本世纪以来，许多奇特的新型交通工具相继问世，其中最为奇特的，或许便是气垫船。
Many strange new means of transport have been developed in our century, the strangest of them being perhaps the hovercraft.
1953年，一位年届五十的前电子工程师——克里斯托弗·科克雷尔，彼时已转行在诺福克水域从事船舶建造——将他多年来苦心钻研的一个构想提交给英国政府和工业界。
In 1953, a former electronics engineer in his fifties, Christopher Cockerell, who had turned to boat-building on the Norfolk Broads, suggested an idea on which he had been working for many years to the British Government and industrial circles.
那是一种让飞行器骑行在"垫子"上的构想——这里的垫子是低压空气形成的气垫，外围以一圈高压气流幕帘环绕。
It was the idea of supporting a craft on a 'pad', or cushion, of low-pressure air, ringed with a curtain of higher pressure air.
此后，人们一直难以判定这种飞行器究竟应归属于船舶、飞机还是陆地交通工具之列——因为它是某种介于船与飞机之间的特殊存在。
Ever since, people have had difficulty in deciding whether the craft should be ranged among ships, planes, or land vehicles--for it is something in between a boat and an aircraft.
作为一名造船者，科克雷尔一直试图找到解决波浪阻力问题的方案——正是这种波浪阻力耗费了水面船舶相当大的动力，并限制了其航速。
As a shipbuilder, Cockerell was trying to find a solution to the problem of the wave resistance which wastes a good deal of a surface ship's power and limits its speed.
他的解答是：通过让飞行器骑行于一层不超过一两英尺厚的气垫之上，从而将船体从水中托起。
His answer was to lift the vessel out of the water by making it ride on a cushion of air, no more than one or two feet thick.
这是通过飞行器底部大量的环形喷气口来实现的。
This is done by a great number of ring-shaped air jets on the bottom of the craft.
因此，它确实"飞行"，但却无法飞得更高——它的运作取决于它所行驶的那个表面，无论是水面还是地面。
It 'flies', therefore, but it cannot fly higher--its action depends on the surface, water or ground, over which it rides.
1959年，在索伦特海峡进行的首次测试引发了轰动。
The first tests on the Solent in 1959 caused a sensation.
气垫船先是飞越水面，继而登上海滩，爬上沙丘，最终停落在一条公路上。
The hovercraft travelled first over the water, then mounted the beach, climbed up the dunes, and sat down on a road.
此后，气垫船横渡英吉利海峡，平稳地越过海浪——而海浪对它来说毫无问题。
Later it crossed the Channel, riding smoothly over the waves, which presented no problem.
自那以来，各种型号的气垫船相继出现，并投入了定期运营服务。
Since that time, various types of hovercraft have appeared and taken up regular service.
气垫船在通讯设施落后的广大地区（如非洲或澳大利亚）尤为有用；它可以成为"飞翔的水果篮"，将香蕉从种植园运往港口；巨型气垫船客轮可以横跨大西洋；未来的铁路或许就是"气垫列车"——依靠气垫悬行于单轨之上而从不触及轨道，时速高达300英里——种种可能，似乎无穷无尽。
The hovercraft is particularly useful in large areas with poor communications such as Africa or Australia; it can become a 'flying fruit-bowl', carrying bananas from the plantations to the ports; giant hovercraft liners could span the Atlantic; and the railway of the future may well be the 'hovertrain', riding on its air cushion over a single rail, which it never touches, at speeds, up to 300 m.p.h.--the possibilities appear unlimited.