Finally, the long-awaited flying car is almost here.
終于，人們期待已久的飛行汽車就要面世了。

AeroMobil, a Slovakian company, plans to start selling its creation, the AeroMobil 3.0, in 2017.
斯洛伐克公司“AeroMobil”計劃在2017年開售創意新品AeroMobil 3.0。

The company claims on its site that the vehicle "transforms in seconds from an automobile to an airplane" by using "existing infrastructure created for automobiles and planes."
AeroMobil在官網上發文稱，這款飛行汽車“能利用現有的汽車和飛機基礎配置”，“在幾秒內從汽車變成飛機”。

The vehicle is gas-powered and has wings that fold, which allows it to be parked like a car, though it is nearly 20 feet long.
AeroMobil 3.0是汽油動力車，兩翼可折疊，折起后可以像正常車輛一樣停靠，不過，該車車身長近20英尺（約6米）。

The company's web site features a video where the AeroMobil 3.0 drives out of a hangar and goes down a highway, sharing the road with regular cars until it arrives at an airstrip. The car then unfolds its wings and takes off from a stretch of grass, rather than a paved tarmac, and flies through the air like any other small airplane.
AeroMobi在官網公布了介紹視頻。視頻中，AeroMobil 3.0從飛機庫中駛向高速路，和普通汽車一起行駛。進入飛機跑道后，它張開雙翼，沒有從平坦的柏油路面起飛，而是在草場上升空，像其他任何小型飛機一樣在空中翱翔。

AeroMobil spokesman Stefan Vadocz said his company hasn't nailed down an exact price because it's not ready yet.
AeroMobil的發言人史蒂芬·瓦多茨表示，公司目前還未對此款飛行汽車進行具體定價，因為產品尚未完全成型。

"The prototype is a work in progress," he said in an email. But he said to expect the price to be several hundreds of thousands of euros, somewhere in between a sports car and a light sports aircraft.
他在郵件中寫道：“原型機仍在制造中。”價格預計會在數十萬歐元，介于跑車和輕型運動類飛機之間。

The vehicle seats two people -- the pilot and a passenger - and its single propeller is located to the rear of the plane.
AeroMobil 3.0可容納兩人：一名駕駛員和一名乘客。其單螺旋槳位于飛機尾部。

The company said the car's top speed on the road is at least 99 mph and while flying is at least 124 mph. It can fly for 435 miles before running out of gas.
AeroMobil公司說，AeroMobil 3.0飛行汽車在地面的最高時速至少99英里（約159千米），空中的最高時速至少達124英里（約199千米）。一滿箱油可以支持435英里（約700千米）的飛行。

It has a steel framework and carbon coating and is powered by a Rotax 912, a four-cylinder aircraft engine from BRP of Austria.
這款車內部有鋼架結構，外部是碳涂層，奧地利BRP公司制造的四缸“Rotax 912”航空引擎為其提供動力。

Flying cars aren't exactly new. The concept has been around since long before "The Jetsons" popularized the idea in the 1960s. It's been a regular topic in Popular Science ever since World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker wrote about it in 1924.
飛行汽車這個概念并不新鮮。雖然這個概念隨著動畫片《杰森一家》的播出流行于上世紀60年代，但其實在那之前，它已經存在很久了。1924年，第一次世界大戰的王牌飛行員艾迪·里肯巴克寫下了這個構想，之后，飛行汽車的概念就時常成為《大眾科學》雜志上的話題。

But getting a practical, reliable flying car off the ground has been a serious challenge.
不過，想要造出實用又安全的飛行汽車一直是個嚴峻的挑戰。

Glenn Curtiss, a rival of the Wright Brothers, discovered this in 1918 when he developed the Curtiss Autoplane. It turned out to be more of a hopper than a flyer, so it failed to take off with the public.
格倫·柯蒂斯是萊特兄弟的競爭對手。1918年，他在研制柯蒂斯自動控制飛機時就發現了設計飛行汽車的困難之處。最終造出來的與其說是會“飛”的汽車，倒不如說是能“跳”的汽車，所以未能成功面世。

The AeroMobil 3.0 has at least one competitor, the Terrafugia Transition, which also runs on gas and has folding wings. Terrafugia has said in the past that it plans to release the Transition into the market this year.
AeroMobil 3.0已經至少有一個競爭對手了——同樣為汽油動力、擁有折疊機翼的“特拉弗吉亞變形者”。美國特拉弗吉亞公司曾表示將于今年開始銷售這款飛車。

英文來源：CNN
譯者：wairviv（中國日報網愛新聞iNews譯者）
審校&編輯：杜娟