英国航空飞行员答疑:飞行中为什么会有“噪音”? | 双语阅读

生锈的手指、

飞机飞行时发出的各种响声总是引起我们的好奇和不安。对此，英国航空公司飞行员Mark Vanhoenacker为英国《金融时报》撰文，从飞行员的角度，从飞机起飞前到落地，从飞行中发出的持续“蜂鸣声”到飞机货舱发出的疑似“犬吠”声，详细为你解读那些声音所代指的意义。

Photo credit: Getty Images

全文共937个单词。

If I sometimes prefer to travel as a passenger, one reason is that passengers, unlike pilots, can listen to music while they fly. I first fell in love with this pairing as a headphones-clad, aviation-obsessed teenager. I’d pick songs for each phase of flight — especially for landing, when I’d carefully watch the approaching Earth and rewind as necessary, to ensure the song I’d chosen didn’t end before the flight did.

如果说我有时候更想当一名乘客，一个原因就是，与飞行员不同，乘客可以在飞行途中听音乐。我第一次爱上飞行时听音乐的时候，还是个喜欢头戴式耳机、痴迷于飞行的少年。我会为飞行中的每个阶段挑选歌曲，特别是降落时，我会仔细地观察飞机与地面的距离，必要时会将歌曲倒回，以确保我选的歌不会在落地前播完。

One reason to remove your headphones, however is the chance to explore the sounds that the aeroplane itself makes. Indeed, several readers — including a few nervous fliers — have got in touch to ask me to explain some of the noises encountered on board.

不过飞行时摘下耳机的一个原因是，让乘客有机会探索飞机本身发出的声音。确实一些读者，包括少部分焦虑的乘客都找到我，想让我解释下飞机上的一些噪音。



Photo credit: Getty Images

Let’s start before take-off. From beneath your feet, you may hear cargo being loaded. Cargo doors themselves make distinctive sounds as they’re opened, closed and locked. Changes to the hum of the air conditioning, and the “click” of electrical changeovers, may occur as we switch between electrical and air supplies provided by the airport itself, and systems powered either by the APU (the auxiliary power unit, a small, extra engine located in the tail) or the main engines.

那我们从起飞前开始讲吧。你脚下传来的声音，可能是货物装载声。货舱门打开、关闭以及锁定时都会发出很明显的声音。还有空调蜂鸣声和电力转换器的“咔嗒声”，这是从机场提供的电力和送风系统，切换到飞机自身辅助动力装置（APU是一个额外的小引擎，位于飞机尾部）或主引擎提供动力时发出的声音。

① auxiliary [ɔgˈzɪljəri] adj. 辅助的；副的；附加的；（发动机、设备等）备用的；n. 助动词；辅助者，辅助物；附属机构；（北美）志愿队；（海军的）辅助舰队

例句：The government's first concern was to augment the army and auxiliary forces. 政府首要关注的是扩充军队与后备军。



Photo credit: Getty Images

Air conditioning sounds may drop away during engine start — on many aircraft, air is used to spin up the engines before ignition — and then return with added oomph. When I flew Airbus jets, we occasionally received queries about the “dog in the cargo compartment”, despite not having any four-legged customers on the manifest. The distinctive “barking” sound comes from the Power Transfer Unit, or PTU, an ingenious device that essentially allows two hydraulic power systems to co-operate, while ensuring that a potential leak in one will never affect the other. Before take-off you’ll also hear a distinctive whirring as the flaps and slats are extended from the wings. In the simplest terms, these panels make the wings bigger and more effective, allowing us to take off and land at slower speeds.

