TE||Pies in the sky
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导读
感谢本次思维导图作者
琚儿，英专，备考翻硕，外刊学习者
2
听力|精读|翻译|词组
Pies in the sky
天上掉馅饼
英文部分选自经济学人Science and technology版块
Drone deliveries take off
送货无人机起飞
Pies in the sky
天上掉馅饼
注：此处应该是一语双关，既是指天上的无人机，又指异想天开
From the Arctic to the equator, delivering goods by drone no longer seems as fanciful as once it did
从北极到赤道，用无人机送货已不再是异想天开
Maron kristófersson is looking forward to the completion of a new roof on his office in downtown Reykjavik. It is not that the old roof leaked, but rather that the new one will be heated. Mr Kristófersson is the boss of aha, which delivers on behalf of restaurants and shops in Iceland’s capital. The heated roof will let his delivery drones take off from and land on the top of the building throughout the winter, without anyone having to clear away the snow.
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马龙·克里斯托弗森先生正期盼着他在雷克雅维克市中心的办公室新屋顶早日修建完工。修建屋顶并不是因为旧屋顶漏雨，而是他的新屋顶具有加热功能。克里斯托弗森先生是AHA公司的老板，其公司为冰岛首都的餐馆和商店提供送货服务。加热的屋顶使得冬天无人机也能在大楼楼顶起飞和降落，而不需要人工除雪。
When drones, in the form of small, electrically powered rotorcraft, came to public attention around a decade ago, various uses were proposed for them. Some of these, such as surveying, aerial photography and law enforcement, have now become routine. But one, in particular, has not. This is the idea of household deliveries. In 2013 Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s boss, said that the online retailer was testing just such a system. Others suggested using drones to deliver medicines and fast food. Apart from various demonstration flights, however, not much then happened.
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大约十年前，当无人机以小型电动旋翼飞机的形式进入公众视线时，人们就对无人机的用途提出了很多应用方案。其中测量、航拍、执法等现在已经非常常见了。但是有一项方案尚未普及，那就是家用无人机物流。早在2013年，亚马逊老板杰夫·贝佐斯就表示线上零售商正在试验这一系统。另外，还有人建议使用无人机运送药品和快餐。但是除了各式各样的演示飞行之外，并没有什么实质性进展。
This slowness was caused less by technological inadequacy than by caution on the part of regulators. In most countries people are not allowed to fly drones above other people, near buildings or out of sight of the operator. Commercial activities are strictly regulated and some flights need clearance from aviation authorities. This has kept drone operators on a tight leash while regulators got to grips with what is, after all, a new form of aviation. Slowly but surely, however, as operators have gained experience and established a good safety record, some regulators have begun to relax the rules.
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进展缓慢的原因一部分源于技术上的不足，但更主要是因为监管者的谨小慎微。大部分国家不允许有无人机在人们头顶、建筑物附近或是脱离操作员视线飞行。商业飞行活动被严格监管，一些无人机飞行需要得到航空当局的许可。监管者严格监控无人机运营商，毕竟这是一种新型的飞行方式。然而，虽然进展缓慢，但随着运营商不断累积飞行经验并建立了良好的安全记录，一些监管者确实已经开始放松管控。
注：
1.less A than B 与其说，不如说
2.clearance n.official permission正式的批准
eg:To visit the prison,you’ll need security clearance.参观监狱需要通过安全审查
3.on a tight leash: under very careful control 严格控制
Iceland is a typical example. In August 2017 Mr Kristófersson teamed up with Flytrex, an Israeli drone-service company. The pair persuaded Iceland’s transport authorities to let them start a drone delivery service across Elliðárvogur, an inlet that divides Reykjavik from its eastern suburbs. Delivery drivers would load goods weighing up to 3kg into a drone on one side of the inlet and it would fly autonomously along a fixed route to land on the other side, where the goods would be collected by another team of drivers who would take them on to their final destinations.
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冰岛是个典型的案例，在2017年8月克里斯托弗森先生和以色列无人机公司Flytrex合作，一同说服了冰岛交通管理局批准他们在Elliðárvogur，这个将雷克雅未克同它的东部郊区分隔开的湾口进行无人机投递服务。在湾口的一侧骑手们将重达3kg的货物装载到无人机上，无人机会自动沿着设定路线降落在湾口另一侧，到达这边后另一批骑手会带着这些货物驰往它们的目的地。
“We learnt a lot,” said Mr Kristófersson. One thing was the impact of weather. Iceland is often wet and windy, but the drone used for this operation could not fly in rain—and for safety reasons aha avoided gusty conditions. This meant that the drone was grounded for about half of the time it might otherwise have been flying. Nevertheless, when it could fly it saved time and money because the flight took four minutes instead of the 20 or more required to drive around Elliðárvogur.
