THE SECOND Rolls-Royce Trent 800-powered Boeing 777 was expected to return to Seattle on 1 March after undergoing 91 route sectors with Cathay Pacific Airways. Boeing is striving to achieve early extended-range twin-operations (ETOPS) clearance for the aircraft.
By the end of February, the Trent 777 had undergone almost 200 of the 1,000 ETOPS cycles required for full clearance and, on 28 February, received its type certificates from the US Federal Aviation Administration and Europe's Joint Aviation Authorities. At 400kN (90,000lb) thrust, the Trent 800 becomes the world's most powerful certificated engine after a test effort involving more than 550h over 180 flights. The engine itself was certificated early in 1995.
Boeing and R-R test engineers are, meanwhile, tackling a fan-generated "buzz-saw" noise which is affecting the Trent 777, particularly on take-off and climb-out before and during cutback. The buzz-saw noise evaluation is very similar to the problem met during the earlier test flights of the Pratt & Whitney PW4087-powered 777.
Source: Flight International
