75 Up in the Air Our Fight Against Gravity

CHAPTER 1 Gravity THE FORCE OF GRAVITY IS STOPPING YOU FROM FLOATING AWAY INTO THE AIR RIGHT NOW! Gravity is all about attraction. Sometimes called "the law of attraction," gravity was discovered in the 17th century. Although scientists' understanding of gravity has become richer since then, the basic idea is still the same: the bigger the object, the more the objects around it are attracted to it. This means, for example, that our planet Earth is held in place by its attraction to the much larger Sun. Gravity gives us weight and keeps our feet on the ground. For humans, the strength of gravity on Earth means that we can walk, run, or jump, but we cannot fly. And yet, perhaps because of the beauty of flying birds, or perhaps because of our curiosity about the Sun, the Moon, and the stars, humans have often looked up into the sky and dreamed of flying.

第一章重力重力现在正在阻止你飘向空中！万有引力就是吸引力。 万有引力在17世纪被发现，有时被称为“吸引力定律”。 尽管从那时起，科学家们对引力的理解变得更加丰富，但基本的思想仍然是一样的：物体越大，它周围的物体被它吸引的越多。 这意味着，例如，我们的地球是由它对大得多的太阳的吸引力保持在原地的。 重力赋予我们重量，使我们的脚站在地面上。 对人类来说，地球上的重力强度意味着我们可以走、跑或跳，但我们不能飞。 然而，也许是因为鸟儿的美丽，也许是因为我们对太阳、月亮和星星的好奇，人类常常仰望天空，梦想着飞翔。

By watching how birds fly and trying to copy them, scientists gradually learned about the physics of flying. One of the earliest thinkers to look seriously at flying was the 15th-century Italian artist and scientist Leonardo Da Vinci. Da Vinci made drawings for three different types of flying machines. One was similar to a modern glider, another worked like a helicopter, and the third was a type of parachute. Although Da Vinci's inventions were never built in his lifetime, we now know that at least one of his designs works. In 2000, Da Vinci's parachute design was built and tested by an expert parachute jumper, Adrian Nicholas. Nicholas made a jump from 3,000 meters and landed perfectly. He even found that the parachute made from Da Vinci's design flew more smoothly than a modern parachute!

通过观察鸟类如何飞行并试图模仿它们，科学家们逐渐了解了飞行的物理原理。 最早认真思考飞行问题的思想家之一是15世纪的意大利艺术家兼科学家列奥纳多·达·芬奇。 达·芬奇为三种不同类型的飞行器画了图。 一个类似于现代的滑翔机，另一个像直升机一样工作，第三个是一种降落伞。 虽然达·芬奇的发明在他的有生之年从未建成，但我们现在知道，他的设计中至少有一项是有效的。 2000年，达·芬奇的降落伞设计由跳伞专家阿德里安·尼古拉斯制作并进行了测试。 尼古拉斯从3000米的高空跳下，并完美落地。 他甚至发现用达芬奇设计的降落伞比现代的降落伞飞得更平稳！

A big problem for designing flying machines was finding out how to lift them into the air. Many of the first ideas were based on birds, with machines that used moving wings to try to take off! Birds' bodies, however, are light and their wings are strong, so it was impossible to make a machine that flew like a bird. But there was another way to create lift. The idea of filling a bag with hot air had been used by the Chinese for centuries for sending messages. In the 18th century, Europeans began to experiment with balloons for carrying people. In 1783, in France, the Montgolfier brothers made the first successful hot air balloon for passengers. It worked by heating the air inside a paper and silk balloon. The brothers, however, were not sure that flying was safe for people, so the passengers in the first flight were animals: a sheep, a duck, and a rooster. Unlike lighter-than-air balloons, machines still had the problem of getting off the ground. Steam engines were just too heavy. But in 1885 Karl Benz gave aircraft designers new hope.

