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. According to Tim Clark, the XWB-97 falls short on flight hours and doesn’t meet his requirement of at least 2.000 to 2.500 flight cycles on wing of the aircraft. Until Rolls-Royce improves, Emirates will not buy the A350-1000, Clark said during a media round table. Comments made on aircraft that haven't been ordered “The reality is they (Emirates) haven’t got the airplane, that’s the bottom line. A comment has been made about an aircraft and an engine they actually haven’t ordered and are not even flying. They will take a version of it next year, but we are absolutely confident it will meet every spot they are looking for,” says Sutcliffe. Both XWB models “have world-class reliability. The -84 from a durability perspective has been a world-class engine since its entry into service (in January 2015). It is at a point well ahead of the ball curve of any other engine at this period in service. The -97 engine in a benign environment operates absolutely perfectly. There are no issues at all. If you look in a non-benign environment, we can do better.” High-Pressure Turbine blades suffer the most. This has been an issue on the Trent 800 and 900 before, but Sutcliffe says the issue wasn’t the blades as these engines run cooler. “In this (Middle Eastern) environment specifically, with dust in the air that aircraft cross when they take off, it can have an effect on the durability of some engines. To get more thermal efficiency, the combustor chamber is running a little bit hotter than older engines. That said, the customer is saving between $4.5 to $5.0 million in fuel and as a byproduct burning 10-15 percent less CO2. So you get a huge advantage there.” Sutcliffe adds that customers are protected from costly repairs. “100 percent of our customers get Total Care support, so if the engine comes off slightly earlier, that’s still no additional costs to the customer. There is a slight disruption for downtime, but we have spare engines that are delivered to the customer. But it is not in our interest to do this, so we will do everything we can to keep the engines on wing as long as possible.” Some operators have surpassed 2.000 hours “We have customers that have surpassed 2.000 hours with this engine.” However, Sutcliffe has no immediate data available if that includes the XWB operators in the Gulf region, Qatar Airways, and Etihad. Both might not yet have reached these flight hours with their fleet. “But if they would have had issues, we would have heard.” Etihad CEO Antonoalde Neves said on Tuesday that his airline has no engine issues in its fleet. For engines that operate in these hot and sandy environments, Rolls-Royce advises customers to use them slightly differently. “There is some education to do with the airlines and taught them to de-rate, so they reduce the trust on take-off and preserve the maintenance costs of the engines.” Improvements planned Emirates has 50 A350-900s with XWB-84s on order. The airline will get the standard version of the engine and would get it if it ordered the -97. “By the time in 2025-2026, the engine will have 5 to 6 million flying hours under its belt. We are confident in it, our customers are confident in it. Where we can improve it, we will improve it.” Rolls-Royce has further improvements coming up for the XWB family, including parts from new alloys that have been designed for the UltraFan technology demonstrator that is currently doing tests in Derby. These parts will become available in 2025, the engine maker said in June. “These engines are used on long-haul operations, which are used around 9 to 10 hours a day. Cycling-wise, you are using the engines probably only 400 to 500 cycles a year, maybe less. These engines stay on wing for 3,5, four, or five years, which I think is pretty good for an engine that is burning at hotter temperatures, reduces NOx, and pushes out 97.000 pounds of thrust.”

No results