Wilbur and Orville Wright: The First Airplane
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Wilbur and Orville Wright are the American inventors who made a small engine-powered flying machine. They proved that flight without the aid of gas-filled balloons was possible.
威尔伯·赖特和奥维尔·赖特是美国发明家，他们制造了一种小型发动机驱动的飞行器。 他们证明，无需充气气球的帮助，飞行也是可能的。
Wilbur Wright was born in 1867 near Melville, Indiana. His brother Orville was born four years later in Dayton, Ohio.
威尔伯·赖特 (Wilbur Wright) 1867 年出生于印第安纳州梅尔维尔附近。 四年后，他的兄弟奥维尔出生在俄亥俄州代顿。
As they grew up, the Wright brothers experimented with mechanical things. Later, the Wright brothers began to design their own flying machine. They used ideas they had developed from earlier experiments with a toy helicopter, kites, the printing machine and bicycles.
随着莱特兄弟长大，他们开始尝试机械事物。 后来，莱特兄弟开始设计自己的飞行器。 他们使用了从早期的玩具直升机、风筝、印刷机和自行车实验中得出的想法。
Soon, they needed a place to test their ideas about flight. The best place with the best wind conditions seemed to be a piece of sandy land in North Carolina along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. It was called Kill Devil Hill, near the town of Kitty Hawk.
很快，他们需要一个地方来测试他们关于飞行的想法。 风力条件最好的地方似乎是北卡罗来纳州大西洋沿岸的一块沙地。 它被称为杀魔山，位于基蒂霍克镇附近。
The Wright brothers did many tests with gliders at Kitty Hawk. With these tests, they learned how to solve many problems.
莱特兄弟在基蒂霍克用滑翔机进行了多次测试。 通过这些测试，他们学会了如何解决许多问题。
By the autumn of 1903, Wilbur and Orville had designed and built an airplane powered by a gasoline engine. The plane had wings 12 meters across. It weighed about 340 kilograms, including the pilot.
1903 年秋，威尔伯和奥维尔设计并制造了一架由汽油发动机驱动的飞机。 这架飞机的机翼直径为 12 米。 包括飞行员在内，其重量约为340公斤。
On December 17th, 1903, they made the world's first flight in a machine that was heavier than air and powered by an engine. Orville flew the plane 36 meters. He was in the air for 12 seconds. The two brothers made three more flights that day.
1903 年 12 月 17 日，他们驾驶比空气重并由发动机提供动力的机器进行了世界上首次飞行。 奥维尔驾驶飞机飞行了 36 米。 他在空中停留了12秒。 当天，两兄弟又飞行了三趟。
Four other men watched the Wright brothers' first flights. One of the men took pictures. Few newspapers, however, noted the event.
另外四人观看了莱特兄弟的首次飞行。 其中一名男子拍照。 然而，很少有报纸注意到这一事件。
It was almost five years before the Wright brothers became famous. In 1908, Wilbur went to France. He gave demonstration flights at heights of 90 meters. A French company agreed to begin making the Wright brothers' flying machine.
莱特兄弟成名已经快五年了。 1908年，威尔伯去了法国。 他在90米的高度进行了演示飞行。 一家法国公司同意开始制造莱特兄弟的飞行器。
Orville made successful flights in the United States at the time Wilbur was in France. The United States War Department agreed to buy a Wright brothers' plane. Wilbur and Orville suddenly became world heroes. But the brothers were not seeking fame. They returned to Dayton where they continued to improve their airplanes. They taught many others how to fly.
当威尔伯在法国时，奥维尔在美国成功飞行。 美国陆军部同意购买一架莱特兄弟的飞机。 威尔伯和奥维尔突然成为世界英雄。 但兄弟俩并不追求名誉。 他们返回代顿，继续改进他们的飞机。 他们教了许多其他人如何飞行。
Wilbur Wright died of typhoid fever in 1912. Orville Wright continued designing and inventing until he died many years later, in 1948.
1912 年，威尔伯·赖特 (Wilbur Wright) 因伤寒去世。 奥维尔·赖特 (Orville Wright) 继续设计和发明，直到多年后的 1948 年去世。
Today, the Wright brothers' first airplane is in the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Visitors to the museum can look at the Wright brothers' small plane. Then they can walk to another area and see space vehicles and a rock collected from the moon. The world has changed a lot since Wilbur and Orville Wright began the modern age of flight over one hundred years ago.
如今，莱特兄弟的第一架飞机陈列在华盛顿特区的航空航天博物馆中。 参观博物馆的游客可以观赏莱特兄弟的小型飞机。 然后他们可以步行到另一个区域，看到太空飞行器和从月球收集的岩石。 自一百多年前威尔伯和奥维尔·赖特开启现代飞行时代以来，世界发生了很大变化。
Marilyn Rice Christiano wrote this story for VOA Learning English. John Russell adapted it. ______________________________________________________ glider– n. a flying object similar to an airplane but without an engine
玛丽莲·赖斯·克里斯蒂亚诺为美国之音英语学习频道撰写了这个故事。 约翰·罗素对其进行了改编。 ______________________________________________________ 滑翔机——n.类似于飞机但没有发动机的飞行物体