Rolls-Royce open to narrowbody partnerships

Rolls-Royce is open to partnerships with other engine makers if they help it to grow its business. This could lead to a return of the UK company to the narrowbody aircraft market with an engine that uses technologies from the UltraFan demonstrator project. Rolls-Royce open to narrowbody partnerships. Reports have been around for some time that Rolls-Royce could be partnering with other engine OEMs on future projects, given the difficult financial state of the company. Under the new CEO Tufan Erginbilgic, Rolls-Royce is currently reviewing options for how to generate more cash, improve efficiencies, and grow profits and margins. One option to grow market share could be by re-entering the narrowbody market, which is now the exclusive domain of CFM (GE Aerospace and Safran) and Pratt & Whitney. Rolls-Royce only services out-of-production Tays and BR710s. During a pre-Paris media briefing in Dahlewitz near Berlin, President of Civil Aerospace, Rob Watson, said about re-entering the narrowbody segment: “We are always looking to grow the business. We believe we have differentiating technologies that can be applied to widebody and single-aisle. It is partly driven by the market opportunity and partly by our ability to respond. I think partnering with others would be important, in whatever we do next. Because we always in Rolls-Royce invested in world-class partnerships. We talk a lot about that in the context of others. But it is dependent on the time and place and the moment in the market. We are always scanning that horizon.” Next-generation aircraft A partnership will be for a next-generation aircraft only, something that Airbus and Boeing are working on for the mid-2030s. This gives Rolls-Royce some time to introduce the technology from UltraFan into future programs for either widebody or narrowbody aircraft. Rob Watson, who has been with Rolls-Royce for thirteen years and joined Civil Aerospace from Electrical on April 1 as a successor to Chris Cholerton, said that an UltraFan-based engine will be introduced only on a future aircraft platform. The Tay was one of the last Rolls-Royce engines that powered a narrowbody aircraft: the Fokker 70 and 100. (Rolls-Royce) “We are not proposing to industrialize UltraFan and introduce it as a retrofit, that is not our plan today. Our plan with UltraFan always was to demonstrate technologies and demonstrate them in this geared architecture. Then, the industry is looking what the next single aisle or widebody platform on which UltraFan could fly. But today, our focus is not to enter into service a new engine but to develop and mature the technologies and roll those into our existing fleet.” Rolls-Royce shared updates on UltraFan, which we discuss in a separate story. Turboprop Rolls-Royce recently has also had a look at the civil turboprop market, discussing options with ATR for their EVO program and for the Embraer turboprop. The engine maker reportedly withdrew its offer to Embraer. Simon Burr, Director of Engineering & Technology, was not in a position to comment on the subject: “What I can say is that Rolls-Royce has had a leading position on transport engines for 60+ years and intends to maintain that position.” On the same topic, Rob Watson was also unwilling to say much: “Across our defense and civil aerospace business, we have a range of compelling turbine technologies. We are always looking for market opportunities. But we have to be confident that we have the right opportunity to focus on and invest.” Current engine programs Rob Watson provided updates on current engine programs. There are 4.100 large engines in service, which gives Rolls-Royce a fifty percent market share. Another 1.300 large engines are on order. Some two-thirds of the in-service fleet is covered by Long Term Service Agreements. Large engines contribute 74 percent to the company’s revenues, with the remainder covered by 8.600 business and regional engines. By the end of April, engine flying hours had recovered to 83 percent of pre-pandemic levels, on track with the 80-90 percent guidance for the full year. By type, 1.718 Trent 700s are in service on Airbus A330s, where it has a 60 percent market share. The engine has an average age of 11 years, but easily has another decade in it on converted freighters as A330s start to replace Boeing 767s. Ten A330P2F conversions with Trent 700 engines were done last year, with twenty expected this year and some 18 in 2024. Rolls-Royce also identifies a strong secondary or transformation market for passenger A330s, which included 50 aircraft last year. The Trent 1000 and 1000 TEN have a 30 percent market share on the Boeing 787 and have done 15 million flying hours. The average age is six years. In recent years, serious durability problems have required major redesigns of the intermediate-pressure compressor, intermediate-pressure turbine, and high-pressure turbines that cost Rolls-Royce billions. Lessons learned from the