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Aircraft-makers 飞机制造商 Singin’ in the rain 雨中曲 Demand for civil aircraft is booming. Who will supply it? 民航机市场需求高涨，哪家供应商将胜出？ Jun 22nd 2013 | PARIS |From the print edition  NEWS of new aircraft, orders and technology rained from the skies this week at the Paris Air Show, where a bumper crowd of producers and customers dodged a real downpour with mingled curses and exhilaration. The biennial event at Le Bourget airfield which opened on June 17th is the aviation world’s biggest jamboree, and every manufacturer and supplier struts its stuff in the hope of attracting more business. 六月十七日，两年一届的巴黎航展在布尔歇机场开幕，当天一场滂沱大雨让参展的厂商和顾客们笑的笑、骂的骂。展会上，关于新技术、新飞机和新订单的消息接连不断。巴黎航展是世界上最大的航空盛会，每一家制造商或供应商都在努力推介产品，以争取更多的业务。 Things are looking bright for the civilian side of aerospace these days, though not for defence, with budget cuts in developed countries. As emerging economies grow, enthusiasm for air travel is growing even faster. Technological advances have made aircraft cheaper and cleaner to run, so airlines everywhere are keen to replace older planes. According to Boeing’s annual forecast, published this month, more than 35,000 new aircraft—worth perhaps $4.8 trillion—will be needed over the next 20 years. Almost 25,000 of them will be single-aisle planes, and almost 13,000 of them will be used in Asia. This is a market that Western manufacturers—two in particular—now dominate. 近来民航飞机的发展势头不错， 而军用飞机则受到发达国家预算缩减的影响情况不太好。随着新兴经济体的成长，航空旅行大受欢迎，发展迅猛。技术的进步使新的飞机更廉价、更环保，所以各国 航空公司都热衷于替换旧飞机。根据波音公司本月出版的年度预测报告，未来20年新飞机需求将超过35000架，价值约4.8万亿美元。其中约25000架 将会是单通道飞机、约13000台将用于亚洲。目前该市场主要被波音和空客这两家西方制造商控制。 Airbus got off to an early public-relations lead with the maiden flight of its new A350 on June 14th. The 314-seater boasts a 25% lower operating cost than its predecessors, thanks to lightweight composites and a new Rolls-Royce engine. By mid-week Airbus had added 59 to its original 613 orders for the aircraft, and more for its older models. Even its little-loved double-decker superjumbo, the A380, got a look-in, with its first order since October. 六月十四日空中客车公司举行了A350新型客机的首飞仪式，打响了公关的第一枪。A350有314个座位，得益于轻型复合材料和新的劳斯莱斯引擎，该飞机的运营成本与老款相比降低了25%。本周过半，空客A350的订单在原来613架的基础上又增加了59架，老款飞机的订单数量则更多。即便是不太招人喜欢的双层巨型飞机A380也有所斩获，拿到了自去年十月份以来的第一份订单。 Seattle-based Boeing insisted it had expected to be outsold in Paris by the home team (Airbus is owned by the French-German-Spanish EADS). It still managed a creditable haul of its own. And Boeing took the next-generation fire to the enemy, launching a stretch version of its midsized 787 Dreamliner, briefly grounded this year with battery problems, to compete with the slightly larger A350, and revealing over 100 new orders for it. Boeing also upped the stakes against the upgraded “neo” version of Airbus’s single-aisle A320, due to go into service in the second half of 2015, by promising to bring forward the first deliveries of its competing 737 MAX, from the end of 2017 to the third quarter. 波音公司曾经多次表示，并不奢望能够在巴黎战胜占有地利的空客公司（波音总部位于西雅图，而空客的母公司则是法国、德国和西班牙合资的欧洲宇航防务集团）。但本届展会它的收获还是很不错的。波 音正将战火燃向下一代飞机。在航展上波音推出了中型787梦想飞机的扩展版（今年曾因电池问题短暂停飞）与规格稍大的A350竞争，斩获超过100架的新 订单。空客计划在2015年下半年交付“新”单通道客机A320，波音针锋相对地承诺将竞争机型737MAX首架飞机的交付时间从2017年年底提前到第 三季度。 But for once it was not just “the usual pingpong between Boeing and Airbus”, as French television put it. Other firms, including ones from developing countries, have long been eyeing the mainstream single-aisle market, where growth is strongest. They are closing in. 但这次竞争不再像法国电视台所说的那样是“波音和空客之间的兵乓球常规赛”。其他公司，包括一家来自发展中国家的公司，对增长最快的主流单通道客机市场觊觎已久。这些公司正在逐步赶上。 