Probably not, but it should make you mad to know that even if you did want to, you can't.

也許不會，但知道即使你想，你也做不到，這應該會讓你生氣。

That route would go almost directly over the South Pole, and, with the exception of super-specialized sightseeing flights, there aren't any commercial flights that us regulars can go on that fly anywhere near the pole.

這條航線幾乎可以直接飛越南極，而除了超級專業的觀光班機外，我們普通人沒有任何商業班機可以飛到南極附近的任何地方。

Why?

為什麼？

Well, there are a few reasons.

原因有幾個。

The first problem with flying over Antarctica is pretty intuitive—it's cold.

飛越南極洲的第一個問題非常直觀--寒冷。

Cold enough, in fact, that in March of 2001, the FAA put in place special rules governing what are called polar routes—any plane or magical sleigh flying above 78 degrees north or below 60 degrees south.

事實上，由於足夠寒冷，2001 年 3 月，美國聯邦航空局制定了特別規則，對所謂的極地航線--任何在北緯 78 度以上或南緯 60 度以下飛行的飛機或神奇雪橇--進行管理。

Now, I could just read the rules off of this really long PDF I found on the Boeing website, but I don't really feel like doing that, so I'm just going to play this old tape

現在，我可以從波音網站上找到的這份很長的 PDF 文件中讀出規則，但我真的不想這麼做，所以我只想播放這盤老錄音帶

I found instead.

我卻發現

Hello, pilots.

你好，飛行員們

Happy March of 2001, which is the year that it currently is and one that will no doubt shape up great for the concept of airplanes.

2001 年 3 月快樂，今年無疑將是飛機概念大發展的一年。

Have you ever wanted to fly over… the poles?

你想過飛越......兩極嗎？

Well, it's not pop—well, it's as easy as one, two, th—wait, there are more than three.

好吧，這不是彈--好吧，這很簡單，一、二、三--等等，不止三個。

All you need to remember is one simple word—Skempt.

你只需記住一個簡單的詞--邋遢。

Yes, with Skempt, flying over the poles is a breeze.

是的，有了 Skempt，飛越兩極輕而易舉。

Keen pilots may notice that the first letter of Skempt is S, which, of course, stands for special training.

敏銳的飛行員可能會注意到，Skempt 的第一個字母是 S，這當然是代表特殊訓練。

All pilots and crew manning polar flights must have special training for flying in Arctic conditions and maintaining equipment in the extreme cold.

所有執行極地飛行任務的飛行員和機組人員都必須接受過在北極條件下飛行和在極寒環境下維護設備的特殊培訓。

Your crew must also have access to at least two cold-weather anti-exposure suits for unknown reasons, because if you have to get out of the plane at an unexpected stop, it might be cold.

您的機組人員還必須有至少兩套防寒服，原因不明，因為如果您必須在意外停靠時下飛機，可能會很冷。

Before you chart your course, the FAA will need to sign off on a route of emergency alternate airports for unexpected landings due to mechanical or medical issues and plans to evacuate passengers from each of those airports within 48 hours of landing.

在繪製航線圖之前，美國聯邦航空局（FAA）需要簽署一份緊急備用機場路線，以應對因機械或醫療問題而造成的意外著陸，並計劃在著陸後 48 小時內從每個機場疏散乘客。

During the flight, you'll need to closely monitor your fuel temperature, because if your fuel starts to drop below freezing temperature, you'll need to change your altitude or just give up and fly to Cancun.

在飛行過程中，您需要密切關注燃油溫度，因為如果燃油溫度開始下降到冰點以下，您就需要改變飛行高度，或者放棄飛行，飛往坎昆。

Polar flights will also necessitate the use of charts with your true heading, rather than traditional magnetic navigation.

極地飛行還需要使用標有真實航向的海圖，而不是傳統的磁導航。

That's because the poles have an area of magnetic unreliability due to the presence of dark—due to science.

