It was called the last great goal in flying. It would be a flight around the world without stopping or adding more fuel. Today, Frank Oliver and Doug Johnson tell about a special plane called Voyager and the effort to set a difficult world record.
这被称为是飞行事业的最后一个伟大目标——一架飞机环绕地球飞行，没有中途停歇和补充燃料！今天，Frank Oliver和Doug Johnson讲述了一架特制的飞机——“航行者”（Voyager）号成就这一困难的世界纪录的故事。
FRANK OLIVER: Voyager began as a quick drawing on a small piece of paper. Six years later, the drawing was a plane that made history.
“航行者”号从画在一小片纸上的一张草图开始。六年之后，草图成为了那架创造历史的飞机。
Many people gave their time, energy and money to help make the flight happen. But three people had lead parts in the event. Dick Rutan. Burt Rutan. And Jeana Yeager.
许多人奉献了他们的时间、精力和金钱来帮助实现这一飞行计划。但是，其中有三个人在这一活动中发挥了领导作用——Dick Rutan、Burt Rutan以及Jeana Yeager。
Dick Rutan was an experienced flier. He had been a pilot in the United States military during the war in Vietnam. After the war, he worked as a test pilot. He flew planes designed by his younger brother Burt.
Dick Rutan是一名经验丰富的飞行员。他曾在越南战争期间作为飞行员在美国空军服役。越战之后，他成为了一名试飞员——他试飞的是他的弟弟Burt设计的飞机。
Burt Rutan was well-known as a designer of experimental planes. And Jeana Yeager held nine world flight records as a pilot.
Burt Rutan是一位著名的实验型飞机设计师。而Jeana Yeager作为飞行员，拥有9项世界飞行记录。
DOUG JOHNSON: One day in early nineteen eighty-one, Dick, Burt and Jeana were eating in a restaurant in Mojave, California. Burt turned to his brother and asked a wild question: "How would you like to be the first person to fly around the world without stopping to re-fuel?"
1981年的一天，Dick，Burt和Jeana在加利福尼亚莫哈韦的一家饭店吃饭。Burt转向他的哥哥，问了一个疯狂的问题：“你想不想成为世界上第一个驾驶飞机不着陆加油而环绕世界的人？”
The three considered the idea. A non-stop flight around the world without re-fueling was the last flight record to be set. The flight always had been considered impossible. No plane could carry enough fuel to fly that far: forty thousand kilometers.
这三个家伙开始考虑这个问题。不着陆加油地环绕世界飞行被称为是终极的飞机记录，这一直以来被认为是不可能的。没有飞机能够装载足够的燃料来飞行这么远——足足4万公里！
But now there were new materials for planes. Burt thought he could build a plane that could make the voyage. Dick and Jeana thought they could fly it. No one could think of a good reason not to try.
不过，现在有了新的飞机材料。Burt认为他可以制造一架能够完成任务的飞机。Dick和Jeana认为他们可以驾驶它。没有人可以给出一个不去尝试一下的理由。
Burt picked up a small piece of paper. He drew an airplane that looked like a giant wing, and not much more. That was the beginning.
Burt随手捡起一小片纸，画了一架像一个巨大的翅膀的飞机，除此以外就没什么了。这就是一切的开始。
FRANK OLIVER: Not since the days of Orville and Wilbur Wright had the people making a record flight designed and built their own aircraft. Dick, Burt and Jeana did. Some people thought their Voyager project was both impossible and foolish. Everyone knew it would be dangerous.
自从莱特兄弟之后，还没有人能够用他们自己设计制造的飞行器创造一项飞行记录。Dick，Burt和Jeana做到了。有些人认为他们的“航行者”计划既不可能也很愚蠢。每个人都知道，它非常危险。
The Voyager crew worked on the plane in a small building at an airport in California's Mojave Desert. Dick, Burt and Jeana received no government money. Instead, they got small amounts of money from lots of different people.
“航行者”计划的成员们，在加州莫哈韦沙漠中一个飞机场的一所小房子里打造着他们的飞机。Dick，Burt和Jeana没有受到政府的资助，不过他们却从许多不同的人那里得到了小额的捐款。
As news of the project spread, more and more people offered to help. There were aviation engineers and workers from the space agency's experimental plane project. Several airplane companies offered equipment to be used in the plane. When Voyager was finished, it had two million dollars' worth of parts in it.
随着这一计划的新闻报道的传播，越来越多的人提供了帮助。有航空工程师和宇航局实验型飞机计划的工人。几家航空公司提供了飞机上需要使用的设备。当“航行者”号完工的时候，它身上的零件共价值二百万美元。
DOUG JOHNSON: Burt Rutan had built light-weight planes before. He knew a normal plane made of aluminum metal could not make a trip around the world without adding fuel. So his solution was to build Voyager almost completely out of new materials. The materials were very light, but very strong. This meant Voyager could lift and carry many times its weight in fuel.