Closest of all is Bombardier of Canada. Pierre Beaudoin, its boss, promises that its new CSeries, aimed at the 100- to 150-seat market, will make its maiden flight this month, give or take a week, and that deliveries will start in 2014. Bombardier has 177 firm orders for the plane so far. It will be the first to use Pratt & Whitney’s geared turbofan engine, the closest thing to a big idea engine-makers have had for a while. Replacing the usual shaft between fan and turbine with a gear allowing each to revolve at its optimal speed should cut fuel use, emissions and noise significantly. 最接近领头羊的是加拿大的庞巴迪。该公司的老板皮埃尔·布多昂承诺，面向100-150座客机市场的新C系列客机将于本月完成处女航，前后时间大概会有一个星期的出入。实际交付预计将从2014年开始。庞巴迪迄今为止已经获得了177架飞机的确认订单。新C系列客机将首家采用惠普公司的齿轮传动涡扇发动机。这款发动机也许将实现厂商们酝酿已久的一个好主意①：将连接风扇和涡轮机常用的传动轴换成齿轮，让这两个部件均能以最佳速度旋转，从而显著地降低油耗、排放和噪音。 Embraer, the Brazilian firm that is Bombardier’s biggest rival in the market for smaller “regional” jets, confirmed at the show that it would revamp its E-Jet, designed for the 70- to 130-seat market, and said it already had 300 orders and options for the new version. It does not intend—yet—to compete against Airbus and Boeing, but it will overlap with the smaller version of Bombardier’s CSeries. And it will also use Pratt & Whitney’s new engine. 在小型“区域性”喷气式飞机市场上，巴西航空工业公司是庞巴迪的最大竞争对手。在本届航展上，巴西航空工业公司确认将改进针对70-130座客机市场设计 的E-Jet飞机，同时声称新型号飞机的订单和购买选择权已经超过了300。巴西航空工业公司尚未打算与空客和波音展开竞争，它的产品和庞巴迪C系列客机 的小型版本定位重叠。E-Jet也将使用普惠公司的新发动机。 Russia too has aspirations. In Paris Irkut, owned by the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), displayed a mock-up of its planned 130- to 150-seater MC-21, which will again use the geared turbofan engine (and eventually a Russian one). Irkut expects to start building the aircraft this year and to fly it in 2015. Another firm from the UAC stable, Sukhoi, has until now been selling its smaller Superjet mainly in Russia and other former eastern-block countries. Thanks to a joint venture with Alenia Aermacchi of Italy, the first Sukhoi Superjet destined for a Western airline was handed over in Paris, to Interjet of Mexico. 俄罗斯也雄心勃勃。俄罗斯联合飞机集团（UAC）旗下的伊尔库特公司在巴黎展示了研发中的130-150座MC-21飞机的模型，该机也将使用齿轮传动涡 扇发动机（最终将使用俄罗斯生产的型号）。伊尔库特希望今年能开工建造这款机型，并在2015开始投入飞行。联合飞机集团旗下还有另外一家公司——苏霍伊 公司，该公司之前主要在俄罗斯和其他前东欧国家销售小型超音速喷气式飞机。苏霍伊在意大利建立了一个合资企业：阿莱尼亚·马基公司，利用这个公司，苏霍伊 开始向西方航空公司提供飞机：首架苏霍伊超级喷气式飞机已在巴黎交付给墨西哥的Interjet航空公司。 Among the missing at the air show was China’s candidate to take on Boeing and Airbus—the COMAC C919. The 150-plus seater was scheduled for a maiden flight in 2014 but development has been knocked off course. It is the Chinese that both Boeing and Airbus claim to rate as their only serious mainstream competitor, despite Bombardier’s lead. It takes billions of dollars, a couple of decades and unwavering determination to develop a family of models, a support network around the world and a reputation for quality, the argument goes. The barriers to entry in aerospace are high. But the world is not always as static as those on top would have it. After all, Britain used to make airliners—and Airbus used not to. 向波音和空客发出挑战的中国商飞C919没有在本次航展上露面。C919能提供超过150个座位，计划2014年实现首飞，但其研发已经偏离了计划②。尽管中国商飞落后于庞巴迪，但却是波音和空客共同认定的唯一主要竞争对手。有观点认为商飞很难挑战波音和空客，因为要打造一整套的机型、覆盖全球的服务网络和良好的质量信誉，需要数十亿美元的投入、几十年的时间和坚定不移的决心。航空航天领域的进入门槛很高。但世界格局也并非像某些高层人士所认为的那样一成不变：英国曾是客机生产大国③，而空客以前并不生产客机，现在已经完全不一样了。 译者注： ①《普惠GTF发动机：一个齿轮箱带来的想象空间》 http://finance.china.com.cn/roll/20130524/1496054.shtml ②《外媒：中国大飞机遇到麻烦 C919试飞可能推迟一年》 http://www.guancha.cn/Science/2013_06_01_148521.shtml ③《回顾：全球大飞机制造曾经历一轮残酷厮杀》http://travel.sohu.com/20080306/n255562202.shtml |
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