拥有一辆飞行汽车是怎样一种体验？作为Google创始人之一，现为Alphabet公司CEO的拉里·佩奇（Larry Page）可是拥有三辆飞车的人。

What is the experience of having a flying car? As one of the founders of Google, Larry Paige, now the Alphabet CEO of Larry (Larry Page), has three people who fly.

最早拉里·佩奇资助的初创公司Kitty Hawk开发了两座的飞行出租车Cora，随后又推出一款名为Flyer的运动飞艇。最新加入飞行工具战局的，是一间加拿大公司 Opener，他们提出了有8个引擎的单人飞车 BlackFly ，可以以每小时 100km/h 的速度飞 40km 远。虽然在这家创业公司的公告中没有提到这位谷歌联合创始人，但是随后Opener 发布了一份新闻稿，承认佩奇确实参与了该项目。

Larry Kitty, the first start-up company by Hawk, developed two flying taxis Cora, and then launched a sports airship called Flyer. The latest entry to the flight tool war is a Canada Company Opener, who has proposed a single - man BlackFly with 8 engines that can fly 40km at a speed of 100km/h per hour. Although the Google co - founder was not mentioned in the company's announcement, Opener later released a press release that admitted that page did take part in the project.

飞行汽车（官方叫法是 eVTOLs——垂直起降的飞机）作为航空电动摩托车，从优步(Uber)到空中客车(Airbus)，它们都在努力建造轻型飞机和所需的航空网络，另外还有其他资金充裕的初创企业，比如美国的Joby、德国的Volocopter和中国的EHang。

Flying cars (officially called eVTOLs, vertical takeoff and landing aircraft) as a motorized motorbike, from Uber to Airbus, are trying to build light aircraft and the required aviation network, and other capital start-ups, such as the American Joby, the German Volocopter and China. EHang.

Kitty Hawk 和 Opener 都位于加利福尼亚州帕洛阿尔托，相互距离只有几栋建筑，但几乎没有任何联系。据知情人士透露，他们的首席执行官必须争夺佩奇的注意力和资金。无疑，佩奇现在控制着世界上最先进的三个飞行汽车项目，遥遥领先于其他竞争对手，就是上文提到的那些。

Kitty Hawk and Opener are all located in Palo Artaud, California, and have few connections with each other from only a few buildings. According to people familiar with the matter, their CEO must contend with page's attention and funding. Undoubtedly, page now controls three of the world's most advanced flying car projects, far ahead of other competitors, those mentioned above.

佩奇在该领域的投资最早始于一家名为Levt Inc的小公司，该公司由斯坦福航空教授 Ilan Kroo 在2010年创立。 Kroo 是最早意识到轻型机身材料、计算机控制、电池和电动机的进步可以实现小型电动飞机的人之一。

Paige's investment in this field started with a small company called Levt Inc, founded by Standford aviation professor Ilan Kroo in 2010. Kroo is one of the first to realize that light body material, computer control, battery and motor progress can achieve small electric aircraft.

它的卖点在于：与传统直升机相比，空中出租车会更安静，理论上也更安全。更重要的是，它们可以从较小的地方起飞（降落），比如家庭车道或停车场。支持者认为飞行出租车可以缓解拥挤的城市交通，尽管所面临的风险仍然未知。

Its selling point is that compared with traditional helicopters, air taxis will be quieter and safer theoretically. More importantly, they can take off from smaller areas, such as family lanes or parking lots. Proponents believe that flying taxis can alleviate crowded urban traffic, though the risks still remain unknown.

目前为止，还没有商用的电动飞机，或油电混合动力飞机，因此这也使得这个项目更加困难，因为工程师们将不得不为这项任务开发专用电池。飞行需要消耗大量能量，现在大多数的电池技术还没有能与之匹配的，对于提供一定的电量来说它们都太重了。大多数专家预测，要想该技术实现更长时间飞行，少说几年，多则需要十几年。另一方面，美国联邦航空管理局和地方监管机构也会密切关注监测、管理这些飞机。

So far, there are no commercial electric aircraft, or oil and electric hybrid aircraft, so this makes the project more difficult, because engineers will have to develop special batteries for this task. Flying requires a lot of energy, and most battery technologies have not yet been able to match them. They are too heavy for a certain amount of electricity. Most experts predict that it will take more than ten years for the technology to achieve longer flights and less years. On the other hand, the FAA and local regulators will pay close attention to monitoring and managing these aircraft.

但佩奇似乎并不关心其中所涉及的风险。他从未公开谈论过他的飞行汽车项目，但他一直是Google（现在是Alphabet）高风险、高回报的 X Moonshot 项目（Google 将一些非常疯狂，不太可能实现的项目称为是 Moonshot）背后的驱动力。 他在2013年的谷歌会议上说：“我们应该专注于构建不存在的东西。”

But page does not seem to care about the risks involved. He has never talked publicly about his flying car project, but he has been the driving force behind Google (now Alphabet) the high risk, highly rewarding X Moonshot project (Google has some very crazy, unlikely projects called Moonshot). "We should concentrate on building things that do not exist," he said at a Google conference in 2013.

