New era of airships set to take flight in 2026

新時代的飛船預計在2026年啟航

【摘要2022-11-20日.自由】◎林雨萱

Passengers in Spain could soon be boarding airships instead of jets for short-haul flights.

在西班牙的乘客很快能夠搭乘飛船而非飛機，進行短途旅行。

Air Nostrum, an airline owned by the same company as British Airways, ordered 10 helium airships to be used for regional travel.

跟英國航空所屬同公司的諾斯特姆航空預訂10艘氦氣飛船用於區域旅行。

The airships could start flying passengers on routes such as Barcelona to the Mediterranean island of Mallorca as soon as 2026.

這些飛船最快可以在2026年用於巴塞隆納到地中海島嶼馬略卡島等航線載客。

The Airlander 10 has a helium-filled hull and uses combustion engines that burn jet fuel, but the company said it planned to switch to electric engines to reduce carbon emissions by 2030.

飛行者10號有一個氦氣填充的船體，而且使用燃燒噴射機燃料的內燃機，但是公司表示，計畫在2030年前將內燃機轉變成電動引擎以減少碳排放量。

Trips on the airships would be considerably slower than on passenger jets, but be much greener.

搭乘飛船旅行的速度比客機緩慢許多，但是更加環保。

Planes have been slower to become electrified than cars. One of the reasons is that the technology to create powerful batteries needed to get planes airborne is not as developed.

飛機電氣化發展比汽車來得慢。其中一個原因是，製造使飛機升空所需的強效電池技術尚不發達。

新聞辭典

board：動詞，（使）上（船、火車或飛機）。例句：David board a plane to Japan this morning. （大衛今天早上搭機前往日本。）

considerably：副詞，相當多地。例句：Sunny does considerably better than before.（桑妮做得比之前好多了。）

airborne：形容詞，在空中的、空運的、空氣傳播的。例句：Airborne troops dropped on the ground safely. （空降部隊安全降落。）