商业 航空业 飞向未来

　　Modernising creaking air-traffic systems will be a huge task

　　实现老化的航空系统现代化是一个艰巨的任务

　　THESE days a $15,000 car comes with GPS satellite navigation fitted as standard.

　　目前，一辆价值一万五千美元的轿车配有GPS导航系统，才被认为达到标准。

　　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.

　　但是一辆价值一亿五千万美元的客机在航行时依然是通过指挥塔台上的人员通过广播进行操控。

　　That is because air-traffic management (ATM) systems are stuck in the 1950s.

　　这是因为空中交通管理（ATM）系统还是上个世纪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.

　　客机必须曲折地从一个信号站飞到下一个，而不是直线飞行；每一步上升或下降都需要得到地面的许可。

　　The controllers' radar only shows planes' approximate positions, so they must space them well apart.

　　空管员的雷达只能显示出飞机的大概位置，好让两架飞机之间有足够的距离。

　　All this wastes fuel and causes congestion and delays.

　　这些举动都要浪费燃料，并造成拥堵和延误。

　　The average flight in European airspace is 50km (31 miles) longer than it need be.

　　在欧洲领空，平均飞行距离比实际所需长50公里（合约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，世界航空管理部门都在尝试使整个系统实现现代化，让航空路线效率更高，并向飞行员和空管员提供更多的实时信息。

　　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.

　　这可能会给电子公司带来大量的订单，也就是为什么巴拉克?奥巴马总统在最近的讲话中，呼吁给美国的ATM现代化工程"新世代"增加10亿美元的额外投入。

　　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.

　　麦卡锡在欧洲的分公司也开展了同样的名为SESAR的项目，其顾问进行了一次调研，发现让原本拥挤的航线塞进更多的航班会带来经济利益激增，这样航空设备更新换代的花费与燃料节约出的费用就显得微不足道了。

　　America stands to make similar gains.

　　美国也准备通过相同的方法获益。

　　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.

　　投资现代化是每个人的利益所在，但是各大航空公司却十分谨慎，客机上装配了昂贵的元件却无法使用，因为空管员无法更新设备去匹配，这种情况近年来时有发生。

　　These sorts of ambitious projects to introduce new technology, with countless participants, are prone to cock-ups.

　　这种充满抱负的项目旨在引进新技术，拥有大量的参与人员，但往往都会陷入混乱。

　　Those involved in ATM modernisation want to avoid what happened when mobile-phone standards were set, with different countries ending up with incompatible systems.

　　参与ATM现代化的人们希望避免移动电话标准确定时出现的情况，也就是不同的国家最终都开发了互不兼容的系统。

　　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.

　　为了规避这个风险，联合国国际民用航空组织（ICAO）前不久在蒙特利尔召开了峰会，将长长的ATM现代化项目名单分成了几个可操作的版块，这样，世界航空主管部门就能尽量循序渐进地统一标准。

　　The process has started well, though developing countries are said to worry about rich countries imposing costly programmes on them.

　　尽管据说发展中国家担心发达国家会将高价的项目强加到自己身上，但这个进程还算开端良好。

　　Agreeing on technical standards will be difficult enough. Harder still, says Nancy Graham, an ICAO official, will be paying for it all.

　　统一技术标准已经够困难的了，但据ICAO官员南希?格雷汉姆称，更困难的是这一切要付出的代价。