佩奇资助的 Kroo 的公司 Levt，在 2011年迅速更名为 Zee.Aero，专注于造出第一辆电动飞行出租车。

Levt, a Kroo funded company, quickly changed its name to Zee.Aero in 2011, focusing on building the first electric flying taxi.

显然佩奇的野心比任何一架飞机都要大。2014年，佩奇收购了 Opener，当时称为SkyKar。其创始人Markus（现为Marcus）Leng 说，他早在2009年Kroo之前就在加拿大安大略省提出了他的SkyKar概念。他的第一个原型在2011年在家中诞生。第二年，美国证券交易委员会的文件显示他获得了至少110万美元的投资，但是Opener表示佩奇当时没有投资。

Obviously, page's ambition is bigger than any plane. In 2014, page bought Opener, which was then called SkyKar. Its founder, Markus (now Marcus) Leng, said he had proposed his concept of SkyKar in Ontario, Canada, before Kroo in 2009. His first archetype was born at home in 2011. In the second year, the securities and Exchange Commission documents showed that he had invested at least $1 million 100 thousand, but Opener said page had no investment at that time.

通过政府备案可以追踪到，Leng 在2012年提出了一项专利申请，其描述与最近推出的 BlackFly 非常相似。2014年9月，一个加拿大政府网站记录显示，SkyKar是由美国的某人使用加拿大空壳公司收购的。 有两位消息人士称，这人就是拉里·佩奇，有人说他为这家初创公司支付了1000多万美元。 在Opener的网站上，它仅显示了当时SkyKar“搬迁”到了帕洛阿尔托。据一位见到过BlackFly飞起来的消息人士描述，它“有点自制，但非常非常酷”。

Leng can be traced to government records, and in 2012, a patent application was put forward, which is very similar to the recently introduced BlackFly. In September 2014, a Canadian government website recorded that SkyKar was bought by a Canadian shell company by someone in the US. Two sources said the man was Larry Paige, who was said to have paid $about 10000000 for the start-up company. On Opener's website, it only showed that SkyKar had "moved" to Palo Artaud. According to a person who had seen BlackFly fly, it was "a bit homemade, but very, very cool".

佩奇在完成对Opener的收购的同时，也在向斯坦福大学的另一位教授Sebastian Thrun求助，来帮助他监督不断壮大的飞行汽车工程师团队。Thrun 之前领导了谷歌的街道测绘和自动驾驶汽车项目。

Paige, while completing his acquisition of Opener, was also asking for help from another professor at the Stanford University, Sebastian Thrun, to help him oversee the growing team of the flying automobile engineers. Before Thrun, it led Google's street mapping and autopilot projects.

Thrun最终将Zee和Kitty Hawk都置于他的控制之下。而开发了BlackFly的 Leng 继续直接向佩奇报告。据相关人士说，佩奇想要工程师之间保持竞争关系——因为无论是谁赢，佩奇都是最后的赢家。

Thrun finally put Zee and Kitty Hawk under his control. Leng, which developed BlackFly, continued to report directly to page. According to people concerned, page wants to keep competition between engineers because whoever wins is page winner.

Kitty Hawk 和 Opener 之间的良性竞争迅速巩固了自身。Kitty Hawk 首发的Zee飞行出租车，也就是现在的Cora，已经在2017年实现载人首飞，还宣布了与新西兰合作，将在该国率先成立飞行出租车公司。今年6月，Kitty Hawk也开始为Flyer预定买家。

The healthy competition between Kitty Hawk and Opener quickly consolidated itself. Kitty Hawk's first Zee flight taxi, which is now Cora, has launched its first manned flight in 2017, and has also announced a partnership with New Zealand to take the lead in setting up a flying taxi company in the country. In June of this year, Kitty Hawk also began to book buyers for Flyer.

而7月推出的BlackFly的飞行操作仅以一根摇杆进行，不需要飞行执照，只要经过简单的飞行训练就能操控。BlackFly的预计售价应该会和一台 SUV 差不多，Opener 希望将售价压在一般人能接受的范围，以促进销售。也许不久的将来，你就可以预定一辆 flying car 了。

The BlackFly launched in July was operated on a rocker only without a flight licence and could be manipulated through simple flight training. BlackFly's expected selling price should be almost the same as that of a SUV. Opener hopes to sell the price to a range acceptable to the general public in order to promote sales. Maybe in the near future, you can book a flying car.

（文编译飞行汽车feiauto）www.feiauto.com

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