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“我们学到了很多东西”，克里斯托弗森先生表示。首先是天气带来的影响。冰岛常年潮湿多风，然而运货无人机不能在雨中飞行，因此出于安全考虑，aha公司避开在风雨天使用无人机，这就意味着无人机的飞行时间减少了一半。。不过，在可以飞行的天气，使用无人机可以节省大量时间和金钱。开车环行整个Elliðárvogur至少需要20分钟，而使用无人机只需要4分钟。
Dinner is on its way
晚饭正在派送中
The experience they gained in running the trans-Elliðárvogur service allowed aha and Flytrex to obtain permission to run 12 other routes across Reykjavik, including journeys over land. And operations have just been extended again, permitting drones to deviate by up to 700 metres either side of those fixed routes. This means deliveries can now be made to the backyards of registered customers who have also obtained their neighbours’ permission for flights to pass overhead.
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他们在运营跨Elliðárvogur无人机服务时得到的经验使得aha 以及Flytrex公司获得了另外12条穿越雷克雅维克的航线许可，其中包括穿过地面上空的航线。此外，监管部门许可无人机偏离预定航线的范围增加到了700米，从而使他们的飞行业务得以进一步扩展。这意味着注册用户在获得邻居的允许之后，无人机就可以通过他们邻居家的上空把货物送到客户们的后院。
Those customers can order goods using online apps and, weather permitting, select a drone delivery. Most of the shops and restaurants taking part are close to aha’s office, where they drop off goods to be delivered. These are then loaded into a drone by a company employee, who dispatches the craft after entering the destination using a hand-held device. The customer gets a message to say the drone is on its way, and can use the app to follow its progress on a map. When it arrives, the customer enters a pin into the app to accept delivery and the drone lowers its package on a line. Should someone try to pull the line, it detaches in order to avoid crashing the drone.
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用户在用线上APP订购货物时，如果天气允许，就可以选择用无人机进行送货。参与此项活动的商店和餐馆大多在aha公司附近，他们把需要寄送的货物投递到aha公司。aha公司的员工再把货物装载到无人机上，然后使用一种手持设备输入目的地地址，无人机就可以起飞送货了。这时收货人会收到信息显示无人机正在派送中，并且可以通过app在地图上实时跟踪无人机的位置。无人机到达目的地后，客户在app中输入pin码就可以收货了，无人机会通过绳索将包裹降落下去。这时需要收货人去拉动绳索，绳索一拉便会自动脱离，以免无人机坠地。
注：
再也不用饿着肚子等外卖了，冰岛开始使用无人机送餐！
http://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1577044796018010238
With a third drone on order—this one a waterproof version that can fly in the rain—Mr Kristófersson hopes to deliver to more places more often, with the potential of as many as 100 flights a day. The drones, made by dji, a Chinese firm, do not use cameras or radar to navigate. They rely solely on the Global Positioning System (gps) to know where they are—though, for safety’s sake, they have three, independent gps-based systems on board. But even though the drones fly out of sight of aha’s office, they are monitored constantly during their journeys and can be recalled if something appears to be going wrong, or ordered to make an emergency landing by slowly fluttering down while broadcasting a loud warning noise.
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第三架无人机正在定购中，这架防水版的无人机可以在雨中飞行。克里斯托弗森先生希望能把货物更加频繁的地运送到更多地方，最终有可能达到每天飞行100次。该款无人机由中国大疆公司制造，它们不使用摄像头或者雷达来进行导航，仅仅依靠GPS定位。但是出于安全考虑，机上会搭载三套独立的GPS系统。这样即使无人机飞出aha公司视线范围，它们在运输途中仍会受到持续监控。这样如果在飞行中发现问题或者需要紧急降落，无人机可以在响亮的警报声中徐徐下落。
Yariv Bash, Flytrex’s boss, says delivery-by-drone services which, like the Icelandic example, start with fixed routes that gradually become more ambitious, are beginning to appear in other places. His company, for example, is about to help launch one that will use drones to deliver packages in Holly Springs, North Carolina. Uber, a ride-hailing service, is also planning to launch drone deliveries for food.
