去年，在合肥的一次科技成果展示上，一位领导踱步到天路航空的展台，只看了一眼就摇摇头说：“到处都是无人机！”

这一次的经历让门振宇很受伤，做无人机研发十几年来，门振宇挺过了很多的难关，却差点在这位领导的打击下泄了气。

让他泄气的不是因为这话是领导说的，而是因为他自己也确实感觉到，现在打着无人机创业旗号的公司已经烂大街了，实在良莠不齐，甚至让他经常有“劣币驱逐良币”的感觉。

10月17日，中国国家英文日报《中国日报》第7版报道了门振宇的创业故事。原报道是全英文的，以下是“一点余墨”翻译整理的该报道的中英文对照版。

                                                                                            （10月17日《中国日报》头版报眼）

The 'road in the sky' that's paved with gold

金色的“天路”

Although his love of aircraft made Men Zhenyu's first years in business painful, recently the entrepreneur has seen his company take flight.

对飞机的痴迷让门振宇职业生涯的最初几年过得非常痛苦，却为他最近几年的事业插上了翅膀。

Since 2012, when Men established Huaibei Tianlu Aero Science and Technology－which manufactures drones－in his hometown of Huaibei, Anhui province, the 42-year-old has inspired many local entrepreneurs.

2012年，门振宇在家乡淮北市成立了自己的无人机公司，从那以来，他的故事激励了许多当地的企业家。

Painstaking start

艰难起步

Having majored in law at college, Men worked in several sectors, including information technology and marketing in Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangdong province, and Nanjing in Jiangsu province, after graduation. However, he never lost his love of aviation and engineering.

法律专业毕业的门振宇毕业后在北京、深圳和南京等城市从事过包括信息技术和市场营销在内的许多工作。不过，从来没有被放弃过的是他对航空科技和工程技术的热爱。

"I've been nuts about inventions since childhood, and especially crazy about airplanes," he said.

“从小时候开始我就对发明创造很痴迷，尤其喜欢各种飞机”，他说。

In 2004, a company owned by a friend of Men's was employed to use a drone to map out a golf course in Beijing. Men was employed as an adviser on the project.

2004年，门振宇一个朋友的公司正要通过无人机航拍为北京的一个高尔夫球场做测绘。门振宇为这个项目当顾问。

"I thought it was a great chance to move into a business I had dreamed about for years", he said.

“我认为这是从事无人机研发工作的绝佳机会，为了这样的机会我已经等了很多年”，他说。

To become an expert on drones, he had to study aerodynamics, material mechanics and a range of other subjects from scratch.

为了成为无人机方面的专家，门振宇不得不自学空气动力学、材料力学等许多领域的知识。

When his friend's company was acquired by a larger outfit, the headquarters relocated to Foshan, a city in the southern province of Guangdong, and the golf club project was suspended.

后来，这家公司被一个更大的公司收购，并被要求搬到广东佛山，高尔夫球场的项目也终止了。

Men was reluctant to move, so he quit his job, rented a number of abandoned houses in the suburbs of Beijing and established his own team to finish the golf club project. He managed to persuade some of his former colleagues to join him.

门振宇不愿离开北京，于是只能从公司辞职。他在北京郊区租下了十几间废弃的民房，组件了自己的团队，以完成高尔夫球场的项目。一些以前的同事也跟着他一起干。

After a few months, the team suffered twin blows. Their unmanned aircraft crashed in the hills outside Beijing and their business premises came under threat.

几个月后，这个团队又遭受了双重打击。先是他们研发的无人机在山区坠毁，而后他们的大本营也面临威胁。

"The government started to develop the area and said it would demolish the shabby houses, so I could not continue to run my workshop," Men said.

“政府开始开发那片区域，那里很快就要拆迁，所以我们也不能继续在那里待下去了”，门振宇说。

As a result, he moved south and took a job on Hainan Island. However, in 2009, a friend told Men about a project to establish a company to manufacture drones. So he returned from Hainan and joined the project.

后来，门振宇不得不放弃，到海南找了一份新工作。直到2009年，一个朋友告诉他，有人要成立公司生产无人机，于是门振宇又从海南回到了北京，加入了这个项目。

His boss asked Men to speak with Jiang Jingshan, a space science expert and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in the hope of establishing cooperation.

