25. The Wright Brothers, Inventors of the Airplane
25. 萊特兄弟——飛機(jī)發(fā)明家
The Wright brothers, namely, Orville Wright (1871—1948) and Wilbur Wright (1867—1912) invented the first safe, successful airplane. But their first flight, on December 17, 1903, was not great news. Nothing appeared in the newspaper on that day. A few days later, short items began to appear in newspapers across the country, but no one seemed very interested or impressed.
萊特兄弟名為奧維爾·萊特(1871一1948)和威爾伯·萊特(1867-1912)成功友明了第一架安全可靠的飛機(jī)。但是他們?cè)?903年12 月17日的首次飛行并不是那么理想。在那天的報(bào)紙上沒(méi)有出現(xiàn)與此有關(guān)的任何新聞。幾天后,流通全國(guó)的報(bào)紙上開(kāi)始出現(xiàn)一些簡(jiǎn)單的報(bào)道,但是沒(méi)有任何一個(gè)看起來(lái)是那么有趣或者能夠令人印象深刻。
Orville Wright took the "Flyer I" up in the air and flew it for 12 seconds. Wilbur Wright took turns with his brother flying their airplane. The next two flights lasted twice as long as the first one. On the fourth flight that day, the airplane stayed in the air for 59 seconds. After it landed, a sudden gust of wind tipped the plane over. "Flyer I" was badly damaged. The first successful airplane was never flown again.
奧維爾·某特駕駛“飛行器1號(hào)”在高空中飛行了12秒。威爾伯·萊特和他弟弟輪流駕駛飛機(jī)。接下來(lái)的兩次飛行持續(xù)的時(shí)間大概是第一次飛行的兩倍。那天的第四次飛行,飛機(jī)在空中停留了59秒。在它著陸后,一陣突如其來(lái)的風(fēng)吹翻了飛機(jī)。“飛行器1號(hào)”嚴(yán)重受損。這架第一個(gè)成功飛行的飛機(jī)從此再也沒(méi)有飛起來(lái)過(guò)。
Louis Bleriot flew across the English Channel in 1909 He flew from France to England in a Bleriot XI monoplane which had only one set of wings. His flight was historic. He proved that people from different countries could now visit each other fairly early.
路易斯·布雷里奧在1909年飛越了英吉利海峽。他乘坐一架布雷里奧五號(hào)羊翼機(jī)從法國(guó)飛往英國(guó)。他的飛行具有歷史性的意義。他證明了在不同國(guó)家的人們可以彼此更早一些見(jiàn)面。
The first woman pilot was Baroness de la Roche. She made her flight in 1908. Two years later, she received a pilot's license.
第一位女飛行員是貝羅尼絲·德拉羅什。她在1908年進(jìn)行了第一次飛行。兩年后,她拿到了飛行員資格證。