Rolls-Royce Trent XWB Passes Test Milestones

The Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engine has passed a significant milestone on its journey to support the first flight and entry into service of the Airbus A350 XWB aircraft.

The engine completed an 150-hour endurance type test at INTA (Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial) in Madrid, Spain. Based on the internal condition of the engine, speeds and temperatures were increased from the original target during the test.

The engine has now been sent back to Rolls-Royce in Derby for a complete strip down and analysis to confirm durability and component performance predictions following the test. The engine will also be available for examination by existing and potential customer airlines.

Chris Young, Rolls-Royce Chief Engineer – Trent XWB said, “This is a challenging test, the successful completion of which builds confidence in the maturity and reliability that we have designed into the engine right from the start of the Trent XWB programme. The turbine entry temperatures we were able to demonstrate during the testing deliver substantial margin at the full 84,000lb rating for the A350-900, providing further confidence in the on-wing life of the engine. It’s a great result.”

At Derby another engine has successfully completed a bird strike test, continuing to run without incident after ingesting four 2.5lb birds at maximum take-off power.

The Trent XWB is specifically designed for the A350 XWB and is the fastest selling Trent engine ever, with more than 1,100 already sold. It is also the exclusive powerplant for the longer range A350-1000 aircraft.

Rolls-Royce currently has eight Trent XWB engines in its test programme one of which was recently delivered to Airbus in Toulouse for flight testing on an A380 flying test bed later this year.

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