這是因為兩極有一個磁性不可靠的區域，因為那裡有黑暗--這是科學造成的。

As long as you can remember to Skempt, your passengers will be spared a horrible, horrible death.

只要您能記住 "Skempt"，您的乘客就不會死得很慘很慘。

Now, while these extra rules might disincentivize a route over Antarctica, they wouldn't necessarily prevent it—after all, commercial flights regularly follow these rules up north.

現在，雖然這些額外的規則可能會抑制飛越南極洲的航線，但它們並不一定會阻止航線的開通--畢竟，商業班機在北半球經常遵循這些規則。

Major routes like Dubai to Los Angeles, New York to Hong Kong, and New Delhi to San Francisco all shave hours off their flight time by flying over the North Pole, either because Earth is a sphere or because there's a very generous time wizard hanging out somewhere in Greenland.

迪拜至洛杉磯、紐約至香港、新德里至舊金山等主要航線都會飛越北極，從而將飛行時間縮短几個小時，這可能是因為地球是一個球體，也可能是因為格陵蘭島的某個地方有一個非常慷慨的時間嚮導。

But if it's not just the South Pole's poleyness, there must be another factor at play.

但如果這不僅僅是因為南極的極性，那麼一定還有其他因素在起作用。

This is where our second problem comes in.

這就是我們的第二個問題所在。

Basically, every commercial twin-engine plane is given a certain rating for how far it can be at any given time from a suitable diversion airport.

基本上，每架商用雙引擎飛機都有一定的等級，以確定其在任何特定時間距離合適的改道機場有多遠。

This is to make sure that there's always a runway that a flight can divert to in the event of an emergency, like if one of your engines fails or you run out of those little bags of peanuts.

這樣做的目的是確保在發生緊急情況時，比如某個引擎失靈或花生米用完時，總有一條跑道可供班機改道。

This rating is called ETOPS and it's measured in flight time.

這一等級被稱為 ETOPS，以飛行時間來衡量。

Before 1985, all twin-engine planes were ETOPS 60, meaning they could only ever fly within a 60-minute radius from an airport.

1985 年以前，所有雙引擎飛機的 ETOPS 都是 60，這意味著它們只能在距離機場 60 分鐘的半徑範圍內飛行。

Because of this restriction, flying over any major stretch of ocean had to be done by larger three- or four-engine planes.

由於這一限制，飛越任何主要海域都必須使用較大的三引擎或四引擎飛機。

As planes got better, ETOPS numbers went up.

隨著飛機性能的提高，ETOPS 數量也隨之增加。

Nowadays, most common commercial planes like the Boeing 737 and the Airbus A320 can have a rating of up to ETOPS 180.

如今，波音 737 和空客 A320 等大多數普通商用飛機的 ETOPS 等級最高可達 180。

That covers about 95% of the globe—pretty much everything, except for Antarctica.

這涵蓋了全球約 95% 的地區--除了南極洲之外的幾乎所有地區。

To put things into perspective, the closest potential diversion airport to the South Pole is the Ushuaia International Airport in Argentina, but it's still about 2,500 miles or 4,000 kilometers away.

從這個角度來看，距離南極最近的潛在改道機場是阿根廷的烏斯懷亞國際機場，但距離南極仍有大約 2500 英里或 4000 公里。

That's like spraining your ankle in Manhattan and walking to Nicaragua to get it fixed—assuming you can walk at 560 miles per hour in a straight line over the ocean, in which case the sprained ankle probably isn't that big of a—ok, look, it's not a great analogy, but the point is, the South Pole is far away.

這就好比你在曼哈頓扭傷了腳踝，要走到尼加拉瓜去治--前提是你能以每小時 560 英里的速度在海洋上直線行走，在這種情況下，扭傷的腳踝可能並不是什麼大問題--好吧，聽著，這不是一個很好的比喻，但問題是，南極離我們很遠。

Even the longest-range commercial aircraft in the world, the Airbus A350, caps out at a rating of 370 minutes, leaving a fairly large chunk of the continent off-limits to law-abiding pilots.

