正文
每年，全球飞机制造业的双头垄断巨头——空中客车（空客）与波音公司，均会在世界最享盛名的航展舞台上展开激烈对决。这些航展在巴黎与伦敦近郊的范堡罗轮流举办。
This year’s event in Farnborough, which opened on July 22nd, was a more subdued clash than usual. Both firms announced some orders from airlines, but these were mostly small.
今年的盛会于7月22日在范堡罗盛大拉开帷幕，与前几届相比，此次的竞争氛围显得更为平和。两家公司均宣布斩获了来自航空公司的若干订单，但这些订单普遍规模较小。
Boeing is still reeling from the
consequences of a panel blowing off a 737 MAX, its short-haul aircraft, in
January. That model, which first flew in 2016, has been bedevilled with safety
issues.
今年1月，波音公司的一架短途飞机737
MAX因面板脱落事件而紧急停飞，至今该公司仍未完全摆脱这一事故所带来的负面影响。
该机型自2016年首飞以来，一直饱受安全问题的困扰。
The company has had to slow down production as regulators have investigated its safety procedures,
enraging
airlines whose deliveries have been delayed. Airbus, which had more planes on display at Farnborough than its chastened rival, has had troubles of its own.
由于监管机构对其安全程序展开了深入调查，波音公司不得不减缓生产节奏，这一举措令众多因交付延期而焦急的航空公司倍感不满。与此同时，空客公司在范堡罗航展上展出的飞机数量超过了其竞争对手，但空客亦面临着自身的挑战。
Snags in its supply chain have forced it to delay plans to ramp up deliveries of its short-haul jets. At current production rates it will take Airbus nearly 12 years to produce the 8,600 planes it has on its order books, and a similar time for Boeing to meet its 6,150 unfilled orders.
供应链上的重重阻碍迫使该公司推迟了增加短程飞机交付量的原定计划。按照当前的生产速率，空客需耗时近12年方能完成8600架飞机订单的生产，而波音公司亦需相仿的时间来满足其6150架未交货订单的需求。
The backdrop is one of soaring demand.
Boeing reckons that over the next 20 years the global fleet of passenger planes
will need to double to meet the world’s growing appetite for flying, requiring
44,000 new aircraft. That is roughly twice as many planes as the duopoly
managed to deliver in the past 20 years.
这一背景之下，全球航空需求正急剧攀升。波音公司预测，在未来20年内，全球客机数量需翻一番，以满足全球日益增长的飞行需求，这将需要44,000架新飞机。这一数字约为过去20年间双头垄断企业所交付飞机数量的两倍。
