Solar-Powered Plane 太陽能飛機

By Imogen Foulkes, Berne

體英語會帶大家一起學習BBC撰稿人在報道世界大事時常用到的單詞和短語。

Background: 背景：一架太陽能試驗飛機在瑞士成功完成了第一次試航。陽光動力是瑞士冒險家Bertrand Piccard 的寶貝。1999年他成為世界上第一個用熱氣球完成其不間斷環球旅行的人。他的夢想是在2012年能駕駛太陽能飛機環繞世界。

(FX take off and cheers)

The long-awaited take-off of the Solar Impulse was greeted with delight by those who have spent the last seven years working on it.

The solar-powered plane has the wing-span of a jumbo jet, but weighs less than a family car.

It doesn't use a single drop of aviation fuel, instead its giant wings are covered with solar cells.

The project is the brainchild of Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard - he sees the Solar Impulse as a sign of things to come.

"I don't know exactly how commercial airliners will fly in twenty years. But I know for sure that they are not going to fly like today. If an aeroplane can fly around the world with no fuel, nobody can say afterwards that it's impossible to do the same for cars or heating systems or whatever."

But the Solar Impulse won't replace conventional air travel. Its top speed is just 44 miles an hour (70kph).

Nevertheless Bertrand Piccard hopes to fly the plane around the world in 2012, thus continuing a long family tradition.

His grandfather was the first man to take a balloon into the stratosphere.

His father took a submarine to the deepest point of the Pacific Ocean.

Now Bertrand Piccard hopes to show the world just what can be achieved with a little bit of sunshine.