Trent XWB engine continues accumulating flight hours on the A380 MSN1 Flying Test Bed

After the successful completion of the hot weather campaign in Al Ain (United Arab Emirates) this summer, the Trent XWB engine that will power the A350 XWB continues accumulating flight hours –more than 150h- on the A380 MSN1 used as a Flying Test Bed.

Some photos of this week in Toulouse twitted by @FlightDKM shows the Trent XWB:

 

Console of A380 FTB for monitoring Trent XWB engine.

Trent XWB is a big engine, both because of the dimension -an intake diameter wider than the fuselage of Concorde- and because of the international team involved. The grouping brings together a mix of existing and new relationships and builds on an already very thorough representation of risk and revenue sharing partners, joint venture partners and suppliers, all of whom bring valued experience and a track record of world-class capability and quality.

Most have already worked with Rolls-Royce on other Trent engines, including Industria de Turbo Propulsores (ITP), Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), Volvo Aero, and Hamilton Sundstrand.

Rolls-Royce Trent XWB international team of RSP-risk sharing partners

There are also new partners as Parker Aerospace, Eaton, Esterline, Alliant Techsystems (ATK), Forgital Group, Sumitomo Precision Products (SPP) and Hispano-Suiza (Safran group).

ATK is a new partner and, on this first partnership with R-R, is providing the composite rear fan case. This selection follows a capability study which looked at alternative materials and potential partners. The main fan containment case is to be made from titanium and is assembled from forgings supplied by Forgital, whereas ATK has valuable specialist experience in composites manufacturing.