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Flytrex公司老板Yariv Bash表示类似冰岛这样从固定路线起步逐渐扩大飞行范围的无人机服务也已经开始在其他地区出现。比如他的公司就准备在北加州霍利斯普林斯使用无人机配送包裹。网约车公司优步也正计划使用无人机送外卖。
Next month, in Singapore, a drone made by Airbus, a European aerospace group, will begin ferrying supplies and spare parts to ships moored offshore. Airbus is working on the project with Wilhelmsen, a marine-services company. Wilhelmsen reckons that using drones will reduce delivery costs to vessels by up to 90%, and will be safer than employing launches to carry those deliveries by sea. Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce firm, is making drone deliveries on a number of fixed routes across the vast Shanghai Jinshan Industrial Park and has plans to launch similar operations in other areas.
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下个月在新加坡，欧洲航天集团空客公司生产的一种无人机，将开始为停泊在海上的船只运输物资和备用配件。这是空中客车和航海服务公司威尔姆森开展的一个合作项目。威尔姆森估算使用无人机将使货运成本降低90%，并且比使用大型汽艇走海路运输货物更安全。中国最大的电商公司阿里巴巴已经开始在广阔的上海金山工业园区规划好的几条飞行路线上进行无人机配送，并计划在其它地区进行类似的运作。
A common factor among these new drone services is that they are not operating in densely built-up areas. Despite the early predictions that drones would be used to deliver fast food and other goods to city-dwellers, the reality is turning out to be rather different. For a start, there are flight restrictions on all aircraft in high-rise areas like Manhattan and central London. There is also the difficulty of finding places for drones to land or hover outside apartment windows. Nor do the economics stack up. In cities, typical distances for delivering fast food might be under a kilometre, which makes it efficient to use mopeds or bicycles. Reykjavik, however, is a low-rise, spread-out sort of place. The average distance over which a meal is delivered is about 7km.
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对于新起的无人机服务商来说，一个普遍存在的问题是他们不能在建筑密集区经营。尽管早期的预想无人机是用来给城市居民送外卖和其它货物的，但现实结果却大相径庭。首先，所有的飞行物在类似曼哈顿和伦敦市中心这样的高层建筑区都受飞行管辖限制。另外，很难找到适合无人机着陆或是在公寓窗户外悬停的地点。再者这样做的盈利空间也不大。在城市里，送外卖的普遍距离是一千米以内，这个距离用机动自行车或自行车就很高效。而雷克雅未克是一个广袤的低层建筑区，平均的外卖送餐距离约7千米，因而更加适宜无人机递送。
If regulators continue to relax requirements for line-of-sight operations, long-distance delivery by drone will become particularly appealing. In some cases, though, a different sort of drone may be needed. One such has just completed six months of test flights in Tanzania. This drone is built by Wingcopter, a German firm, and is of a type known as a “tilt-rotor”. That means it uses its rotors for vertical take-off and landing, but for horizontal flight it tilts them forward to operate like the propellers of an aeroplane. This arrangement, which is beginning to be used for manned helicopters as well, results in a big increase in speed and range. In neighbouring Rwanda, meanwhile, a firm called Zipline does not even bother with vertical take-off. Its drones are small, fixed-wing aircraft that are launched by catapult, fly to their destination, drop their cargo by parachute and then return home.
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如果在视距内操作方面的监管进一步放松，长途无人机配送服务的前景也将格外光明。不过某些情况下，可能需要其他类型的无人机。比如，有一种无人机刚刚在坦桑尼亚完成六个月飞行测试。德国Wingcopter公司制造了一种被称为倾转旋翼机的无人机，从名字可以看出该无人机能够使用旋翼垂直起落。而在水平飞行的时候，旋翼可以侧转到前端像飞机的水平螺旋桨一样推进运行。。这种最初用于载人直升飞机的结构布置，能大大增加飞行速度和行程。与此同时在毗邻的卢旺达地区，一个名叫Zipline的公司甚至抛弃了垂直起飞方式。他们公司的无人机是体积很小的固定翼飞行器依靠弹弓来发射。到达目的地后，用降落伞投递完货物便可以返航。
Flight-safe mode
安全飞行模式
In the Tanzanian trials, dhl, an international delivery company, used a Wingcopter to fly medical supplies from Mwanza, on the shores of Lake Victoria, some 60km to a clinic on Ukerewe Island. Blood and other samples from the clinic’s patients were then flown back to Mwanza for laboratory analysis. The drone journey took 40 minutes, compared with six hours by road and ferry. Zipline, meanwhile, is beyond the stage of trials. Its drones are now in regular use delivering blood for transfusion to rural clinics.