Burt Rutan之前曾制造过轻飞行器。他知道一架普通的铝制飞机无法不加油环绕世界。所以他的解决方案是几乎完全用新型材料来打造“航行者”号。这些材料非常轻，但是却非常坚韧。这意味着“航行者”号可以携带着它本身重量许多倍的燃料升空。
The finished plane weighed just nine hundred kilograms, about the weight of a small car. The full load of fuel weighed three times that much, about three thousand kilograms. Voyager was not built to be a fast plane. It flew about one hundred seventy-five kilometers an hour.
完工的飞机仅重900千克，仅仅相当于一辆小汽车的重量。而满载的话，燃料将是这的三倍重，大约3000千克。“航行者”并不是被设计成一架飞得很快的飞机。它的航速大约是175公里/小时。
FRANK OLIVER: The main wing of the finished plane was more than thirty-three meters across. That is wider than the main wing on today's big passenger planes. The center part of the plane held the crew. And on either side of this body were two long fuel tanks.
完工的飞机主机翼翼展超过73米，这超过了今天的大型客机。乘员们位于飞机的中心部分，在机体两侧各有一个长条状的燃料箱。
In fact, almost all of the Voyager was a fuel tank. Seventeen separate containers were squeezed into every possible space. During the flight, the pilots had to move fuel from container to container to keep the plane balanced. One engine at each end of the body of the plane provided power.
事实上，“航行者”号上几乎所有的部分都是燃料箱。17个分离的燃料容器被塞入每个可能的地方。在飞行过程中，飞行员们不得不经常将燃料从一个容器移到另一个，以保证飞机的平衡。在机体的两头，各有一个引擎，提供飞机的动力。
The area for the two pilots was unbelievably small. It was just one meter wide by two-and-one-quarter meters long. The person flying the plane sat in the pilot's seat. The other person had to lie down at all times.
两名飞行员的活动区域令人难以置信的小，大约只有1米宽，2.25米长。驾驶飞机的人坐在飞行员座位上，而另一个人不得不在飞行全程中一直躺下。
DOUG JOHNSON: After many test flights, the Voyager was finally ready in December, nineteen eighty-six. The best weather for flying around the world is from June to August. That time was far past. But the pilots were tired of delays. They made the decision to Take off, knowing the weather might be bad.
在许多次的测试飞行之后，“航行者”号终于在1986年12月整装待发了。环绕地球飞行的最佳时节是六月到八月，而这段时间早已过去了。不过飞行员们早已厌倦了延期。尽管知道天气可能会很坏，他们仍然做出了出发的决定。
飞行中的“航行者”
On December fourteenth, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager walked around the plane one more time. It looked like a giant white flying insect. They were going to be trusting their lives to this strange plane for the next nine days.
12月14日，Dick Rutan和Jeana Yeager绕着飞机又走了一圈。它像是一只巨大的白色飞虫。之后9天，他们将把他们的生命寄托于这架奇怪的飞机上。
Dick climbed into the only seat. Jeana lay on the floor. They were ready to go. Flight controllers at Edwards Air Force Base in California cleared them for a trip no one had ever attempted before.
Dick爬到了那唯一的座位上，Jeana躺在地板上。他们准备好出发了。爱德华兹空军基地的飞行管理员知道他们将踏上一段之前无人尝试过的旅程。
FRANK OLIVER: The long, thin wings of the plane were so loaded with fuel that they almost touched the ground. Voyager began to move down the runway, slowly. But something was wrong. The ends of the wings were not lifting.
那长而细的机翼由于载了太多的燃料，几乎接触到地面了。“航行者”号慢慢的沿跑道加速。但是，发生了一些状况——机翼的后部并没有抬升。
Burt Rutan sent a radio message to his brother to lift the plane's nose. "Pull back on the stick!" he screamed. "Pull back!" But Dick did not hear the warning. And he did not see the wings. He was looking straight ahead.
Burt Rutan发送了一个无线电信号，提醒他的哥哥，应该抬升机鼻。“往后拉操作杆！”他喊道，“往后拉！”但是Dick并没有听到他的警告，也没有看到机翼的情况——他正直视前方！
Voyager was getting dangerously close to the end of the runway. It appeared about to crash. Finally, just in time, the long wings swept up. The plane leaped into the air.
随着“航行者”号接近跑到尽头，它的处境也越来越危险。它似乎就要坠毁了。最后，刚刚好，机翼扫过地面，飞机终于冲上了天空！
Planes following Voyager could see that the ends of the wings were badly damaged. Dick turned the plane so the force of air currents would break off the broken ends. Then he aimed Voyager out over the Pacific Ocean.
