Ian Verchere
With an order backlog worth $20 billion and the broadest range of engines in the aerospace industry, Rolls-Royce chairman Sir Ralph Robins says the UK manufacturer has made "dramatic progress since the previous Paris air show in 1997".
In civil aerospace alone, he adds, there is a demand for 83,000 new engines powering almost 35,000 aircraft, from corporate and regional through to wide-body aircraft. Civil aerospace, defence and energy represented a market opportunity worth $1 trillion over the next 20 years "and Rolls aims to capture a large share of this."
Sufficient orders were received to launch the stretched A340-500/600 on a full industrial basis powered by the Trent 500 engine.
"As far as Rolls-Royce is concerned, it has been the best engine launch we have ever achieved with orders and options for 580 engines worth more than $5 billion," he says. "The early signs show that it is going to be a very predictable engineering programme."
He adds that the strength of the regional jet market since last Paris has surprised everybody and "been very much to our benefit".
The AE3007 engine - the sole powerplant for the Embraer RJ-145 and RJ-135 - has secured business worth nearly $4 billion in two years and "we expect to be announcing more business for this engine during the show".
On the narrow body front, the joint-venture IAE V2500 engine, on which R-R is a partner, has achieved a record intake since 1997.
This includes two orders worth in excess of $1 billion. Since then, its share of the A320 has been at 59% with the prospect of more orders.
Several products in which the company is involved - most notably the joint-venture BMW Rolls-Royce BR710 and the BR715 - have "100% market share."
Corporate
Deliveries are now running at nearly 200 engines a year, mainly to Gulfstream and Bombardier for their ultra-long-range corporate jets.
Elsewhere, production of the BR715 for the Boeing 717 has commenced. In its short life, explains Sir Ralph, "BMW Rolls-Royce has accumulated firm orders for more than 900 engines worth over DM3bn.($1.6bn)"
On the defence side, the Eurofighter is moving into production with a confirmed requirement for 1,500 copies of the Eurojet EJ200 engine for the four participating governments.
Source: Flight Daily News