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国际运输公司DHL在坦桑尼亚开展了一项飞行试验，他们投入有翼直升机从维多利亚湖边的姆万扎运送药物补给品到距离近60公里远的乌凯雷丰岛上的一个诊所。。再将诊所病人的血液和其他样本运回姆万扎用于实验室分析。和通过陆路和渡轮共计6小时的运输时间相比，无人机运输只需花费40分钟。同时，Zipline公司甚至已跨越了试飞阶段，它的无人机已经开始定期的为农村地区诊所运输输血所需的血液。
Flying life-saving medical supplies around is, to be sure, more important than getting pizzas to customers while they are still hot. But with technology improving, and provided that operators can continue to run safe operations, more companies are likely to follow in aha’s footsteps and move into the business of delivering by drone.
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运输救生医药设备肯定要比趁热将pizza送到食客手中更加重要。不过随着技术不断改进同时经营者如果可以持续保持安全的飞行记录，越来越多的公司将会追随aha公司的脚步，进军无人机货运行业。
Safety, too, is improving all the time. Drones can already be “ring-fenced” electronically to stop them straying into dangerous areas, such as airports. Small, automated collision-avoidance systems are also under development, to prevent them crashing into things. Eventually, no doubt, drones that can safely navigate the canyons of tall cities will emerge. But for the immediate future, it is the hungry folk in the ’burbs and out in the sticks who will have first call on the drone-delivery option on their fast-food apps.
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当然，无人机的安全系数也在不断上升。电子防护系统已经能够阻止无人机意外进入像机场这样的危险区域；可以避免无人机发生碰撞的小型自动防碰撞系统也正在开发中。毫无疑问，能够安全的穿梭于城市的高楼大厦间的无人机终将出现。但就近期而言，尚且只有那些身处偏远地带或者城市郊区饥肠辘辘的人们可以通过他们的点餐app尝鲜无人机投递的便利。
注：
1.ring-fence：to decide officially that something,especially money,can only be used for a particular purpose. 限制……的用途（尤指钱）ring-fenced 此处指隔离开来
2.无人机防撞系统不好用？这个技术可以解决
http://digi.tech.qq.com/a/20160625/006438.htm
翻译组：
Frank，男，小硕，经济学人的死侍
Minjia，女，广告策划，经济学人读者
May，男，法律专业正经的经济学人拥护者
Yuki, 非英专准大三,自学通过CATTI二笔
校核组：
Yifei，女，英专硕士，专八，catti二笔
Alex,男，工科研究生，文学与科学爱好者，经济学人忠实读者
知识点收集组：
Claire，女，备考英语，外刊学习者
Echo，女，备考翻硕，外刊学习者
Sigrid 女 学习英语 经济学人爱好者
Elena，英专，备考CATTI，外刊爱好者
3
观点|评论|思考
本次观点由Joel独家奉献
Joel，男，数据分析，科技类外刊爱好者
无人机的用途数不胜数，限于篇幅，这里只讲无人机在快递行业的应用。
一个新鲜事物是否会被大规模商用，只取决于一个条件，在经济可行的前提下解决行业痛点。
效率&成本一直是快递行业的目标追求。众所周知，目前除了中国邮政外，没有第二家快递公司提供偏远地区的派送服务。中国邮政的企业性质决定了它可以在不考虑效率和成本的前提下干这事，但其他民营企业不行，所以如何高效经济的给偏远地区派送快递就是行业的一个痛点。
作为国内快递行业的领头羊，顺丰一直在寻求无人机派送的可行性尝试。目前顺丰已经在四川省建立了无人机的运行网络和基地，准备在2020年左右投入使用。3月27日，顺丰获得了中国民用航空华东地区管理局颁发国内首张无人机航空运营(试点)许可证。这意味着，中国无人机物流配送正式进入合法运营阶段，无人机送快递的时代正式开启了。
4
愿景
小组
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