier to sell if Mr Raymond is ever able to go into full-scale production.
如果雷蒙先生能够进行全面投产的话，这一点可以促进销售。

There are lots of other differences, as well, though—ones that Mr Raymond hopes will bring the day of production closer.
其他差异也很多---雷蒙先生希望这些变化能够使投产之日早日到来。

The Duo has a wingspan of 23 metres and a planned weight, when the main gear and any other missing equipment is on board, of 470kg.
二人组号翼展为23米，算上主传动装置和其他未安装的设备，计划重量为470公斤。

A 20kW electric motor will drive the propeller, but all of those watts will be needed only during take off and climbing.
推进器由一个20千瓦的电动马达驱动，但是这些动力只在起飞和爬升时才用上。

In level flight, at an altitude of 6,000 metres, the 5kW provided by the solar panels will be enough both to drive the propeller and to recharge the batteries.
在海拔6000米的高度进行水平飞行时，太阳能电板只需提供5千瓦的动力便足够驱动推进器以及给电池充电。

One big difference between the Duo and its predecessors is that those batteries are lithium-polymer cells sitting in the wings, near the plane's centre of gravity, and not nickel-cadmium ones scattered artfully around the airframe. Lithium-polymer cells are lighter.
二人组号与其前辈的一个很大的区别是位于机翼上靠近飞机重力中心位置的锂聚合物电池，而不是巧妙地散布在机身周围的镍镉电池。锂聚合物电池重量更轻。

The system will also run at a higher voltage—300V, up from 200V in Sunseeker II—in order to reduce transmission losses along the six metres of cables that carry power to the motor at the back, just above the rudder.
二人组号的系统供电电压也有提升，从追日者二号的200伏提升为300伏，以减少6米长的输电线向位于后方方向陀上方的马达供电时的的传输损耗。

The Sunseeker project is still in many ways a sealing-wax-and-string operation.
在很多方面，追日者项目仍采取合作互助的模式。

The lithium-polymer batteries, for example, were donated by Tian Yu, a Chinese businessman with whom Mr Raymond is collaborating on a non-solar electric plane.
例如，所用的锂聚合物电池是由一位叫做Tian Yu的中国商人捐赠的，他与雷蒙先生正在就一架非太阳能飞机项目进行合作。

But one day, perhaps, the name of Raymond will be up there with the others.
但是，也许有那么一天，雷蒙将跻身名人之列。

For who in their right mind would have believed in 1902 that a couple of bicycle-makers from Dayton, Ohio, would achieve immortal fame the following year?
因为在1902年，凡是心智正常之人，有谁会想到来自俄亥俄州代顿市的一对生产自行车的兄弟尽能流芳百世呢？