跟在“航行者”号后面的飞机可以看到它的机翼的后部严重受损。Dick将飞机转向，以便于气流的力量可以将后部坏掉的部分刮掉。之后，他将“航行者”号驶向太平洋。
DOUG JOHNSON: Weight was the main consideration in designing the experimental plane. Not safety. Not comfort. Voyager did not have most of the normal safety equipment of modern planes. There were no special materials to block the noise of the engines. And space for the pilots was so tight they had great difficulty changing places.
重量是设计这架实验型飞机时候首要的考量，不是安全性，也不是舒适性。“航行者”号没有通常现代飞机上有的绝大多数安全设备。没有特别的材料来阻隔引擎的噪声。同时，给飞行员的空间是如此之小，以至于他们在交换位置的时候会遇到巨大的困难。
Voyager's long wings moved up and down as the winds changed. It seemed to sail on waves of air, just like a sailboat on ocean waves. This motion meant the flight was extremely rough.
“航行者”号长长的机翼随着风力的变化上下移动。它似乎在气浪上扬帆航行，就像海浪上的一艘帆船。这种运动意味着这趟飞行是极端困难的。
FRANK OLIVER: It was not an enjoyable trip. Dick and Jeana were always tense. At the end of the second day, the weather expert for the flight warned of trouble. Voyager was heading for an ocean storm. Dick was able to fly close to the storm and ride its winds.
这并非是一趟令人愉悦的旅途。Dick和Jeana总是很紧张。在第二天的最后，气象专家警告说，他们可能会遇到麻烦。“航行者”号正驶向一个大洋风暴。还好Dick能够飞近风暴，却轻轻的擦过它的边沿。
On the third day, Voyager was in trouble again. It had to fly between huge thunderhead clouds on one side and Vietnam's airspace on the other. Dick was able to keep the plane safely in the middle.
第三天，“航行者”又遇到了麻烦。它不得不飞越雷雨云和越南领空之间的狭小地带。Dick成功的做到了。
Over Africa, the two pilots struggled with continuous stormy weather. Dick had flown almost all of the first sixty hours of the flight. Then he changed places with Jeana for short periods. Both were extremely tired.
在非洲，两位飞行员与持续不断的风暴天气抗争。Dick已经飞了几乎整整刚开始的60个小时。这之后，他和Jeana交换了位置，休息一小段时间。他们都极度疲惫。
Suddenly, a red warning light turned on. It was a signal that there was not enough oil in one engine. Dick and Jeana had been so busy trying to fly around bad weather and mountains that they had forgotten to watch the oil level. But luck stayed with them.
突然，一个红色警告灯亮了。这是一个信号，告诉他们一个引擎里已经没有足够的燃油了。Dick和Jeana已经在和坏天气和群山的搏斗中手忙脚乱，以至于他们居然忘记了去看油料平衡表。幸好运气和他们同在。
They added the necessary oil. The engine was not damaged.
他们加入了必需的燃油。引擎并未损坏。
DOUG JOHNSON: Once past the violent weather over Africa, Dick and Jeana began planning the way home. A computer confirmed that they had enough fuel left to make it. But as they flew up the coast of Mexico, the engine on the back of the plane failed. Fuel had stopped flowing to it.
一次，飞机通过了非洲上空的狂暴天气后，Dick和Jeana开始计划回去的线路。计算机确认他们有足够的剩余燃料。但是，当他们飞过墨西哥海岸的时候，后部的引擎熄火了，燃料也不再进入它。
The more powerful front engine already had been shut down earlier to save fuel. With neither engine working, Voyager quickly began to lose speed and height. The plane fell for five minutes. Dick finally got the front engine started again. Then fuel started flowing to the back engine, and it began to work again, too.
功率更强大的前引擎已经在早先被关闭，以节省燃料。由于没有引擎在工作，“航行者”迅速开始失去速度和高度。飞机下降持续了5分钟，Dick最终成功的使前引擎重新启动。随后燃料又流进了后引擎，它也又开始工作了。
FRANK OLIVER: Nine days after take-off, Voyager landed smoothly at Edwards Air Force Base in California. It had completed a Forty thousand kilometer flight around the world. It had not stopped. And it had not re-fueled.
出发9天之后，“航行者”号平稳地降落在加州爱德华兹空军基地。它完成了一次40000公里的环球飞行，并且没有降落或加油！
Dick said after landing: "This was the last major event of atmospheric flight." Jeana added: "It was a lot more difficult than we ever imagined."
降落之后，Dick说道：“这是航空事业最后的一个大事件。”Jeana补充说：“它比我们曾设想的困难的多了。”
Burt Rutan's revolutionary plane design had worked. And, with it, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager had joined the list of the world's greatest fliers.
不过Rutan革命性的飞机设计最终被证明是有效的。并且，凭借着它，Dick Rutan和Jeana Yeager成功跻身于世界上最伟大的飞行员之列。
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