Have you ever dreamt about the day you can buzz（嗡嗡作响）around in your very own flying machine? Well, that day may be sooner than you think.
The people at NASA have built something called “The Highway in the Sky.” It’s a computer system（系统）designed（设计）to let millions of people fly whenever they please, and take off and land from wherever they please, in their very own vehicles（运载工具）. And here’s the good news – a lot of people are building machines you’ll be able to buy.
One of those people is Woody Norris, inventor of a new personal flying machine called the AirScooter. Norris asked one of his test pilots（飞行员）to show us the AirSoccter on a hilltop in California. It can fly for 2 hours at 55 miles per hour, and go up to 10,000 feet.
A lot of inventors have tried to cash in on personal flying machines, but they failed to catch on because they were too expensive and hard to fly in bad weather. More important, there was no way to manage all the traffic from millions of them buzzing around – that is, until now, thanks to “The Highway in the Sky.”
Here’s how it works: You watch one main screen, almost like a videogame. Keep the plane inside the box, away from other vehicles, and the plane’s computers do the work of flying where you want to go. This $130-million program can also help pilots fly in bad weather. It’s a breakthrough that will some day allow more people to fly than ever before.
All this new technology（技术）has given new life to the race to build the personal flying machine of tomorrow. What kind of inventions are people working on today? If you can imagine it, someone’s trying it, everything from machines that can fly straight up and down to ones that can go very fast.
In Texas one inventor is testing the CarterCopter. It can fly straight up and down like a helicopter（直升机）, but can go as fast as an airplane, too. Even the cows are surprised when they see it!
If you’re interested in something smaller, a strange-looking flying machine called the Springtail is a 21st Century flying backpack. When it takes off, it’s loud and makes a lot of wind, but the inventors say it’s designed to fly for two hours, at 90 miles per hour, 400 feet above the ground.
AirScooter inventor Woody Norris, like many of the inventors that we’ve met, believes today’s planes will soon become old and useless, and that “The Highway in the Sky” will be filled with flying machines that we can’t even begin to imagine.