OREANDA-NEWS. November 10, 2015. The Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97, the most powerful version of the Trent XWB engine which will power the longer range A350-1000 aircraft, has taken to the skies for the first time.

The engine powered an Airbus A380 flying testbed aircraft, which flew with one of its four Trent 900 engines replaced by a Trent XWB-97, at Toulouse, France.

It also marked the first flight of the world’s largest 3D printed aero engine structure – the engine’s front bearing housing has aerofoils made by the Additive Layer Manufacturing technique. Rolls-Royce is developing the technology, which has potential to improve manufacturing and product functionality in terms of design optimisation, cost and speed.

The Trent XWB, the world’s most efficient civil aircraft engine, is also the fastest-selling wide-body engine with more than 1,500 engines sold to 41 customers.

Gareth Davies, Rolls-Royce, Trent XWB Programme Director, said: “It’s a great moment to see the latest version of the Trent XWB take to the air for the first time. Today’s flight is the product of years of work and marks another programme delivery milestone.”

The Trent XWB-84 successfully entered service at the start of this year and is now in operation with three customers.

About Rolls-Royce Holdings plc

  1. Rolls-Royce’s vision is to create better power for a changing world via two main business divisions, Aerospace and Land & Sea. These business divisions address markets with two strong technology platforms, gas turbines and reciprocating engines. Aerospace comprises Civil Aerospace and Defence Aerospace. Land & Sea comprises Marine, Nuclear and Power Systems.
  2. Rolls-Royce has customers in more than 120 countries, comprising more than 380 airlines and leasing customers, 160 armed forces, 4,000 marine customers including 70 navies, and more than 5,000 power and nuclear customers.
  3. Our business is focused on the 4Cs:
  • Customer – placing the customer at the heart of our business
  • Concentration – deciding where to grow and where not to
  • Cost – continually looking to increase efficiency
  • Cash – improving financial performance
  • Annual underlying revenue was ?14.6 billion in 2014, around half of which came from the provision of aftermarket services. The firm and announced order book stood at ?76.5 billion at 30 June 2015.
  • In 2014, Rolls-Royce invested ?1.2 billion on research and development. We also support a global network of 31 University Technology Centres, which position Rolls-Royce engineers at the forefront of scientific research.
  • Rolls-Royce employs over 54,000 people in more than 50 countries. Over 15,500 of these are engineers.
  • The Group has a strong commitment to apprentice and graduate recruitment and to further developing employee skills. In 2014 we employed 354 graduates and 357 apprentices through our worldwide training programmes. Globally we have over 1,000 Rolls-Royce STEM ambassadors who are actively involved in education programmes and activities; we have set ourselves a target to reach 6 million people through our STEM outreach activities by 2020.