门振宇的新老板带着他去见中科院院士、空间科学家姜景山，以寻求合作。

"At first the academician was skeptical of our strengths but he expressed satisfaction with my hand-drawn sketches," Men said. He spent five months building a 7.5-meter-wide, 120 kilogram drone, which could remain airborne for 24 hours at a time.

“一开始姜院士对我们的实力有些怀疑，不过对我徒手画的设计草图还挺满意”，门振宇说。他后来用了五个月的时间制造出一架翼展7.5米，重量120公斤，可以连续飞行24个小时的无人机。

"Jiang called me a genius, which was a great encouragement to me," Men recalled.

“姜院士夸我是个天才，这对我是一种极大的鼓励”，门振宇回忆说。

                                                            （10月17日，《中国日报》第6、7版关于淮北市资源型城市转型发展成果的跨版深度报道）

Returning home

返乡创业

In 2012, he quit his job and returned to Huaibei, once one of China's largest coal production bases, to start his own business after being informed that the government was looking to transform its economy and had devised a number of favorable policies to support high-tech companies.

2012年，门振宇从朋友那里得知，作为中国煤炭主产地之一的家乡淮北正在寻求经济转型并出台了一系列的优惠政策支持高科技企业的发展，于是他便辞职返乡，创办了自己的公司。

Some of Men's friends, including some from Beijing, followed him home to Huaibei. Six investors plowed more than 1 million yuan ($152,000) into the foundation of Tianlu－which literally means "the road in air"－with Men contributing 500,000 yuan.

门振宇的一些朋友也跟他一起到了淮北，有的是从北京来的。六个投资人出资100万元成立了天路公司，“天路”的字面意思是“天空的道路”。

"We received a warm welcome and firm support from the local government," he said.

“我们受到了政府的欢迎和支持”，他说。

The authorities offered the new company a 2,800-square-meter factory to use as a research and development center, a workshop and offices free of charge. Moreover, registration procedures were simplified and the government helped Men to obtain crucial bank loans.

起步阶段，政府为天路公司提供了一个2800平米免租金的厂房供公司研发设计、生产和办公使用。除此之外，政府也在公司注册和贷款申请方面给予了极大支持。

Tianlu was founded in December 2012. Men was able to attract 15 former colleagues with share-incentive options, and the company now has 33 highly educated employees.

天路公司正式成立于2012年12月。得益于股权激励的机制，门振宇吸引了15个以前的同事加入，公司现在有33名优秀员工。

A year after it was established, Tianlu's first unmanned aircraft for civil use was bought by a company in Beijing.

公司成立一年后，天路的第一架民用无人机被北京的一家公司购买。

The aircraft weighs 38 kilograms and is 3 meters in length and breadth. When carrying a full 14 liters of gasoline, it can fly for five hours at a speed of 300 kilometers per hour and at a height of 2,000 meters.

这架飞机重38公斤，翼展3米，加满14升汽油后能以300公里的时速在2000米的高空飞行5个小时。

In 2014, a new 36,000-sq-m factory was put into use.

2014年，一个占地36000平米的新厂房投入使用。

However, the development of new products is costly. In recent years, Men and the other shareholders have invested more than 30 million yuan in the company, which has registered capital of nearly 8 million yuan.

然而，新产品的研发需要大量的资金投入。这几年，门振宇和其他股东已经累计投资了3000多万元，公司的注册资本增加到了近800万元。

"Sometimes it was very hard to get money," Men said. The hardest time came in mid-2015, when Tianlu's executives agreed to forgo their salaries for six months to ensure the business kept running.

“有时候筹钱真的很困难”，门振宇说。2015年年中是天路最艰难的关头，那时候公司的高管在长达半年的时间里不从公司领工资。

"Luckily, we then received funding of nearly 300 million yuan from the Huaibei government", he added.

“幸运的是，我们后来从政府的基金中得到了300万元的投资”，门振宇说。

The situation has now improved, and Tianlu generated sales revenue of more than 2 million yuan last year.

公司的财务状况从此逐渐好转，去年公司实现了200多万元的销售收入。

So far, the company has developed multiple types of drones, which have a broad scope of applications, including surveying and mapping, agriculture and disaster response, prompting artificial rainfall and even a number of military purposes.

目前，该公司已经研发出多种无人机，可用于勘探测绘、农业、灾害应急、人工降雨等领域，也可应用于军事领域。

                                                                                     （10月17日，《中国日报》关于门振宇创业故事的报道）