设计飞行器的一个大问题是如何让它们飞到空中。 许多最初的想法都是基于鸟类的，用移动的翅膀来尝试起飞的机器！然而，鸟类的身体很轻，翅膀很结实，所以不可能制造出像鸟一样飞行的机器。 但还有另一种方法可以产生升力。 几个世纪以来，中国人一直用热空气填充袋子来传递信息。 18世纪，欧洲人开始试验用气球载人。 1783年，在法国，蒙哥菲兄弟成功地为乘客制造了第一个热气球。 它的工作原理是加热纸和丝绸气球内的空气。 然而，兄弟俩不确定飞行对人是否安全，所以第一次飞行的乘客是动物：一只羊，一只鸭子和一只公鸡。 与轻于空气的气球不同，机器仍然有离开地面的问题。 蒸汽机太重了。 但在1885年，卡尔·本茨给了飞机设计师新的希望。

His invention, the gasoline engine, was light enough to fly. A few gas-powered planes were built. Unfortunately, all of them crashed. Now the problem was that they were too difficult to control. It took two bicycle mechanics from Ohio, USA, to solve the problem. Brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright had been fascinated by flying machines for years. They used their skills as mechanics to make and fly gliders. This allowed them to perfect the controls a pilot needs to fly a plane. They added an engine to their glider to create the Wright Flyer 1. On December 17, 1903, they made the first successful powered flight and changed history forever.

他的发明，汽油发动机，轻到足以飞行。 一些以汽油为动力的飞机被制造出来。 不幸的是，它们全都崩溃了。 现在的问题是它们太难控制了。 两位来自美国俄亥俄州的自行车修理工解决了这个问题。 莱特兄弟威尔伯和奥维尔多年来一直对飞行器着迷。 他们利用自己的机械技能制造和驾驶滑翔机。 这使他们能够完善飞行员驾驶飞机所需的控制。 他们在他们的滑翔机上增加了一个引擎，创造了莱特飞行者1号。 1903年12月17日，他们进行了第一次成功的动力飞行，永远地改变了历史。

CHAPTER 2 Air Transportation THE 20TH CENTURY MAY WELL BE LOOKED BACK ON AS THE AGE OF FLIGHT. After the Wright brothers' invention in 1903, the airplane quickly developed into an important means of transport and communication, changing the way we experience and see our world. Helicopters, balloons, and parachutes, and later the development of space rockets, also took flying to new heights. The airplane, however, is probably the first thing that comes to mind when you think about flying. In the last 50 years, airplanes have become the usual way to travel long distances. The first airplanes, however, were used more to carry objects, not passengers. One of the first uses for planes was the US airmail service, carrying letters and parcels across the United States.

回顾20世纪很可能是一个飞行的时代。 1903年莱特兄弟发明飞机后，飞机迅速发展成为一种重要的交通和通讯工具，改变了我们体验和看待世界的方式。 直升机、气球和降落伞，以及后来太空火箭的发展，也把飞行推向了新的高度。 然而，当你想到飞行时，你首先想到的可能是飞机。 在过去的50年里，飞机已经成为长途旅行的常用方式。 然而，第一架飞机更多的是用来运送物品，而不是乘客。 飞机最早的用途之一是美国的航空邮件服务，在美国各地运送信件和包裹。

In 1914, the first commercial passenger flight took place in the USA. Only one passenger bought a seat! By 1919, there were international passenger flights between London and Paris. Long distance international passenger services didn't become common until after World War II. In 1952, the first jet plane for passengers, the de Havilland 106, flew from London to Johannesburg, South Africa. It carried just 36 passengers and took 24 hours to complete the journey, stopping five times on the way. The first transatlantic jet service between London and New York started in 1958. It took just over ten hours. Over the next decade, jet planes got bigger and faster. One of the most popular was the Boeing 747. First introduced in 1968 and still in use today, the 747 can carry as many as 600 passengers!

1914年，第一次商业客运飞行在美国发生。 只有一个乘客买了座位！到1919年，伦敦和巴黎之间有了国际客运航班。 长途国际客运服务直到第二次世界大战后才开始普及。 1952年，第一架载客喷气式飞机德哈维兰106从伦敦飞往南非的约翰内斯堡。 它只搭载了36名乘客，花了24小时完成了旅程，途中停了5次。 伦敦和纽约之间的第一次跨大西洋航班服务始于1958年。 只花了十个多小时。 在接下来的十年里，喷气式飞机变得更大更快。 其中最受欢迎的是波音747。 747于1968年首次推出，至今仍在使用，可搭载多达600名乘客！