开幕式引争议: “飞机之父”原自巴西？

导读:里约奥运会开幕式刚刚落下帷幕，开幕式开始的飞机引起巨大反响。对于是谁发明了飞机，巴西人用向桑托斯·杜蒙致敬的方式向世人证明，飞机是巴西人发明的。

Ask any American who invented the airplane and they would say the Wright brothers, but Brazilians would have a different answer. In the Opening ceremony of the Olympics on Friday, Brazil continued that claim by honoring Alberto Santos-Dumont, the man they credit with the invention.

问任何一个美国人是谁发明了飞机，他们会说莱特兄弟，但巴西人的回答却不同。星期五的奥运会开幕式上，巴西向他们心中的“飞机之父”-阿尔贝托·桑托斯·杜蒙致敬，以此继续向世人证明飞机是他们发明的。

In 1906, Santos-Dumont flew his plane on the outskirts of France and was recognized around Europe as the creator of the airplane. But Orville and Wilbur Wright later proved that their first flight came three years earlier in 1903.

1906年,桑托斯·杜蒙驾驶着他的飞机在法国郊区飞行，之后在欧洲认为是飞机的发明者。但奥维尔·莱特和威尔伯·赖特后来证明他们的首次飞行是在三年前的1903年。

The question is whether the Wright brothers’ flight should count.

问题是莱特兄弟的飞行是否应该算数。

The opinion of many Brazilians is that the Wrights used a catapult and simply created a glider that could maintain a prolonged fall. In 2003, CNN looked into the conflicting claims.

许多巴西人认为莱特兄弟用弹射器，简单地制造了一个可以保持持续下滑的滑翔机。2003年，美国有线电视新闻网对这一颇具争议的话题进行了调查。

Aviation experts in Brazil claim that the Wright brothers needed strong and steady winds to get the “Kitty Hawk” off the ground, leaving no proof that it was able to take off on its own.

巴西航空专家声称，莱特兄弟需要强力并且稳定的风才能使“小鹰”号起飞，并没有证据表明，它能够自己起飞。

American experts disagree with that claim and say the Wrights’ plane had to have been self-sustaining.

美国专家们不同意这种说法,声称怀特的飞机一直是依靠自身动力自己起飞。

“Even in 1903 the airplane sustained itself in the air for nearly a minute. If it’s not sustaining itself under its own power it’s not going to stay up that long,” Peter Jakab of the National Air and Space Museum told CNN.

“甚至在1903年，这架飞机靠自身动力在空中持续了近一分钟的时间。如果不是靠自身的动力维持，它不会停留那么长时间，”国家航空航天博物馆的彼得·雅卡布告诉美国有线电视新闻网。

Which country really invented flight depends plenty on the definition and on the circumstances that the Wright brothers used to get off the ground.

哪个国家真正的发明了飞机，很大程度上取决于其的定义以及莱特兄弟驾驶飞机起飞时的情况。

The country of Brazil made it clear which side of the debate it is on early in the Opening Ceremony.

巴西在里约开幕式一开始就表明了自己的立场。