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Business Aviation Flight to the future
商業 航空業 飛向未來
Modernising creaking air-traffic systems will be a huge task
實現老化的航空系統現代化是一個艱巨的任務
THESE days a $15,000 car comes with GPS satellite navigation fitted as standard.
目前，一輛價值一萬五千美元的轎車配有GPS導航系統，才被認為達到標準。
But a $150m airliner still has to be guided through the skies by spoken instructions from a bloke with a radio in a control tower.
但是一輛價值一億五千萬美元的客機在航行時依然是通過指揮塔臺上的人員通過廣播進行操控。
That is because air-traffic management (ATM) systems are stuck in the 1950s.
這是因為空中交通管理（ATM）系統還是上個世紀50年代的。
Instead of flying straight, planes must zigzag from one ground beacon to the next, and ascend and descend in steps, at each stage obtaining permission from the ground.
客機必須曲折地從一個信號站飛到下一個，而不是直線飛行；每一步上升或下降都需要得到地面的許可。
The controllers' radar only shows planes' approximate positions, so they must space them well apart.
空管員的雷達只能顯示出飛機的大概位置，好讓兩架飛機之間有足夠的距離。
All this wastes fuel and causes congestion and delays.
這些舉動都要浪費燃料，并造成擁堵和延誤。
The average flight in European airspace is 50km (31 miles) longer than it need be.
在歐洲領空，平均飛行距離比實際所需長50公里（合約31英里）。
So the world's aviation authorities are seeking to modernise the whole system, streamlining the routing of flights and providing much more real-time information to pilots and controllers.
因此，世界航空管理部門都在嘗試使整個系統實現現代化，讓航空路線效率更高，并向飛行員和空管員提供更多的實時信息。
This could lead to huge orders for electronics firms, which is why, in his recent jobs speech, President Barack Obama called for $1 billion of extra cash to speed up America's ATM-modernisation project, NextGen.
這可能會給電子公司帶來大量的訂單，也就是為什么巴拉克?奧巴馬總統在最近的講話中，呼吁給美國的ATM現代化工程"新世代"增加10億美元的額外投入。
A study by consultants from McKinsey of Europe's equivalent project, SESAR, finds that its costs should be dwarfed by the fuel savings and the economic boost from squeezing more flights into Europe's busy skies.
麥卡錫在歐洲的分公司也開展了同樣的名為SESAR的項目，其顧問進行了一次調研，發現讓原本擁擠的航線塞進更多的航班會帶來經濟利益激增，這樣航空設備更新換代的花費與燃料節約出的費用就顯得微不足道了。
America stands to make similar gains.
美國也準備通過相同的方法獲益。
It is in everyone's interest to invest in modernisation, but the airlines are wary: several times in recent history they have bought expensive kit only to find they cannot use it because controllers have failed to upgrade their equipment to match.
投資現代化是每個人的利益所在，但是各大航空公司卻十分謹慎，客機上裝配了昂貴的元件卻無法使用，因為空管員無法更新設備去匹配，這種情況近年來時有發生。
These sorts of ambitious projects to introduce new technology, with countless participants, are prone to cock-ups.
這種充滿抱負的項目旨在引進新技術，擁有大量的參與人員，但往往都會陷入混亂。
Those involved in ATM modernisation want to avoid what happened when mobile-phone standards were set, with different countries ending up with incompatible systems.
參與ATM現代化的人們希望避免移動電話標準確定時出現的情況，也就是不同的國家最終都開發了互不兼容的系統。
To guard against that risk, the UN's International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has just held a summit in Montreal, at which it divided the long list of ATM modernisation projects into manageable chunks, on which the world's aviation authorities will try to agree standards, one at a time.
為了規避這個風險，聯合國國際民用航空組織（ICAO）前不久在蒙特利爾召開了峰會，將長長的ATM現代化項目名單分成了幾個可操作的版塊，這樣，世界航空主管部門就能盡量循序漸進地統一標準。
The process has started well, though developing countries are said to worry about rich countries imposing costly programmes on them.
盡管據說發展中國家擔心發達國家會將高價的項目強加到自己身上，但這個進程還算開端良好。
Agreeing on technical standards will be difficult enough. Harder still, says Nancy Graham, an ICAO official, will be paying for it all.
統一技術標準已經夠困難的了，但據ICAO官員南希?格雷漢姆稱，更困難的是這一切要付出的代價。
