Rolls-Royce hit the milestone of 1,000 engines sold for both the oldest and youngest members of its Trent family of large turbofan engines following orders announced at the Dubai air show.
A follow-on commitment for 20 more Airbus A330s from Air China takes the number of in-service and firmly ordered Trent 700s beyond the 1,000-mark, nearly 15 years after the engine entered service.
Meanwhile, the latest Trent XWB model, destined to power the European airframer's A350 XWB long-range widebody twinjet family, has notched up 1,000 orders - more than three years before the first engine enters service in 2013. This follows Ethiopian Airlines' decision to purchase 12 A350s.
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© AirbusA follow-on commitment for 20 more Airbus A330s from Air China takes the number of in-service and firmly ordered Trent 700s beyond the 1,000-mar |
While the Trent XWB's early order tally is impressive, it has benefited from being the sole available powerplant for the fast-selling A350. In contrast, the Trent 700 faces a three-way battle for market share against the General Electric CF6-80 and Pratt & Whitney PW4000 series.
Air China has selected the Trent 700EP (enhanced performance) for its latest batch of 20 A330s, and the carrier will also retrofit the upgrade on to its 23 A330s, says Phil Harris, R-R senior vice-president airlines, north Asia and Middle East.
The Trent 700EP is designed to provide a 1.3% reduction in fuel burn compared with the standard engine.
Including the UK manufacturer's TotalCare support package, R-R values its share of the Air China A330 business announced at the show as $1.5 billion. R-R has also revealed in Dubai that Nepal Airlines has selected the Trent 700 and TotalCare support for an A330 due for delivery in 2011.
Harris says that R-R is "pushing 55% market share" on the A330 overall and has taken "nearly 75%" of A330 engine sales during the past three years.
R-R also announced at the show the completion of ground-based extended range twin operations (ETOPS) cyclic testing of the Trent 1000 engine. The Trent 1000 is the lead engine for the Boeing 787, which is due to have its first flight by the end of the year.
The ETOPS testing demonstrated reliability over 3,000 cycles under ETOPS conditions, as part of Boeing's effort to win approval for engine-out diversion time of up to 330min for the 787.
Source: Flight International