Trent 1000 issues The issues also damaged the reputation of the company. Simon Burr says: “We have come out of its better and stronger. What we learned from that is not only the engine itself but how we test it and the environment where you test. It has been a tremendous amount of learning. We have come out a lot stronger.” Rolls-Royce has come out stronger from the numerous durability issues that have plagued the Trent 1000 on the Boeing 787. (Rolls-Royce) As an example, Burr explained that engine designers have traditionally been focused on take-off thrust instead of climb power. “As part of our Trent 1000 testing, we actually trashed an engine for over 2.500 cycles, mimicking the climb and those conditions. We also invested in the capability to ingest sand at the right ratio to replicate what happens.” “We still have a couple of upgrades that we need to deliver to this engine, but we are really pleased about where the Trent 1000 is today,” Rob Watson said. These upgrades include modified HPT blades with more cooling holes for 40 percent better cooling and a modified blade root. This enhancement package still needs to be certified by the FAA, but this should be done before the end of the year. Modified 1000s will be available within 18 months. Later this year, Rolls-Royce and Virgin Atlantic plan to operate a service on 100 percent sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) with a Boeing 787-9 from London to the US. This needs regulatory approval, but the plan is to have paying passengers onboard. “It is fully powered by 100 percent SAF on both engines. As to when who can fly on it, that is still in discussion with the regulators. The airline is regulated by the CAA, and the FAA is the receiving authority, so we have to talk to both to be aligned.” XWB-84 the benchmark aero engine The Trent XWB-84 is flying exclusively on over 1.000 Airbus A350-900s and has done 11 million flying hours with a 99.95 dispatch reliability. The fuel efficiency is 15 percent better than that of the Trent 700. “It is the industry benchmark large aero engine, it is performing extremely well with our customers. This is an engine that is absolutely doing what it says on the can. The -84K is the bedrock for Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace,” said Watson. The Trent XWB-97 is now active on 132 A350-1000s and will get to 4 to 5 million hours by 2025. It has 99.9 percent dispatch reliability. With Qantas and the Project Sunrise flights, the -97K will operate on the longest routes that will be out there. The Trent XWB-84 is the benchmark for large engines, says Rolls-Royce. (Rolls-Royce) The XWB is the exclusive powerplant on the A350 until 2030. Asked when Rolls-Royce will start discussions on an extension of this status or if there are any plans to replace the XWB with an UltraFan-based engine, Rob Watson said: “We have a great partnership with Airbus. We talk to them all the time about how we can work together for the next 5 to 10 years. But honestly, my focus is on operational execution for the next 3 to 5 years. We have lots of opportunities and lots to do. On the UltraFan, I am never going to say things are unlikely. I just would say: we have great technology, we are constantly looking for ways to monetize it and support our customers and deliver that different range of products that we have always tried to do.” Finally, there are 158 Trent 7000s in service on the Airbus A330neo. It s a very efficient engine that will save $60 million in operating costs over a 25-year period. But it suffered some of the same HPT issues that were on the Trent 1000, resulting in engines coming off wing earlier than expected. A durability enhancement package with newly designed blades has already entered service on the A330neo, which has doubled the time on wing. Business engines The Business and Regional engine segment included 6.300 engines that are no longer produced but still need servicing, like the Tay, the BR710, and the AE3007. Some 960 BR725s and 100 Pearl 15s are in service on the Gulfstream G650 and Bombardier 5500/6500 business aircraft. The Pearl 15 has done 30.000 flights since September 2019. In-flight testing is progressing on the Pearl 700 for the Gulfstream G700. In the coming months, flight testing will start on the Pearl 10X for the Dassault Falcon 10X. During our visit to Dahlewitz, the first flight test engine was completed and prepared for shipment. It will be mounted on Rolls’ Boeing 747-200 flying testbed on a dedicated mounting to make sure the four regular engines don’t interfere with the 10X. Watson is most happy that Rolls-Royce has won the last three major campaigns in the business segment. “We have a really, really strong market position. It is a great business that is really going well. We have a great portfolio coming in with world-class technology, a great customer base, and a great offer to the market that is getting a good response.”

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