Rolls-Royce announced at the Farnborough Airshow in the UK on July 11 that its Trent 1000 TEN (Thrust, Efficiency and New technology) engine, which will power all variants of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, has gained European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification.
The Trent 1000 TEN engine has 78,000 lb thrust and will feature some technologies that were developed for the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-84 engine and used in the Airbus A350, such as a scaled version of the advanced compressor.
An initial TEN flight-test engine (number nine) has been fitted in the number 2 position on a 787 development aircraft, and test flights are expected in the next few weeks in Seattle, Washington.
The TEN competes with General Electric’s GEnx-1B, an alternate engine for the 787, but the R-R powerplant is designed to lower fuel burn by 2% compared with the GEnx-1B
Despite testing setbacks that pushed back the original hoped-for 2015 certification (and 2016 service entry), Rolls-Royce is confident these have been overcome and has revised the timetable for the TEN introduction to 2017, which will be in time to debut on the 787-10 in 2018.
A production-bill-of-materials version, engine number 008, will be fitted to the Rolls-Royce 747 flying testbed and by late July should be undergoing flight testing, after which the 787 test aircraft with the first TEN engine (No. 009) will be flown.
July 15, 2016
