Geoff Thomas/DUBAI
Rolls-Royce and its international partners, which have a major presence in the Middle East in both civil aerospace and defence markets, are demonstrating the group's broad product range at Dubai 2000. The Trent is winning customers throughout the region and Rolls-Royce has nearly 1,000 military engines in service, achieving well over a million operating hours.
The largest engine on display is the Trent. Earlier this year, the Trent family celebrated one million hours in service and, with more than 1000 engines ordered, the Trent has secured an overall market share of 50%. The engine family covers a range of thrusts between 53,000 and 95,000lb.
The Trent portfolio, including Trent 700, 800 and 500 engine derivatives, has proved to be particularly popular with airlines in the Middle East. Emirates, the international carrier of the United Arab Emirates, will be the first all Rolls-Royce Trent powered airline when it takes delivery of its first Trent 500 powered A340-500 in 2002. Both Emirates and Gulf Air took delivery of their first Trent 700 powered A330 aircraft in 1999.
Swept
Also on display is the new 'swept' fan blade, which introduces fourth generation wide-chord fan technology to Rolls-Royce civil engines. The advanced aerofoil design passes a greater airflow and delivers improvements in fuel efficiency. The scimitar-shaped blades are also stronger, increasing resistance to bird strike and runway debris.
The Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Adour engine, in its non-reheated and reheated forms, powers the Hawk trainer and Jaguar combat aircraft and has accumulated 5.7 million flight hours with 19 operators worldwide. Continuous Adour development has expanded the engine's capacities with the latest reheated engine for the Jaguar, the Mk106, rated at up to 8800lb thrust. The Mk106 is currently undergoing testing in special altitude facilities with qualification of the engine scheduled for the middle of next year.
The Adour 900, currently under development, offers operators of the Hawk a reduced maintenance workload and longer service life.
One of the world's most advanced combat engines, the four nation Eurojet EJ200 is the product of a collaboration between Rolls-Royce of the UK, MTU Munich of Germany, FiatAvio of Italy and ITP of Spain. It is rated at 20,000lb thrust with reheat, but is designed with potential thrust growth to 23,000lb thrust. The four nation production contract for EJ200, signed in 1998, represents more than 1,500 new engines over 15 years, with deliveries beginning in 2000.
Collaboration
The RTM322 is another Rolls-Royce Turbomeca engine in full production - for naval Mk1 and utility Mk3 versions of the EH101 Merlin and WAH-64 Apache helicopters of the UK armed forces. The EH101 Merlin Mk 1 has entered service with the Royal Navy and is currently undergoing intensive flight trials. Total orders exceed 400 engines.
The RTM322 is the baseline engine for the NH-90 naval helicopter. It is also a candidate for re-engining medium-sized helicopters such as the Sikorsky Black Hawk. The T800 is developed by the Light Helicopter Turbine Engine Company (LHTEC), a joint venture between Rolls-Royce and AlliedSignal Aerospace. This versatile helicopter engine has applications ranging from advanced military rotorcraft to fixed-wing utility aircraft.
Rated at 1360 or 1550 shp (takeoff), the T800 has completed demonstration and proof of concept flights on the Bell UH-1H, used by the U.S. Border Patrol, the Westland Lynx, the Hindustan Advanced Light Helicopter, the Eurocopter Panther, and the Agusta A-129. The T800 has also powered the US Army's RAH-66 Comanche helicopter through more than 100 hours of extremely demanding envelope expansion tests.
The 6,000 shp Rolls-Royce AE2100 turboprop engine has a power core based on the proven T56 family of engines - and shared with the AE3007 turbofan and AE1107 turboshaft engines. The AE2100 engine powers the Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules tactical transport aircraft, the Lockheed Martin Alenia Tactical Transport Systems (LMATTS) C-27J Spartan medium airlifter, and the Saab 2000 regional aircraft.
Source: Flight Daily News
