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Science and Technology
科技
Air travel
飛機旅行
Please be seated
請就坐
A faster way of boarding planes could save time and money
一種更快速的登機方法可以節約時間和金錢
THE job of the professional astrophysicist is to contemplate the music of the spheres.
天體物理學家的工作是凝視太空，欣賞太空中的天體音樂（天文學家一直相信有天體音樂之說）。
Given the global nature of modern science, however, today's astrophysicists often spend just as much time confronting the cacophony of the airport.
然而，全球化的現代科學使得今天的天體物理學家也經常花費同樣的時間去消除機場方面的不和諧音符。
Now, one of them has devised a way to make that experience a little less tedious.
現在他們中的一員已經想出了一種方法可以使得登機的過程不再那么乏味。
Jason Steffen, from Fermilab, near Chicago, has designed and experimentally tested a faster method of boarding aeroplanes.
賈森.史蒂芬，來自于芝加哥附近的費米實驗室，已經設計并且實踐測試了一種快速登機的方法
By his calculation, it could save airlines hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
。經過他的測算，這種方法可以為航空公司每年節約數億美元的開銷。
Dr Steffen spends his time thinking about such things as extrasolar planets, dark matter and cosmology.
史蒂芬博士致力于例如太陽系外行星、暗物質、宇宙學等方面的研究。
After waiting in a particularly long queue to board a flight, though, he began to harbour an interest in the mechanics of getting people on to planes.
但是在經歷了一次超長的登機過程后，他對此展示出了興趣。
In 2008 he wrote a computer simulation to test different methods.
2008年他寫了一個計算機模擬程序來對不同的登機方法進行測試。
Using a numerical technique familiar to him from his day job, he was able to find what looked like the best.
通過他日常工作中擅長的數值計算方法來查找最佳方案。
He has put his answer to the test, and the results have just been submitted for publication to the Journal of Air Transport Management.
最終他得到了測試的結論，并且將其投稿到了《空運管理雜志》上。
According to Dr Steffen, two things bog down the boarding process.
史蒂芬博士提出有兩大因素容易阻礙登機過程。
The first is that passengers are often forced to wait in the aisle while those ahead of them stow their luggage and then get out of the way. The second is that passengers already seated in aisle or middle seats often have to get up and move into the aisle to let others take seats nearer the window.
第一個是前面的乘客需要安放好他們的行李后才能讓開過道，讓后面被迫等候的乘客通過；第二個是已經就坐在靠過道或者中間位置的乘客需要重新起身站到過道上，讓同排靠窗的乘客就坐。
Dr Steffen's proposal minimises the former type of disturbance and eliminates the latter.
史蒂芬博士實驗的目標是將第一個因素的影響最小化同時消除第二個因素。
In the Steffen method, passengers are boarded by seat type (ie, window, middle or aisle) while also ensuring that neighbours in the boarding queue are seated in alternating rows.
史蒂芬的方法是將乘客按照座位類型分類（例如靠窗、中間、過道），同時確認前后的乘客都是按照座位的不同排次交替排隊的（例如1、3、5排或者2、4、6排）。
First, the window seats for every other row on one side of the plane are boarded.
首先讓飛機側靠窗的隔排乘客率先登機，接著再換另一側靠窗的隔排乘客登機。
Next, alternate rows of window seats on the opposite side are boarded.
接下去讓兩邊被跳過的排序乘客先后就坐，這樣就靠窗的位子就坐滿了。
Then, the window seats in the skipped rows are filled in on each side. The procedure then repeats with the middle seats and the aisles.
然后重復同樣的方法來使得中間位子和靠過道的位子相繼就坐。
By boarding alternate rows in this way, passengers are spaced far enough apart along the aisle to stow their luggage in parallel, all at the same time. Because passengers in the same seat types board together, they do not have to step over each other to swap seats.
用這種方法讓交叉排序的乘客登機，使得他們可以同時在過道上有足夠的空間來將他們的行李安放到行李架上，而且因為每次登機時的乘客都是同一個座位分類，因此他們不需要從座位上起身給別人讓行。
To test the idea, Dr Steffen conducted a test using passengers and a mock Boeing 757 fuselage.
為了測試這個想法，史蒂芬博士用一個模擬的波音757機身和一些乘客做了個實驗。
The fuselage had a single aisle and 12 rows.
這個模擬機身有一條過道和12排。
Seventy-two passengers (including families with children) boarded, towing their bags and roll-aboard suitcases.
實驗中72名乘客（包括帶小孩的家庭）登機，并安放他們的包裹和行李箱。
In addition to the Steffen method, the team tried boarding in a strict back-to-front order, block boarding (the system now used by most airlines, with passengers assigned to groups within the cabin) and boarding in random order (which made its debut at American Airlines earlier this summer).
除了史蒂芬的方法外，實驗團隊還嘗試了另外兩種登機方法，有嚴格按照后排先上按區塊順序登機的分塊登機法（這個方法目前被大部分的航空公司采用，它根據乘客在機艙中的位置進行分組）和隨機登機法（這個方法在今年夏初被美國的航空公司采用）。
Standard block boarding turned out to be the slowest way to do things, taking almost seven minutes to fill the 12 rows.
標準的分區登機方法被證實是速度最慢的。坐滿12排幾乎需要7分鐘的時間。
Dr Steffen's system took half that time.
而史蒂芬博士的方法只需要其一半左右的時間。
Indeed, it was the fastest performing of the methods tested.
事實上，它是被測試的幾個方法中速度最快的了。
With full-sized planes, the benefit should increase, as more people can stow their luggage simultaneously along the longer aisles.
如果全尺寸的飛機使用這個方法，那受益會更多，因為會有更多的乘客在更長的通道上同時安放他們的行李。
Although Dr Steffen admits that the airline industry has shown no interest in his method so far, he points out that, in principle, there should be no barriers to its adoption.
盡管史蒂芬博士承認，還沒有航空公司對他的方法表現出興趣，但他指出，這個方法實施起來是沒有障礙的。
Though directing airline passengers on to a plane is a little like herding cats some airlines, such as Southwest, already try to get their passengers to line up in a certain order before boarding.
盡管有些廉價的航空公司例如美國西南航空，乘客們經常會一窩蜂的登機，但是也已經在嘗試讓他們的乘客們在登機前按照某種次序排隊。
If travellers believed that complying with the new arrangements really would make their lives easier, they would probably do so.
一旦乘客們確信遵照這種方法可以使他們活得更輕松，他們是會愿意這么做的。
And by Dr Steffen's calculations, airlines have a pretty strong incentive to persuade them.
而且經過史蒂芬博士的計算，航空公司有足夠吸引力的理由說服他們。
Previous work has shown that every minute a plane spends at the terminal costs $30. Assuming the average carrier runs 1,500 flights a day, saving as little as six minutes per flight would add up to $100m a year.
有數據表明飛機在停機位每分鐘的開銷是30美元，假設平均每個機場每天起飛1500架次飛機，每架次可以節約6分鐘的話，那每年至少可以節約一億美元。
For hard-pressed airlines running on razor-thin margins, that really would be astronomical.
對于處于重壓之下且薄利的航空公司來講，這無疑是個天文數字。
