One of the oldest and most-respected names in aviation has been chosen by Rolls-Royce as a partner to design, develop, produce and support the entire accessory gearbox package for the Trent XWB engine that will power the Airbus A350XWB long-range airliner.
Hispano-Suiza, part of France’s giant Safran Group, will make the accessory gearbox and associated transfer gearbox; angle drive shaft; step-aside gearbox; radial drive shaft; complete oil tank assembly; and high pressure and radial drive shaft bevel gears.
“This contract with Rolls-Royce will be worth around $1.5-billion to us if you include both OEM and aftermarket service,” says Jamil Dirani H-S VP marketing, business development, support and services.
“We have been working with R-R since 1989 and the relationship comprises around a quarter of our gearbox business and 10% of our entire turnover, so it’s very important to us. And for the first time we are putting an H-S man into Derby to ensure the relationship runs completely smoothly, especially as the same piece of kit has to integrate with the engines for the XWB-800, -900 and -1000 models, starting with the -900 in 2013.”
H-S won the business via a competitive tendering process that lasted for six months. It will have developed the new hardware by Q4 2009. H-S has already delivered 1,700 accessory gearboxes to R-R for the Trent engine family, logging more than 28 million flight hours on 552 airframes.
The French company’s collaboration with R-R also includes the BR700 series engines for business and regional aircraft, the most recent contract being for providing the accessory gearbox package for the new BR725 engine on the Gulfstream 650.
The XWB gearbox will be assembled in Colombes and Réau near Paris, it’s likely that there will also be involvement from H-S’s units in Peterborough, Canada and Sedziszow, Poland.
Source: Flight International
