VOA慢速英语:美滑翔机计划在明年打破2.7万米高度纪录

Gliders are light aircraft that fly with no engine. They are pulled by a powered plane into the sky and set free to fly on air currents. They soar on wind currents called "mountain waves." That is why their wings are longer than ordinary planes.

滑翔机是轻型飞机，起飞不需要发动机。它们被动力飞行器拉动，飞向天空，并且可以自由在暖气流中飞行。它们在“地形波”气流中飞翔。这就是为什么它们的机翼要比普通飞机的长。

The aerospace company Airbus Group recently completed the first flight of a glider it calls Perlan 2. The Perlan Project intends to use gliders to take measurements in thestratosphere. Scientists believe weather in the stratosphere affects the Earth's climate more than they thought before.

空中巴士航空航天公司最近完成了滑翔机的首次飞行。它被命名为Perlan 2。Perlan项目旨在在平流层中使用滑翔机来测量。科学家们认为平流层的天气状况会影响地球气候。影响程度超过他们之前所认为的。

Project Aims to Study Stratosphere Via Aerospace Firm's Glider

Airbus plans to send Perlan 2 to an altitude of 27 kilometers next year. That is higher than the records set by the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes.

明年，空中巴士航空航天公司计划将Perlan 2送至2.7万米的高空。这将高于由U-2与SR-71侦察机所创造的记录。

Jim Payne is the chief pilot of Perlan 2.

吉姆·佩恩是Perlan 2的首席飞行员。

"We're not a thousand percent sure that the mountain wave will go that high, but all the meteorologists tell us that it does, so we're going to go out and find out."

“我们并不能百分之一千的确定地形波会那么高，但所有的气象学家告诉我们它确实是这么高。因此我们要刻意去做并且要查明。

Ed Warnock is the chief executive officer of the Perlan Project.

埃德沃诺克是该项目的首席执行官。

He says the project intends to discover how fast moving winds at altitudes between 10 and 50 kilometers influence the earth's climate.

他表示，该项目旨在探索如何在海拔为1万米至5万米的高空快速的移动风向，来影响地球气候。

"It turns out some of the biggest waves in the world -- vertical movements -- exist in the stratosphere. We're going to go and study those waves. Those waves change weather and they change climate, and we are going to study how do they do that." Visit the website www.chinavoa.com to get more information!

“事实证明，在世界上一些最大的波——垂直运动——存在于平流层中。我们将对这些波进行研究。这些波可以改变天气，改变气候，并且我们将要研究这些波是如何改变天气及气候的。

Stratospheric winds may also influence commercial air traffic. Many airplanes fly at high altitudes to reduce fuel consumption.

同温层风也会影响商业的空中交通。很多飞机在高空飞行，以降低燃料消耗。

The air density, or thickness, at those altitudes is similar to the atmosphere on the planet Mars. This may lead to future aircraft designs that could someday fly through the skies of the Red Planet.

这一高度空气的密度与厚度与火星大气层中的相似。这可能导致未来对飞机设计，在某一天，将可能在这颗红色星球的天空飞翔。

I'm Jonathan Evans.

我是乔纳森·埃文斯。

VOA's George Putic wrote this story from Washington. Jonathan Evans adapted it for Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor.

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Words in This Story

altitude– n. the height of something such as an airplane above the level of the sea

atmosphere – n. the whole mass of air that surrounds the Earth

meteorologist – n. a scientist who deals with the atmosphere and with weather

stratosphere – n. the upper layer of the Earth's atmosphere that begins about 11 kilometers above the Earth's surface and ends about 50 kilometers above the Earth's surface