世界上比較大的飛機(jī)起飛了

The World's Largest Plane Just Took to The Skies inan Unreal First Flight

世界上最大的飛機(jī)于夢幻般的首飛中升空

Stratolaunch, the massive aircraft dreamed up bythe late Paul Allen, flew for the first time onSaturday, becoming the largest plane by wingspanever to take to the skies.

由已故(微軟聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人)保羅·艾倫設(shè)計(jì)的巨型飛機(jī)——Stratolaunch(平流層發(fā)射)于周六首飛，成為有史以來憑借翼展飛上天空的最大的飛機(jī)。

Larger than Howard Hughes's Spruce Goose - whichflew only once, in 1947- Stratolaunch lifted off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in theCalifornia desert and stayed aloft for 2.5 hours, company officials said, hitting an altitude of17,000 feet (5,000 metres) and a maximum speed of 189 mph (304 km/h).

Stratolaunch比霍華德·休斯的Spruce Goose(云杉鵝，曾經(jīng)翼展最大的飛機(jī))要大，不過Spruce Goose僅在1947年飛行過一次。Stratolaunch此次從位于加利福尼亞沙漠的莫哈維航空航天港起飛，在空中飛行了2個(gè)半小時(shí)，飛行高度達(dá)17000英尺(5000米)，最高時(shí)速為189英里/小時(shí)(304千米/小時(shí))，該公司的高管說道。

 

 

The plane is a behemoth, with a twin fuselage, 28 wheels, six 747 jet engines and a wingspanlonger than a football field, end zones included.

這架飛機(jī)就像一只比蒙巨獸一樣巨大，擁有雙機(jī)身、28個(gè)輪子和6個(gè)747噴氣式發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)，它還有比足球場(含球門區(qū))還要長的翼展。

"We finally did it," Jean Floyd, Stratolaunch's chief executive, said in a call with reporters. Hesaid it was inspiring "to see Paul Allen's dream come to life."

“我們終于做到了，”Stratolaunch公司總裁吉恩·弗洛伊德在與記者的一次通話中說道。他表示，“看到保羅·艾倫的夢想成為現(xiàn)實(shí)”非常振奮人心。

But Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, died in October, leaving the future of theplane and the company behind it in doubt. Company officials did not take questions fromreporters and did not address the future of the venture in a news release.

然而，微軟的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人、億萬富翁艾倫于去年10月去世了，這使人們對(duì)這架飛機(jī)和這家公司的未來持懷疑態(tài)度。該公司的高管并未回答記者的疑問，也沒有在新聞通告中說明這家公司的未來規(guī)劃。

Since Allen's death, the company has dramatically scaled back operations and laid off dozens ofemployees.

自從艾倫去世以來，這家公司就大幅削減運(yùn)營，還解雇了許多員工。

From the beginning, Allen's dream was to use the plane to help make getting satellites, andpossibly people, into space more affordable and accessible.

艾倫的夢想從一開始就是為了利用飛機(jī)以更實(shí)惠、更可行的方法來幫助把衛(wèi)星，還可能是人類，送往太空。

Built by Scaled Composites, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, Stratolaunch was designed tocarry as many as three rockets tethered to its belly into the skies; the rockets would then drop, ignite and shoot off into space with their payloads.

Stratolaunch是由諾斯洛普·格魯門公司的子公司Scaled Composites公司(美國一家航空公司)建造的，它被設(shè)計(jì)用于搭載多達(dá)3枚火箭升空，然后栓于機(jī)身上的負(fù)載火箭會(huì)脫落，點(diǎn)火，并被發(fā)射到太空。