空调的声音可能会在引擎启动时逐渐消失——很多类型的飞机，在点火前都是先通过空气来推动引擎转动——之后空调声音又恢复，而且还比之前响。当我驾驶空客飞机时，我们偶尔会收到一些关于“狗在货舱”之类的询问，尽管货单上没有四只脚的乘客。飞机上神似“犬吠”的声音实际来自动力转换组件，或者简称PTU。其设计巧妙，可以让两个液压动力系统协同工作，确保一个如有漏压风险不会影响到另一个。在起飞前，你还会听到副翼和缝翼从机翼上展开时，发出的明显的呼呼声。简单地说，这些嵌板可以增大机翼面积，使其工作得更有效，让飞机在一个较低速度起飞和降落。

② ignition [ɪɡ'nɪʃən] n. 点火，点燃；着火，燃烧；点火开关，点火装置

例句：The device automatically disconnects the ignition. 那个装置自动断开了点火器。



Screenshot: NASA

Cabin chimes — which several readers asked about — vary by aircraft type and the chime’s purpose. There are single chimes, double chimes, “high-low” chimes and other combinations. For passengers, the most relevant — typically a single chime — announces a change in the status of passenger signs, most prominently the seatbelt signs (which, to answer another reader’s query, are controllable only from the flight deck). Other chimes are for the cabin crew. They indicate that a certain altitude has been passed; that the gear has been lowered; or that a passenger has pressed the attendant call bell at their seat or in a washroom. Chimes also serve as ringtones for the aircraft’s internal telephone system. Distinctive chimes indicate, for example, that an incoming call is from one “interphone” to another; from one interphone to all interphones; or from the flight deck.

客舱提示音——一些读者问过这一问题——因机型和提示目的而有所不同。飞机上有单次提示音、双次提示音、“高低”提示音以及其他组合的提示音。对乘客来说，和他们联系最紧密的通常是单次提示音。它表示乘客座椅上方指示灯状态的改变，最主要的就是安全带指示灯（回答另一位读者的疑问，安全带指示灯只能由驾驶舱控制）。其他的提示音则由客舱工作人员掌控。这些提示音包括飞机经过某一海拔高度，起落架已经放下，又或是一位乘客在座位上或卫生间里按下了客舱服务呼叫铃。提示音还可以作为飞机内部电话系统的铃声。比如，一些特别的提示音表示的是该通电话是由一个对讲机向另一个对讲机拨出，或者一个对讲机向所有对讲机拨出，又或是该通电话是由驾驶舱拨出的。

③ chime [tʃaɪm] v. 鸣；敲；报时；n. 铃声；(尤指) 钟声；

例句：He heard the front doorbell chime. 他听到前门门铃在响。

④ prominently ['prɔminəntli] adv. 显著地

例句：Google will let users choose which sources show up most prominently in their news feeds. 同时，谷歌会让使用者自己选择何种新闻源出现在显著位置。



Photo credit: Getty Images

We trigger other chimes from the flight deck to indicate that take-off is imminent. Take-off itself, of course, is notable for the change in engine noise. You’ll usually hear an initial increase of thrust to verify engine response, followed by a much larger one. Right after take-off you’ll hear powerful motors retract the landing gear and close the gear doors. Soon afterwards, engine sounds can change markedly as we switch from a take-off to a “climb” power setting, or when air traffic control asks us to temporarily level off (and then when they ask us to climb further). There’s more whirring as we retract the flaps and slats. In the cruise, you might be surprised to learn that much of the steady background hum is from the air-conditioning system, not the engines. Listen carefully and you might hear the difference.

从驾驶舱发出的其他提示音，表示飞机即将起飞。当然，起飞本身就因引擎噪音的变化而容易被注意到。通常情况下你会听到飞机初始加速推动的声音，以确认引擎的反应，接下来是更响的声音。起飞后，你会听到强大的马力收回起落架和起落架门关闭发出的很大的声音。不久之后，当从起飞转换到“爬升”动力模式，又或是空中交通管制要求暂时水平飞行时（之后他们会要求继续爬升飞行），飞机引擎的声音也会发生明显的变化。当收缩副翼和缝翼时，会有更多的呼呼声。在巡航中，你可能会惊奇地发现，大部分稳定的蜂鸣背景声是来自空调系统，而不是引擎。仔细听，你可能会听出不同之处。

⑤ imminent ['ɪmɪnənt] adj. 即将来临的；迫近的

例句：There appeared no imminent danger. 眼前似乎没有危险。

On the descent, the hum of the engines drops when we leave cruising altitude, only to rise again if air traffic control asks us temporarily to level off. There are chimes aplenty, too: we turn the seatbelt signs on or ring the cabin crew to advise them of a change to our arrival time. We extend the flaps and slats to slow down, resulting in this common sequence of sounds: the engines quieten; the flaps or slats whirr out to a new position; then the engines rise again to hold the new, lower speed. A few seconds of a deeper rushing sound, often accompanied by gentle vibration, is caused by the speed brakes. These panels rise from the top of the wing — disrupting the air flow over it, hence the noise — to help us slow down, descend, or both.

