TED演讲 第7期:从20马赫的滑翔机到蜂鸟无人机的感想(2)

 40 years later, aero experts coined the term transonic.  40年后空气动力学专家创造了跨音速这个术语。

They debated, should it have one S or two?  他们争论这个术语应该用一个S，还是两个S?

You see, they were having trouble in this flight regime,and it wasn't at all clear that we could fly faster than the speed of sound. 你也明白，实际上他们是对该飞机体系有疑问，我们能否飞得比音速还快,那时还未得到解答。

In 1947, there was no wind tunnel data beyond Mach 0.85.  1947年那时还没有风洞实验数据，只有0.85马赫这个数据。

And yet, on Tuesday, October 14th, 1947, Chuck Yeager climbed into the cockpit of his Bell X-1 and he flew towards an unknown possibility, and in so doing. 然而，1947年10月14日，星期二，查克雅戈尔爬进他的贝尔X-1号的座舱。他飞向了未知的可能性,他不停地飞。

He became the first pilot to fly faster than the speed of sound. 最终，他成为了第一个超音速飞行的飞行员。

Six of eight Atlas¹ rockets blew up on the pad.  八个阿特拉斯火箭中有六个爆炸在发射台上。

After 11 complete mission failures,we got our first images from space.  在11次彻底任务失败后，我们看到了首张宇宙图像。

And on that first flight we got more data than in all U-2 missions combined.  而在那个首次飞行上我们获得了比所有U-2任务加起来还要多的数据。

It took a lot of failures to get there.  失败了很多次才最终取得成功。

Since we took to the sky, we have wanted to fly faster and farther. 自从我们飞上天空后，我们就想飞得更快更远。

And to do so,we've had to believe in impossible things.  为此目的，我们应该相信不可能的事情。

And we've had to refuse to fear failure.  并且我们应该反对惧怕失败。

That's still true today.  这个观点现在依然正确。

Today, we don't talk about flying transonically,or even supersonically, we talk about flying hypersonically not Mach 2 or Mach 3, Mach 20.  今天，我们谈的不是跨音速飞行，甚至超音速飞行，我们谈的是特超音速飞行，不是2马赫或者3马赫，而是20马赫。

At Mach 20, we can fly from New York to Long Beach in 11 minutes and 20 seconds.  在20马赫的速度下，我们可以在11分钟20秒内。从纽约飞到长滩。

At that speed, the surface of the airfoil is the temperature of molten steel 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit² like a blast furnace.  在这个速度下，机翼表面温度是钢水的温度，华氏3,500度，就像一个高炉一样。

We are essentially³ burning the airfoil as we fly it.  在我们飞行时，我们实质上是在燃烧机翼。

And we are flying it, or trying to.  而我们正在这样飞或者在尝试这样飞。

DARPA's hypersonic test vehicle is the fastest maneuvering⁴ aircraft ever built.  DARPA的特超音速测试飞机是前所未有的人类制造的最快的机动飞机。

It's boosted to near-space atop a Minotaur IV rocket.  这架飞机提升到了近太空的位置在米诺陶4火箭上空飞行。

Now the Minotaur IV has too much impulse,so we have to bleed it off by flying the rocket at an 89 degree angle of attack for portions of the trajectory⁵.  但是米诺陶4火箭的推力太强大，为了减缓其推力，我们得让火箭在部分运行轨迹以89度攻击角来运行。

1 atlas   

n.地图册，图表集

参考例句：

• He reached down the atlas from the top shelf.他从书架顶层取下地图集。
• The atlas contains forty maps,including three of Great Britain.这本地图集有40幅地图，其中包括3幅英国地图。

2 Fahrenheit   

n./adj.华氏温度；华氏温度计(的)

参考例句：

• He was asked for the boiling point of water in Fahrenheit.他被问到水的沸点是华氏多少度。
• The thermometer reads 80 degrees Fahrenheit.寒暑表指出华氏80度。

3 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

4 maneuvering   

v.移动，用策略( maneuver的现在分词 )；操纵

参考例句：

• This Manstein did, with some brilliant maneuvering under the worse winter conditions. 曼施坦因在最恶劣的严冬条件下，出色地施展了灵活机动的战术，终于完成了任务。 来自辞典例句
• In short, large goals required farsighted policies, not tactical maneuvering. 一句话，大的目标需要有高瞻远瞩的政策，玩弄策略是不行的。 来自辞典例句

5 trajectory   

n.弹道，轨道

参考例句：

• It is not difficult to sketch the subsequent trajectory.很容易描绘出它们最终的轨迹。
• The path followed by a projectile is called its trajectory.抛物体所循的路径称为它的轨道。