即使是世界上航程最遠的商用飛機--空客 A350，其額定飛行時間也只有 370 分鐘，這就使得非洲大陸相當大的一部分地區成為守法飛行員的禁區。

Despite all these restrictions, an airline could, theoretically, route a flight over part of Antarctica—they'd just need the right plane, the right equipment, and a specially trained crew.

儘管有這些限制，但從理論上講，航空公司還是可以在南極洲部分地區上空飛行--他們只需要合適的飛機、合適的設備和受過專門訓練的機組人員。

At the end of the day, though, there just aren't many routes over Antarctica that make sense.

但歸根結底，飛越南極洲的航線並不多。

The vast majority of international flights already take place in the Northern Hemisphere, since that's the hemisphere with 90% of Earth's population and 100% of Earth's M&M stores.

絕大多數國際航班已經在北半球起飛，因為北半球擁有地球上 90% 的人口和地球上 100% 的 M&M 商店。

Now, some flights do come close to the Antarctic coast, like the routes between Sydney and

現在，有些班機確實接近南極海岸，比如雪梨和南極之間的航線。

Johannesburg or Santiago, and depending on wind conditions they will sometimes fly over a tiny bit of Antarctica, but absolutely zero go anywhere close to the pole itself.

約翰內斯堡或聖地亞哥，根據風力情況，它們有時會飛越南極洲的一小部分，但絕對不會飛近極點。

Remember the theoretical route I brought up at the beginning of the video, from Perth to Buenos Aires?

還記得我在視頻開頭提出的從珀斯到布宜諾斯艾利斯的理論路線嗎？

That's pretty much the only one, and there just isn't enough demand to warrant flying it anyways.

這幾乎是唯一的班機，而且無論如何也沒有足夠的需求來保證飛行。

But you know what there is demand for?

但你知道有什麼需求嗎？

Decent gifts.

體面的禮物

If you're currently scrambling to find something for your friends or family, let me help you out with a suggestion—Audible.

如果您正在為給親朋好友找禮物而焦頭爛額，讓我給您一個建議--Audible。

Audible memberships are a great, easy gift because they've got something for everyone—true crime podcasts?

Audible 會員資格是一份簡單實用的禮物，因為他們為每個人提供了適合自己的內容--真實犯罪播客？

Check.

檢查。

Sleep-inducing soundscapes?

誘人入眠的音效？

Check.

檢查。

A massive streaming catalog of best-selling audiobooks?

海量暢銷有聲讀物的流媒體目錄？

Well, duh, it's Audible.

嗯，是 Audible。

Plus, if there's an audiobook you want that's not part of their streaming catalog, you can snag an extra title for free every single month, and you keep it forever.

此外，如果您想要的有聲讀物不在他們的流媒體目錄中，您可以每個月免費獲得額外的書目，並永久保留。

You can listen to these books anytime, anywhere—the gym, the car, and with Audible's download feature, even long plane rides.

您可以隨時隨地收聽這些書籍--健身房、汽車，甚至在乘坐長途飛機時也可以使用 Audible 的下載功能。

Personally, I've been using Audible to listen to The President's Daughter, which is a thriller co-written by James Patterson and Bill Clinton, which is weird enough on its own, but the weirder bit is that it's actually really good.

就我個人而言，我一直在用 Audible 聽《總統的女兒》（The President's Daughter），這是一部由詹姆斯-帕特森（James Patterson）和比爾-克林頓（Bill Clinton）共同創作的驚悚片。

Better yet, this holiday season, you can get 60% off a three-month Audible subscription, as a gift or for yourself, by visiting Audible.com slash HAI, or by texting HAI to 500-500.

更棒的是，在這個假期，您可以通過訪問 Audible.com slash HAI 或發送簡訊 HAI 到 500-500，以六折的價格訂購三個月的 Audible 有聲讀物，既可作為禮物，也可自用。