下降过程中，当离开巡航高度，引擎的蜂鸣声会变小；如果空中交通管制要求暂时水平飞行时，声音会再次变大。此时的提示音种类也比较丰富：我们会打开安全带指示灯或者呼叫客舱工作人员，告诉他们抵达时间的变化。我们会展开副翼和缝翼来减速，这样会产生一系列常听到的声音：引擎逐渐安静，副翼或缝翼会发出呼呼声并展开到一个新位置，之后引擎声音会再次变大，飞机低速飞行。几秒较深沉的撞击声，通常还伴有轻微的震动，是由减速装置发出的。这些嵌板从机翼上方升起来，帮助飞机减速、下降，或者两者兼而有之。这个过程中干扰机翼上方的气流，因此发出了噪音。

⑥ vibration [vaɪ'breʃən] n. 振动；犹豫；心灵感应

例句：They only differ by degrees of vibration. 他们唯一不同之处在于震动程度。

The landing gear is lowered, increasing both drag and noise. If you’re near the cockpit, you may hear the pilots disengage the autopilot — on an Airbus you might hear the distinctive “cricket chirp”; on Boeings, it’s an equally unmistakable siren.

起落架放下，增加阻力和噪音。如果你坐在驾驶舱附近，你也许还能听见飞行员解除自动驾驶的声音。这个声音在空客飞机上，是独特的与蟋蟀唧唧声类似的声音，在波音飞机上也是同样清晰的警报声。



Photo credit: Getty Images

You may even hear the plane speak to the pilots. Imagine an approach through mist or low cloud. Typically, we can’t descend below a specified altitude unless we can see the runway or its lights, at which point Boeing jets memorably urge their pilots: “Decide!” (A friend of mine, a Silicon Valley executive, sometimes plays a recorded “decide” call in tedious meetings).

你也许甚至能听见飞机和飞行员对话。试想一下穿过迷雾或者低云的时候。通常情况下，除非能看见跑道或跑道上的灯光，否则我们无法下降到特定高度以下。此时，波音飞机会明确地催促飞行员们“请决断！”（我有一个在硅谷当高管的朋友，他有时候会在乏味的会议上播放一个“请决断”的录音。）

Finally, just after touchdown, there’s a sudden noise when the engines are placed into one of several reverse modes. The engines don’t actually run in reverse. Rather, their thrust is redirected to aid deceleration. The result is a brief, whooshing techno-roar, and back when I was the kid by the window, turning up the volume on my Walkman for the last few hundred feet of the descent, this was how all the best songs ended.

最后，在落地后，当发动机置于几种倒档模式之一时，飞机会发出突然的噪音。引擎实际上并没有逆向运行。相反，他们的推力被重定向以帮助减速。这一结果就是一声短暂的、呼呼作响的电音咆哮。当我还是窗边的少年时，我会在下降过程的最后几百英尺，调高我随身听的音量，所有最好听的歌都该以此结尾。

⑦ deceleration [di,sɛlə'reʃən] n. 减速

例句：This means that in emergency situations or sudden deceleration, the transmission can quicklystep down to LOW gear . 这意味着在紧急情况或突然减速时变速器能够快速的降到低齿轮。

Mark Vanhoenacker is the author of ‘Skyfaring’ and ‘How to Land a Plane’. He flies the Boeing 787 for British Airways.

Mark Vanhoenacker（马克・凡霍纳克 ）著有《飞行的奥义》和《如何降落一架飞机》。他是英国航空公司飞行员，驾驶波音787机型。



Screenshot: Markvanhoenacker.com

词组拓展

drop away

离开；逐渐减少；点点滴滴地消失

例句：Concentrate the mind on one thought and all other thoughts will drop away. 将头脑集中在一个念头上，其它念头就会离开。

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