Nasa might be famous for sending rockets up to space quickly. But it could be making your next holiday come more quickly, too.美国宇航局或许因为飞速把火箭送到太空而著称，但它也有可能为你下个假期所乘的航班公里/小时。The space agency is working on a new plane, dubbed Concorde 2 by some people, that could solve the problems of super-sonic flight and vastly increase the speed of journeys abroad.该机构正在研发一种新型飞机，有人称作“协和式二号”，它也许可以解决问题超音速飞机的问题，大幅度提高国际航班的飞行速度。

If successful, the plane would be able to fly between New York and London in just three hours. And it would halve the time spent flying other journeys, since it could be used more broadly.如果新型超音速飞机研制成功，那么从纽约到伦敦的飞行中时间只必须3小时。该飞机还也可以普遍应用于其他行程，将飞行中时间减为。Until now, the problem with such planes has been the sonic boom, made famous by the original Concorde. That happens when a plane reaches supersonic speeds.目前为止，超音速飞机一直不存在音爆问题，当飞机的速度多达音速时，就不会再次发生音爆。初代协和式飞机竟然人们广泛认识到这点。

It is a thunderous noise that upsets people on the ground – disturbing livestock and even causing physical problems to materials and houses underneath. It was irritation with that effect that led Congress to ban such planes from being used over US land, a decision that in turn was partly responsible for Concorde failing to be commercially viable and getting mothballed.音爆是一种雷鸣般的噪音，它让地面上的人牲深感呼吸困难，甚至还不会对物体和房屋导致物理损害。正是这些负面影响引起的反感造成美国国会禁令了超音速飞机在美国国内飞行中，这个要求继而部分造成了协和式飞机无法之后商用，最后停航。The space agency has successfully tried out the technology in wind tunnels, and now believes that it could be put to commercial use. It now wants to test that out by having commercial companies build a version of the plane that could be put to use.美国宇航局早已在风洞里顺利测试了涉及技术并坚信可以将其运用在商业飞行中，他们现在期望由商业公司生产一架可以投入使用的飞机以展开首飞。That plane will fly as high as 55,000 feet – far higher than normal planes – and make a sound of only 60 decibels. Thats far less than the 90 decibels thrown out by Concorde, and is roughly in line with a car on the motorway or a busy restaurant.新型超音速飞机将在17000米的高空飞行中，飞行高度比普通飞机要低得多，其发出声音只有60分贝，近大于协和式飞机的90分贝，与高速公路上行经的汽车和繁华餐馆里的音量大体非常。

“Now youre getting down to that level where, as far as approval from the general public, it would probably be something thats acceptable,” said Peter Coen, project manager for NASAs commercial supersonic research team, in a new Bloomberg report.美国航空航天局商用超音速飞机研究团队的项目经理彼得?科恩在彭博社的新报导中认为，“现在我们早已要顺利了：只要公众表示同意，新型飞机就很有可能被大家拒绝接受”。If that allows the team to get approval, it hopes to have full-sized versions of the planes to try out by 2022.如果该团队能获得公众反对，那么未来将会在2022年前对原型飞机展开测试。

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