世界上最大的飛機起飛了大綱

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

世界上最大的飛機於夢幻般的首飛中升空

Stratolaunch, the massive aircraft dreamed up by the late Paul Allen, flew for the first time on Saturday, becoming the largest plane by wingspan ever to take to the skies.

由已故（微軟聯合創始人）保羅·艾倫設計的巨型飛機——Stratolaunch（平流層發射）於週六首飛，成爲有史以來憑藉翼展飛上天空的最大的飛機。

Larger than Howard Hughes's Spruce Goose - which flew only once, in 1947- Stratolaunch lifted off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in the California desert and stayed aloft for 2.5 hours, company officials said, hitting an altitude of 17,000 feet (5,000 metres) and a maximum speed of 189 mph (304 km/h).

Stratolaunch比霍華德·休斯的Spruce Goose（雲杉鵝，曾經翼展最大的飛機）要大，不過Spruce Goose僅在1947年飛行過一次。Stratolaunch此次從位於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個半小時，飛行高度達17000英尺（5000米），最高時速爲189英里/小時（304千米/小時），該公司的高管說道。

圖片來源：Science Alert

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

這架飛機就像一隻比蒙巨獸一樣巨大，擁有雙機身、28個輪子和6個747噴氣式發動機，它還有比足球場（含球門區）還要長的翼展。

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

“我們終於做到了，”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·艾倫的夢想成爲現實”非常振奮人心。

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

然而，微軟的聯合創始人、億萬富翁艾倫於去年10月去世了，這使人們對這架飛機和這家公司的未來持懷疑態度。該公司的高管並未回答記者的疑問，也沒有在新聞通告中說明這家公司的未來規劃。

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

自從艾倫去世以來，這家公司就大幅削減運營，還解僱了許多員工。

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

艾倫的夢想從一開始就是爲了利用飛機以更實惠、更可行的方法來幫助把衛星，還可能是人類，送往太空。

Built by Scaled Composites, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, Stratolaunch was designed to carry 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，它被設計用於搭載多達3枚火箭升空，然後栓於機身上的負載火箭會脫落，點火，並被髮射到太空。

（翻譯：Dlacus）