Rolls-Royce Displays Trent XWB and Pioneering Technology at ILA

The Rolls-Royce Trent XWB, the world’s most efficient large aero engine flying today, will take centre stage at Berlin Airshow ILA 2018.

The engine, which powers the Airbus A350XWB family, has delivered the best ever widebody entry into service performance and achieved 99.9 per cent despatch reliability. It has accumulated more than 1.5 million flying hours, the equivalent of powering the A350 on three round trips to the sun, since it went into service in January 2015.

A full scale engine will be featured at the Rolls-Royce stand (H2/303) and promises to be a major attraction for visitors.

There is also a strong local connection – Trent XWB engines are assembled at the Rolls-Royce site in Dahlewitz, just five kilometres from the show venue, as well as Derby, UK.

Paul O’Neil, Rolls-Royce Chairman of the Management Committee, Rolls-Royce Deutschland and EVP Assembly and Test, OE & MRO, Rolls-Royce, said: “Seeing our Trent XWB at ILA 2018 makes us all very proud. Customers and visitors are always keen to see our engines up close and we are excited by their success. The Trent XWB is not only the most efficient large aero engine flying in the world today, it is also the fastest-selling widebody engine ever, with more than 1,700 already in service or on order.

He added: “Germany has an important stake in the Trent XWB programme - state-of-the-art compressor components are built at our Oberursel site in Hesse. We also recently opened a Trent XWB assembly line in Dahlewitz and together with our colleagues in Derby, United Kingdom, we are delivering seven engines a week to Airbus. At our N3 joint venture with Lufthansa Technik in Arnstadt, Thuringia, we maintain these engines of our global customer base.”

Trent XWB – incredible engineering by numbers:

•  The front fan is just under 3 meters in diameter and at take-off sucks in up to 1.3 tonnes of air every second.
•  High pressure turbine blades inside the engine rotate at 12,500 rpm, with their tips reaching 1,900km/h – nearly twice the speed of sound.
•  At take off each of the engine’s high pressure turbine blades generates around 900 horsepower per blade - similar to a Formula One racing car. And we have 68 of these within the engine.
•  At full power, air leaves the nozzle at the back of the engine travelling at almost 1600 km/h.

Rolls-Royce is also presenting a wide range of pioneering aerospace technology, including:

•  A composite carbon/titanium (CTi) fan blade for the company’s next-generation UltraFan®engine design
•  An Augmented Reality presentation of showing how CAD data can be used in engine assembly
•  A model of the world’s most powerful aerospace gearbox, currently on test at Dahlewitz, and is part of the UltraFan design (at Federal Ministry of Economics booth H2-203)

Rolls-Royce will also deliver presentations at the ILA Future Lab on its IntelligentEngine vision as well as the future of turbofans and requirements of hybrid-electric flight.