Rolls-Royce: XWB-97 has no unsolvable durability issues

The Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 in a benign environment operates absolutely perfectly and has no durability issues at all, although it can do better in a non-benign environment. That’s what Rolls-Royce says in response to the comments made on Tuesday by Emirates President Sir Tim Clark about the reduced time on wing of the XWB-97. A hot and polluted environment has some impact on the engine, but this doesn’t result in operational issues, says Jason Sutcliffe, Marketing Director for Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East.

AirInsight sat down with Sutcliffe at the Dubai Airshow to learn more about the reliability and durability of the XWB engines that power the Airbus A350. The XWB-84 is the standard engine on the A350-900, of which Emirates has ordered 50. The more powerful XWB-97

with a bigger core powers the stretched -1000.