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Thunderbirds Are Gone,The Economist, July 22ed, 2013
雷鳥的消失，經濟學人，2013年7月13日
Readers of a certain age may remember Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's sci-fi puppet shows—"Supercar", "Fireball XL5","Stingray","Thunderbirds" and "Captain Scarlet"—filmed, as the Ander- sons put it, in " SuperMarionation ".
那個年齡段的讀者可能還記得格里和西爾維亞安德森，這些拍成電影的科幻木偶劇——"超級跑車"、"雷霆機"、"黃貂魚"、"雷鳥"和"超空人"，正如安德森在"Super marionation"里所提出的。
Those who remember "Captain Scarlet" in particular may find one of the pictures here eerily familiar.
尤其是那些記得"超空人"的讀者可能會發現上面圖片中的某張似曾相識。
English Electric's Fighter Jet Take-Off Platform, a flying airfield, is not quite the Cloud- base from which the immortal captain operated.
英國電氣公司的戰斗機起飛平臺，一個可飛行的機場，并不完全是一個由不朽船長操作的云端基地。
But it was intended, like its fictional counterpart, to launch and receive planes while itself airborne.
但它的目的也曾是，像虛構的對手，在它自己也飛行的同時發射和接收飛機。
It would have taken off and landed vertically in say, a jungle clearing otherwise inaccessible to the aircraft piggybacking on it.
它將會垂直的起飛和降落，比如說，飛機在一個叢林里，就必須要將場地先清理干凈，否則無法起飛。
MUSTARD (the Multi-Unit Space Transport And Recovery Device), was designed by the British Aircraft Corporation--BAC). It could pass for something out of "Fireball XL5" or "Supercar"
由英國飛機公司（BAC)設計的MUSTARD-多部件空間運輸和回收裝置可以將"雷霆機"或"超級跑車"中的一些東西轉化到現實中來
though it also resembles Virgin Galactic's Spaceship Two which will, Virgin hopes, soon be taking paying passengers to the edge of space.
盡管它像維珍銀河公司的太空船二號，維珍希望號，將會很快就會以付費的方式搭載乘客進入太空。
It would have been a three-stage space-plane, though only one stage would have made it into orbit. The other two were reusable boosters.
這將是一個三級航天飛機，雖然只需一個階段就會使它進入軌道。其他兩個是可重復使用的助推器。
An Anderson version of the "Jumping Jeep", also by BAC, it would have had 12 fans whose downdraft would have helped it over obstacles such as ditches.
一個安德森版的"跳躍吉普"，同樣是由英國飛機公司設計，機器安裝有12個風機，其產生的向下氣流會幫助它越過如溝渠般的障礙物。
And Hawker Siddeley's Intercity Vertical- Lift Aircraft, intended as a passenger plane that could land in urban airports not much bigger than pocket handkerchiefs.
而且悉得利公司的城際垂直升降飛機則試圖成為那種可以降落在比口袋手帕大不了多少的城市機場上的那種客機。
Sadly, none of these fantasies made it into metal. They remain as fictional as the Andersons' puppet shows.
可悲的是，這些幻想的飛行器沒有一個可以用金屬制造出來。它們仍然如同安德森家木偶劇一樣是虛構的。
Too expensive. Or too noisy. Or simply too silly. (Why build a vertical-take-off airfield when you can build a vertical-take-off fighter, as Hawker Siddeley showed with its world-beating Harrier?)
太過昂貴，或是噪音太大，或是太愚蠢（當你可以制造出一個垂直起降的戰斗機的時候為什么還要制造一個垂直起降的機場，就比如悉得利公司制造的鷂式戰斗機？）
But that is the strange thing about the future. Nothing ages faster than yesterday's dreams of tomorrow.Thank you.
但這對未來來說，是很奇妙的事情。沒有什么比昨天關于明天的夢想過時。謝謝。
